The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

First Lady Rosalynn Carter died last week. She was 96 and under hospice care at her home in Plains, Georgia.  

Her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, 99, is also under hospice services in his home in Plains.

The Carters have made a legacy of service to others.

Who says you can’t be of service and make important decisions when you begin to age.

Try keeping up with President Joe Biden for a week or so.

Some are giving aging a bum rap.

So if he wins reelection he will be in his mid 80s. You do stumble a bit when you get in your 80s, but if the mind is sharp, then it’s not so critical.

Would you rather be led by a principled man or one who isn’t?

Most of the criticism is about Vice President Kamala Harris taking over in the event Biden becomes incapacitated. It’s the old story of holding women back.

I remember when Harry S. Truman was thrust into the presidency when Franklin Roosevelt died.

Most people didn’t know his name.

He rose to the occasion and became a pretty good president. The office has a tendency to help people rise to the occasion.

Photos tell a story, or sometimes the lack of them do.

I have a photo of my dad’s family showing his parents and siblings, taken in 1900. There were two children yet to be born into the family; one was my aunt Lorena, who delivered me.

It is the only picture I have of two of my aunts, who later lived in Montana. My dad and mom, and his brother Ralph and his wife Voe would every few years drive to Montana to see them.

I remember when I was quite young seeing them in Palouse on one of the rare times they came to visit. I never saw them again.

I never met my grandparents (my dad’s parents); they both died before I was old enough to recall them. I do remember Dad’s brothers — Ralph, Charley, Omar and Riley. 

Omar lived in Lewiston and Ralph in Palouse. Charley and Riley lived in New Mexico.

They would return home on occasion by riding the rails, hopping from one train to another until they reached Palouse, and then do the same back to New Mexico.

I have pictures of them, and once while I went to see them in New Mexico, I met Riley’s daughter. I met her once and never saw her again. No pictures of her.

I have two large plastic bins of old photos, but not of most of my relatives. I do have one picture of my Aunt Lorena, only one.

I don’t have any pictures of me before I started school. Apparently, my parents didn’t take a lot of pictures, even though they always had a fold up camera in the glove box.

One should take a lot of pictures of family to provide a photo history for the younger children to follow.

I do have maybe a dozen photo albums, but the pictures are of our immediate family.

One picture I cherish is the old 1900 picture of Dad’s parents and his siblings. The family is standing on the front porch of a very rustic cabin, a picture of poverty at best.