Heather Gates, Ep. HG 21, Heather Had a Busy Weekend After Thanksgiving

Heather was pleasantly surprised to see three of the more hardy women riders at the stable by mid-morning on Saturday to go for a short trail ride. It had rained during the night and briefly fell a few degrees below freezing. By mid-morning when they went out, however, it was actually a pleasant morning. Heather assisted them getting ready and on the trail, but did not need to accompany them as both they and the horses knew the short trail well.

Diane came into the stable area where Heather had just finished brushing down Christopher’s pregnant mare, Shadow, and was moving to brush down her favorite Palomino mare, Sunshine. As Heather worked, she and Diane talked about the progress of the two mares that were the focus of Heather’s horse FFA project at school. With a progress report due her instructor the end of the following week, Heather appreciated the opportunity to talk with Diane some more about certain elements of the project.

A few minutes after Diane had left, the three ladies returned from their short trail ride. Heather was happy to talk to them about their ride and assist them on their return. She would be responsible for brushing down their horses at the appropriate time as well. They said the ride went well, but there were a few muddy spots on the return. After checking them out, Heather returned to work with those three horses next. She hummed a tune as she began to brush them down, doing what she had come to love most.

Heather, along with Kari and Karla Kinne, were among the 37 people to attend the community information meeting at the Library meeting room regarding the formation of the proposed “Oak Springs Historical and Genealogical Society.” This attendance exceeded everyone’s expectations. Mona Evans made the first presentation discussing the recommendation to use both ‘Historical’ and ‘Genealogical’ in the proposed name for the group. She shared the town’s history of trying to form such an organization in the community and a few things from other community’s experienced learned by the organizing committee. Rhoda Offutt made a short presentation on the benefits she had found, in her own research, to having a support group, including what she had seen in other communities she had visited. Judy Watson spoke briefly to offer words of support from the library perspective.

Dr. Jennifer Bevins spoke briefly about being a younger adult person who was interested in her family history and in the history of the community. She made note of the wide range of ages among those in attendance. Brian Kirk spoke briefly about the satisfaction he had found recently in learning more about his mother’s family both from the records and from talking to others who knew her while she was still alive. Sarah Flanders then spoke about the membership structure that was being proposed.

Brian then presented the proposed By-Laws to be voted on at the organizational meeting on Tuesday, December 17, here at the Library. He noted that the voting on the By-Laws would be by those who had paid their membership dues at the time of the vote. He talked through the highlights and then opened the floor for questions and discussion from those present. There were comments from the usual naysayers, older folks who said it hadn’t worked before, and one person saying there were already too many organizations with meetings going on all the time. Brian made the point that first, no one was required to participate, and second, they already had enough people pledged to join to make the effort successful. He added this was the opportunity for all interested folks to state their feelings and to have input in the process. Membership forms were available to all interested parties to fill out now or to take home to consider for later.

Later, Heather, Kari and Karla went to Plumlee’s Ice Cream Parlor as it was their frequent Saturday night haunt. They noticed that Brian and Jennifer were in a corner booth having an intimate discussion, but they didn’t bother them. The three girls were still talking about the meeting and how they had found some of the discussion most interesting. Each said it was actually the first time they had been at an adult organizational meeting and that they thought it was very well run. Kari mentioned that she and Karla had talked to their parents about their family history some as they were planning to come to the meeting.

Karla said she was a bit surprised that their Dad seemed to show more interest than did their Mom. He said he would be happy to share what he knew about his parents and their parents when the girls were ready to compile the information. Their Mom had said she really didn’t know much except her immediate family, but she’d help how she could ‘if they really decided to do that.’ Heather shared with them some the things she and Heather had talked about how that was very common. Some people would get excited talking about their family. Others would show surprisingly little interest, sometimes even hostility toward talking about it. She added that sometimes it was simply a matter of the openness in certain families to talk about such things and that some families felt they had ‘secrets’ that should not be shared.

That bit of conversation seemed to get Kari and Karla even more interested in some of the actual stories that Heather had heard from Jennifer and others. Heather enjoyed sharing those stories, and realized she knew more about the process now than she realized. She shared some her research on her father’s family that she thought would help Kari and Karla understand. It seemed to do the trick, because they kept asking questions and she was happy to keep providing them with answers that she knew. It also was a good opportunity to share with them that there would always be more questions than answers. Each new answer would open two or three or more new questions. She had experienced that, already, even in her short experience with the process. As she was talking, she noticed Brian and Jennifer leave the Ice Cream Parlor. It appeared to her that they were practically giggling together, as they left.

[Continued in Episode HG 21]

This series of stories in the life of Heather Gates, a fictional character in The Homeplace Saga series of family saga, historical fiction stories (home blog found at thehomeplaceseries dot blogspot dot com), is being created as a way to use a minor character in the early writings to expand those stories and share details omitted in those earlier writings within the original overarching themes. These newly included details may have been left out of the earlier stories through editing or they may have seemed unrelated to central themes at the time. With the expansion of the entire Saga, over the years, it has become obvious that filling in some of the gaps in the story for overall better understanding of the individuals, their families, and their interactions would be useful to The Homeplace Saga body of work in total. This episode runs in parallel with the timeline of the “Christmas at the Homeplace” novel. The theme of this novel is ‘coming home for Christmas.’