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Uncle Carl Weisen passed away on Thanksgiving morning.  He had been in hospice for a couple of months.  Our hearts go out to Ed, Joe, and Carol and their families.  Ed told me he would try and send the obituary and once he does I will post it here. 

On Thursday while I was with Maureen and her two sons, one of the sequences we looked at over and over on the “Kuglen Home Movie” DVD was the wedding of Aunt Emily and Uncle Carl at St. Paul’s Church in Westwood.  Everybody was there – young Riglai’s, young Kuglens, young Salles.  One of the great shots (albeit out of focus) was of BomBom, resplendent in a green hat and matching outfit, taking a photo with her four daughters – Marcelline, Emily, Mary Anita, and Caroline.  There are pictures of the reception that followed and the day after the wedding, when Aunt Emily and Uncle Carl loaded up a trailer, locked it up, and left Los Angeles for Wyoming.  I remember two wonderful things about Uncle Carl.  The first is coming to our house on Kerwood and meeting my dad and telling him how much he loved Emily and that he wanted to marry her.  Somehow I heard that conversation and was struck by his demeanor as a 10 year old boy.  He was a little stiff and nervous, probably by being surrounded by all these strangers – parents, brothers and sisters, potential in-laws, and bubbly excited nieces and nephews.  The second memory I have is the day after the wedding, seeing Aunt Emily and Uncle Carl load up that trailer, and saying good bye.  I think it was probably the first time in my life that I said good bye to someone and understood what it meant, that I wouldn’t be seeing Aunt Emily next Sunday for dinner or gathered around the piano singing “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”  I was fortunate to see Aunt Emily before she passed away.  Unlike my brother and the Rigali men, I never went to Wyoming and worked on the ranch or spent any time with the Weisens at their home, and like my mother, the last time I saw Joe he was probably around 10.  But I still feel Carl’s loss. 

Uncle Carl, we salute you

The San Fernando Valley MacDonalds

Yesterday I went all of 2 miles down Riverside Drive in the San Fernando Valley and had Thanksgiving dinner with Maureen MacDonald and her two sons, Rory and Seth.  I brought with me a DVD mom gave me in 2007 of all our family’s home movies, which has lots of good stuff on it, including Mom and Dad’s wedding, KK’s baptism, 5 out of 6 First Communions and lots of Easters and Christmases.  The holidays morphed quickly from our house on Kerwood Avenue, to BomBom and Grandpap’s house on Wellworth and Selby, to the occasional trip to Canoga Park or the backyard orange fields of the Salles.  There were also films of Wheeling and the Carenbauers and the Kansas City Greenes, and plenty of film of Grandma Greene, who my mother now resembles. 

The subject came up when I told Maureen that her mother, Aunt Marcelline, had been in my mother’s wedding – of course she wanted to see that!  These are pictures of her mother that she has never seen!  So we floated through the blurry action and saw Dad putting his hand protectively around Aunt Marcelline as the wedding party posed for pictures.  We saw more pictures of a very stylish Aunt Marcelline as she visited the Riggs farm in Glen Easton, and, as the DVD progressed, saw several more images of her.  The one that made all three of the MacDonald’s gasp was some footage of Aunt Marcelline and Gordon MacDonald entering into the Rigali’s back yard one Easter Sunday (I am guessing around 1965) - lots of Kuglens and Rigalis, a smiling Aunt Emily, an Easter egg hunt, and the first pictures Rory and Seth had seen of their grandparents together.  We stopped and reviewed that part of the DVD a few times.  The footage was maybe 20 – 30 seconds, yet there they both were, looking young and happy, talking to Grandpap, waving at the camera and saying “hi.” All three were genuinely touched as they watched a part of their own histories reveal itself to them. 

Maureen and Seth

Not only does Maureen bear a striking resemblance to BomBom, she is also an amazing cook. Maureen prepared the food and it was fantastic – everything!  Moist, juicy turkey, two different kinds of savory stuffing, a butternut squash gratin – my mouth is watering just thinking about it – a broccolii cheese casserole, creamed corn pudding, homemeade cranberry relish, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes made with chicken broth and for dessert – an apple tart, cranberry cheesecake and pumpkin pie.  I indulged in some of the holy trinity.  Finally I forced all three into a corner and took their pictures. 

I had a great time!

Sam and his new document reader and projector

Carrie Johnson is an amazing, thoughtful, committed, community activist who believes in public education.

About 6 weeks ago I joined a non-profit website, www.adoptaclassroom.com , and to my great surprise, someone actually adopted my classroom a week later – ONE WEEK!  One of the items I thought would be a significant help in my classroom is a document reader- essentailly a camera that is hooked up to a projector and blows up any image so everyone in the class can see it projected on a screen.  It is a fantastic tool (especially since we are being restricted in the number of copies we can make and, heck the damn copy machine never works anyway) and I wanted it primarily to show students their writing in real time so we could discuss revision strategies in real time, rather then having them listen to me speak in theoretical generalities and expect them to remember what I said when they were revising at home. 

CARRIE JOHNSON is my angel – what a great person who puts her money where her mouth is.  She began by depositing $400.00 in my classroom account.  I was hoping to accumulate enough money to buy the document reader by accumulating small donations over a year or so. One week later, there is a large lump sum in my account at www.adoptaclassroom.com .  She offered to buy me not only the document reader, but a projector as well!  I felt like I won the lottery! Within a month after signing up with adoptaclassom, I had some new resources that I know will help me with my instruction. 

If you are so moved, please go to www.adoptaclassoom.com. 

You have to register as a user (and I understand that many of you are wary of anything that might sell your name to unscrupulous spammers and emailers) , but this is a site wjhose main focus is getting money to the classroom, where it is needed.  I SWEAR.

Here is what I wrote to say thank you:

I am speechless! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your kindness
and generosity. I don’t know how to thank you sufficiently without lapsing into cliches. I am still struggling with an increased class load due to state budget cuts and find myself with more students
than is reasonable if I expect them to improve their writing and thinking, and to be prepared for college. I am looking for meaningful ways to give my students immediate and relevant feedback in the work they do – which is sometimes impossible when it takes me an hour and a half to more or less skim over an paraqraph (yes, a paragraph!) from just one class. Having the projector would be a fantastic tool because it would give me the opportunity to put work they just completed in front of them to talk about strategies, strengths, and weaknesses, and constructive ways to revise.

I signed up with the idea that I would “save up” until I had enough to get the projector and sent out emails to family and friends hoping for a few dollars here and there to get me towards my goal. I thought if I was lucky I might be able to buy one in about a year. Your donation is a wonderful, and unexpected, way to start.

You are the best!
You rock!
You are the bomb!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here is Carrie’s reply:

My pleasure, Sam.

I’m glad that I can help, and I’m especially glad that there are  dedicated teachers like you who keep charging on, despite the ridiculous obstacles thrown in your way.

I don’t have any pom-poms, but believe me– I’m here cheering you and your students on!

Best,
Carrie

Here’s another dorkier picture:  

Sam with his new tools!

 Both pieces of equipment are awesome!  I have used them to review student writing and I, like I thought, I am already starting to see a difference. 

Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie!!!!!!!!!!

Mike Uberti in Lencois, Brazil

 Hi Sam,

 Here is Michael’s blog address with pictures and stories about his stay in Brazil.  Can you post it on Kuglen.com.  What a great idea to hook Rory up with your friend.  You are an awesome uncle and he is lucky to have you in his life.  Good for you!  He has come a long way in spite of his obstacles.  Congrats Rory on your achievements.  Keep on keeping on!

Love your sister in Poway, 

KK

Dear KK – Of course I can!  Here it is: 

 (I stole a couple of pictures from the blog as an inducement for anyone reading to try the link)

Mike Uberti (center) and friends in Brazilian mud

My blog address is:

http://www.mikebrazilstyle.blogspot.com/

I thought you guys had it! Warning that my friends may curse and leave
innappropriate comments. I have officially given up on trying to get my
internet to work, so I will . . . ask my friend if I can use her computer on Thursday.

ALSO, I was wondering if you could do me an even bigger favor and send me
a package with sunblock in it because they charge 40 to 50 reals for it
here! My bottle got lost on a trip (I don’t know) and we are going on a
beach trip two weekends from now that pretty much requires it. If some sour
candy got in there I wouldn’t be upset either.

Love,

Michael

(I checked – there is an address at the beginning of the blog if you want to send some sour candy. . . )

Rory has been attending Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills for the past couple of years and is now preparing his transfer application to either UCLA or Cal Berkeley – shout outs to Fran, Tom and Chuck Kuglen who are all alumni of Berkeley!  I have a good friend who is a counselor at Santa Ana High School in (where else) Santa Ana, Gerry Oxx.  Gerry is well-known within high school counseling circles – he has presented seminars for College Board and his reputation as an amazing counselor is based partly on his ability to get his students into Ivy League schools and get them scholarships – he recently got one of his students a full-ride scholarship to UCLA.   Here is a link to an article in the Orange County Register about his great work. 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/scholarship-center-ucla-2634614-high-cruz

Gerry said he would meet with Rory, so on Veteran’s Day I drove Rory to Long Beach to meet Gerry, where Gerry reveiwed Rory’s application and began the initial conversation on applying for scholarships.  Rory has an impressive transcript – a 4.0 GPA, Dean’s list every semester, and the President’s list (which happens when a student makes the Dean’s list for 2 semesters in a row).  Gerry was impressed with the transcript and gave Rory some great advice on his entrance essays.  He also let Rory know that he qualifies for a fee waiver and that he can apply to up to 4 UC’s for free.  Since Rory is a Political Science major, Gerry encouraged him to also apply to the Thurgood Marshall School at UCSD. 

Here they are working on the application: 

Rory MacDonald and Gerry Oxx

Rory MacDonald at the Selby house

Rory loves to hear stories about Bom Bom and Grandpap and Aunt Marcelline and he has searched the internet to find Kuglen history – he dug up a copy of Grandpap’s draft card!   

(If you click on the picture, it should enlarge the image) 

Part one of Grandpap

Prt 2 of Grandpap

We’ll keep you posted on Rory’s progress! 

Rory MacDonald and his mother, Maurenn, have moved to within a couple of miles of me. 

Rory comes over occasionally and helps me out around my house and I am helping him prepare his application to the Universities of California – Rory is hoping to matriculate to either UCLA or Berkeley. 

He brought over some pictures he has of his mother, Maureen, Gordon and Michael when they were children.  We scanned them and here they are – there is a couple of surprises, including a picture of Gordon with Aunt Marcelline in the background. 

Enjoy! 

Maureen, Michael and Gordon

Gordon and Maureen

Maureen and Michael

Aunt Marcelline (background) and Michael

Gordon and Rory

Please see the following link to our new bookstore at Amazon.com

“Interesting Things” is an online bookstore that is run by Joan Kuglen and Dick Camfield.

 
http://www.amazon.com/shops/interesting_things

We have been in business since the middle of June and have had a lot of fun setting

up and maintaining the store. Our inventory is about 350 books, DVDs and CDs.

We buy new items weekly from various sources. We get items that are in good

condition and offer them at a competitive price.

Please bookmark or set up a shortcut to our site as the inventory is constantly changing.

We typically have only one of an item and they move fast so don’t wait or it may be gone.

We ship by USPS as soon as we get an order and have a tracking number if the item

fails to reach you.

Feel free to pass this on to family and friends. We thank you.

Dick and Joan

Here are some Halloween photos fresh out of the camera.  Alexander originally wanted to be a rock star (“guitar player”) but then switched to Spiderman to be just like Matthew.  We already had the rock star costume so used it at his preschool.  The other pictures were from some events we went to on Halloween – a party at a local museum, then trick-or-treating on a nearby street that really gets into it where they block off the street and just about every house is decorated.  People come from all over.

Very fun and successful day.

Tom & Elizabeth

Matthew as Spiderman

Alexander playing the guitar

Matthew, Elizabeth, and Alexander

Getting ready to shoot some web

Treats!

ALready so big!  Yikes!   Keep the pictures coming and I will keep posting them