JANUARY 2002

Editor's Soapbox

Okay, so here I stand on my little soapbox and I can't seem to come up with a single "theme" for this newsletter. Usually there has been some big event in the family that I can talk about. In the time span since the last newsletter, the only big event that comes to mind is the global big event on September 11th. I'm not so sure that this is the place to discuss something of that magnitude. However, I will say that many in our family really "stepped up to the plate" and weighed in with their thoughts on the whole thing. I was very impressed by the depth of feeling and emotion that was expressed, from what I thought were some of the unlikeliest sources. The whole thing continues to affect me, as I'm sure it does most of you. Fortunately, it's now affecting me in a more positive way than it first did. Primarily from seeing people work more closely together and express more caring for each other. That can only be good.

I have recently updated some of the family pictures on our web-site. Next time you are at our site, click on "Family Tree" and have a look at the pictures. Several are new.

On another note, as I've mentioned before in e-mails that I have sent out, if I don't know anything much about what an immediate family member has been up to, I just might make something up. There may be a smidgen of that in this newsletter. I heard from Terry just in the nick of time. I was on the verge of having him run off to deepest, darkest Africa to escape the cold, Judy taking off with a bush pilot who got lost and ended up in Russia where they wouldn't let them leave, and their son Daniel being raised by wolves (and their family dog, Shelby). Naturally you all might have believed that and then we'd have had some explaining to do. Also, the amount of news on any family member is directly proportional to the amount of news that they happened to tell me. Some people are busier than others, some are simply more wordy. (I've been accused of being "wordy" a time or two myself.)

DAD & EVELYN

Their fall and winter has been nice and quiet. They have finally decided that it's time to "retire" from hosting the big family holiday meals. Christmas in particular was much smaller and they had a few members of Evelyn's family there. Kind of a nice change since they usually could never fit them all in with the Uhl family taking up so much space. On Boxing Day they hosted members of the Uhl family for a bit of a "come and go" coffee and snacks afternoon. Evelyn had a very brief spell in hospital earlier in the fall where they quickly did all kinds of lovely tests and found out that she's very healthy. She has been feeling much better since then. Dad has the snowblower all greased up and ready to go but hasn't had a chance to use it yet. Considering the strange weather in the world these days I wonder if he'll get to use it at all.

JIM & MARYANN BRANCH

Jim & Maryann attended a funeral of one of Maryann's cousins in Shaunavon in late September. While there it was agreed that Maryann's family would hold a family reunion during the long August weekend in 2002. And in the "it's a small world department" Maryann found out quite by chance that a friend of Jo-Anne's in Nova Scotia is actually a distant relative of Maryann's. We're talking something in the neighborhood of 3rd cousin once removed. Still, it's kind of a funny thing.

They got all settled into their new home late in August and their new address is: #157 - 22112 TWP 531, Ardrosson, Alberta, T8E 2E4. They sold the other house in Devon very quickly and had no problem figuring out where to invest that bit of money. They bought a used furniture and antiques store in Fort Sask. and Jim is now running it full-time, with full-time help from Reg as well.

Allan, Carol and Kelsey all stopped in to spend a night at Jim & Maryann's while they were on their way to the Hansen family Christmas in Calgary. For Christmas, Jim & Maryann had Joy, Reg & the girls, Sonya & Nick, and visited with Steven & Meredith via a web-cam hook-up. A couple of days after Christmas they got a pleasant surprise when Maryann's brother Don and his wife Charlotte arrived for a couple of days. Maryann and Steven both received a special gift from Meredith this year, a plane ticket for Steven to spend 6 days with his folks, starting Jan. 10th.

Sonya & Nick are very happy together and were quite busy in the weeks preceding Christmas, preparing for both their Christmas and Nick's trip to Chile. They headed up to Whistler to do some snowboarding the weekend prior to going to Edmonton for Christmas. They had a wonderful time there, except for Nick's snowboard getting stolen at the end of their trip. When they went to Edmonton they divided their time between his family and hers. Let's just say they were very well fed. Nick is now in Chile until March 5th. He was a bit mixed up about the date he was leaving and nearly made it all the way to an airplane before his buddy, Mick, pointed out he was a day early. Bonus! One more day for him and Sonya to be together before he took off. Sonya spent a relatively quiet New Year's Eve with Steven & Meredith.

Joy & Reg are pleased to report that they have their house to themselves again. Barb and her family stayed with them for several months while they built their new house near by. It was much longer than first anticipated, as often happens when you are building, but they all made it through with friendships and marriages intact. A lovely little Christmas miracle! The girls' Aunt Drinda was out from B.C. for a visit over the holidays. Joy & Reg spent their anniversary (New Year's Eve) in Edmonton at a restaurant. As for the girls, Andi is a teenager and going through the usual hormonal mood swings and personality changes. However, she remains a lovely girl most of the time so they will probably all survive. (What it will be like when they have several teenagers in the house at the same time remains to be seen.) Brandi is doing great and received honours in 3 subjects the last school term. Courtney is in kindergarten and loves every minute of it. She took part in her first Christmas concert and spent the next several days giving everyone in the house "reruns" of it. Samantha is thrilled to have her Grandpa Jim running a business close to their home and she spends some time there visiting with him while the older girls are all in school. Reg is enjoying working with Jim at the store, where he holds the title of Operations Manager and is the main sales person. Joy was off work for a few weeks around the holidays and returned to work mid-January. A recent addition to their household is a young manx kitten from Jim & Maryann's mother cat.

Steven & Meredith have both been busy with work. Meredith received a promotion in November to Accounts Co-Ordinator. Steven is doing very well in his new store, exceeding the expectations of the company, which is always good. They got a new car in the fall, a 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE. Now they are house shopping and have looked seriously at a few. They spent their Christmas Eve with friends and Christmas morning on the video hook-up with Steven's family. On New Year's Eve they went out for dinner with Sonya and a couple of other friends, then back to their place for movies and drinks. Meredith is also soon going to have a little sister. Her Dad has remarried and his wife is expecting in June. Steven & Meredith are currently going through medical testing, etc., to enable them to start their own family.

JEANNE & FRED BRANCH

Jeanne & Fred have had a busier time of things lately. When Diane & Gerry set up the new lottery booth in Regina they hired Jeanne as part-time staff. She and Gerry have quite a competition going to see who can pay out the largest prize. You must ask them who is currently winning. I do know that when Jeanne's name comes up Gerry can often be heard muttering "Bag" under his breath. She works mostly on Sunday & Monday and is loving every minute of it. Finally, the cash to get all the computer accessories known to man! Her most recent acquisition was a new scanner. They went to Jackie & Wayne's for a big Christmas dinner this year and back to their place again on New Year's Eve for delicious barbequed roast peppercorn beef and caribou.

Terry & Judy have been as busy as ever. Late in the summer Judy's boss rented a small cruise ship for a five day fishing excursion for all his employees on Great Slave Lake. It was Terry's birthday weekend and he would have killed to go on a trip like that but, alas, no spouses were invited. Terry reports that spring is only 5 months away and they've started the count-down. (I'll bet!) Daniel has started grade 3 and is a real whiz in both math and French. He enjoys dazzling his folks at the supper table by speaking French and they have no idea what he's talking about. For all they know he's calling them names and discussing how stupid they are! Judy has been bitten by the fitness bug and is now spending time at the gym in the early mornings or evenings. She's walking several kilometers a day as well. So far she hasn't managed to drag Terry along for all this. He's desperately afraid of losing his pot belly which he claims is his and his alone - bought and paid for! They report that the north is booming these days, primarily due to the diamond mines. Can't imagine why - after all they only make $85,000-$100,000 annually for working about five and a half months of the year at those silly diamond mines. :-) The family dog, Shelby, had a major knee operation and has to be extremely careful about walking. Terry has been carrying her up and down the steps every time she has to go outside to do her business. Considering that she weighs 80 lbs, Terry might lose that pot belly after all! Terry bought Judy a new bedroom suite for Christmas and she got him a 50" HDTV set. I'd say they're both pretty pleased with themselves. They had friends over for Christmas Eve and spent Christmas morning at home, just the three of them (and Shelby of course). On New Year's Eve they went to visit a neighbor where they ate seafood all night long. They had a friend over for a big ham dinner on New Year's Day. Unfortunately, Shelby re-injured her knee and Terry will be spending a lot more time carrying her around.

LARRY & SHARON BRANCH

Dylan continues to keep me updated with his life. Motocross finally finished late in the summer. He came in fourth in his final event of the season. Next year he plans on improving his position and hopes to have a new bike to help make that happen. (I'm sure he would gratefully accept any donations to that end.) :-) He's also taking driver training this year and he is Larry's son remember. Everyone driving around southern Sask should consider themselves warned! He is now very busy in curling again. He is playing the position of "third" and only has one weekend in January that is free of bonspiels. He certainly inherited the Uhl curling gene.

Amber returned from Alberta in September after completing her contract at the trail riding place. She and a friend looked around Banff for a while, then came home. While there she spent many hours training her horses, and has since started a winter job. She will be spending the winter working on a ranch in Spring Valley near Moose Jaw. She looks after all the horses and buffalo on the ranch and is enjoying the work of separating the colts from the mares. Soon she will be separating the buffalo youngsters as well. She has all of her favorites picked out. She managed to come home for 4 days over Christmas.

Larry & Sharon made a couple of trips to Alberta while Amber was working there and they have been to the ranch a few times too. Amber always welcomes the great baking and other food that they bring! Larry & Sharon hosted a pot-luck at their house for some of the family in Dec. They all spent some time with Sharon's folks in Regina during the Christmas season. Sharon worked on Christmas Day so Larry & Dylan headed to Dad & Evelyn's at that time.

JO-ANNE & ROY BRANCH

Roy & Jo-Anne had a relatively busy fall and winter so far. I was one of the many volunteers who helped the Red Cross during Operation Sleepover on September 11th. We had many "refugees" here. If you are interested in having a look at all the planes at our Halifax airport, I believe this link still works: http://www.hiaa.ca/photo_collection/index/htm

It really was quite a sight. It was tiring work but very rewarding and I'm forever grateful for the opportunity to be able to do something to help. I only worked all that first night and the next day and evening. I know some who worked much longer. I've also started working in another dental office. This one is very small and I just couldn't resist when a friend of mine called to ask me to work with her. I only work a few hours on a couple of different days of the week and am surprised how much I'm enjoying it. I'm still doing all the mystery shopping that comes my way. It slowed down a bit over the Christmas season but it has started to pick up again. We had Susan, Rob, Alex & Erica over here for Christmas on December 23rd. That helped spread the holiday out for the little ones who were very wound up over the whole Santa Claus thing. We spent Christmas Day with our very good friends that we call our "Nova Scotia family". Naturally I spoke to several family members on the phone over the holidays too. We stayed home on New Year's Eve, as usual. I called Dad for his birthday and we spent all evening eating appetizers and drinking wine. It was all we could do to stay awake to ring in the New Year. Roy continues to be very busy with several clients, primarily the American ones. We're also doing more work with a company here focusing on marketing. As a result of that Roy has been building tools for web-based surveys and I have been doing a great deal of data entry.

Susan, Rob and kids continue to lead the usual life of rushing around from work to organized activities, to sitters, etc. Alex played soccer in the summer and fall but isn't involved in anything like that right now. He has a lot of school friends and is forever going to or having sleep-overs and going to birthday parties. He is in grade 2 and was involved in his school Christmas concert again. He is becoming interested in science and that was encouraged even more when he got a microscope for Christmas. Erica continues to spend time at the sitter's during the week and was very happy to get some really great toys, particularly 2 doll houses for Christmas. Susan is still very much enjoying the new job she started in August and handles all of the responsibility very well. The company that Rob has been with laid him and several others off in December when they lost a contract. He was still invited to the company Christmas party though and told that they expect to hire him back in the winter, maybe February. Just as he thought he would have some time to get a few painting jobs, etc., done around the house and maybe share some "father/daughter" time with Erica, he got a call that the Halifax Shipyards were hiring and he was asked to apply. He's been there ever since and getting a lot of hours in.

ALLAN & CAROL BRANCH

Allan has another major project to work on. He was developing it over the fall and is now in full swing. He is organizing and setting up a senior's housing complex in Regina that is similar to what he recently completed in Saskatoon. He will be spending a fair bit of time commuting between the two cities. He received a great Christmas present from Trev this year, some sipping rum from Cuba and a selection of Cuban cigars. While he doesn't smoke them, they do smell lovely and he will enjoy handing them out to his good friends. As mentioned previously, he, Carol & Kelsey dropped in to visit Jim & Maryann just prior to Christmas. He has also started a new health regime in recent weeks. He has quit drinking coffee and now walks several kilometers every couple of days. He plans to resume playing racquetball too.

Carol and all of her siblings had a "sibling retreat" to Cypress Hills in September and spent the whole weekend together. They had a wonderful time drinking on their large deck, golfing and drinking, listening to cowboy poetry from another group and drinking. They had limbo contests and drank, played charades and drank. (Are you sensing a theme here?) Carol is enjoying her work helping to direct the Chimo Chordsmen, the men's barbershop chorus. She and a few others made a trip to Brandon at the end of November for some training. Allan, Carol, Trev, Chris & Kelsey all went to Calgary this year for the Hansen family Christmas.

Trev is back from Bosnia since early October and now has 5 medals for his 11 years of service. Next year he receives another medal for 12 years and that will make a lovely half-dozen. He was very busy after he returned to Canada. He took his Advanced Open Water diving course and then went on to Trenton for a military parachute event. He then flew to Saskatoon for a couple of weeks with his family. In mid-December he went to Cuba for a week to work on his tan. He was back to the prairies for Christmas with his family in Calgary, then a quick tour with Kelsey around the Strasbourg area before he had to head back to the base at Petawawa.

Chris went on a canoe trip in the summer and visited Grey Owl's cabin. On Labour Day weekend he drove with a buddy down to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Tijuana. A very speedy round trip and I'm still waiting to hear the details. I figure they don't want to say too much about it until they're sure all the bodies are buried deep enough! :-)

Kelsey is back in university. She was taking 5 classes in the fall but is only in 3 right now. She is considering becoming an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) at some point but has so many other options and ideas that she isn't sure what she will settle on. She's still doing her mystery shopping and is considering starting ballet and yoga classes. She got glasses recently but only needs them when night driving and when she's in large classrooms.

DON & TRUDY BRANCH

Don & Trudy were at a couple of car shows in August. In the fall they attended a '50's event in Strasbourg. They went wearing '50's clothes and of course driving the appropriate vehicle! They've had a busy fall and winter. Don took a couple of days off so they could go to Pangman for Christmas with Trudy's folks. They opted to go out for New Year's Eve for a change. They went to a cabaret in Nokomis with friends.

Danielle flew to Calgary for a few days in August to visit her boyfriend, Neil. They did a lot of sightseeing while there. She went back again in November and got some of her Christmas shopping done. She attended a couple of weddings in the summer and worked at the Regina & Saskatoon exhibitions, as well as the Saskatoon Fringe Festival doing Mehndi Henna tattooing. The Shoppers Drug Mart that she had been working at closed but she was immediately hired at another and continues to work there. Neil came home from Calgary at Thanksgiving and met the Johnson grandparents. He also came down for her birthday in early December and again at Christmas when they managed to spend a lot of time together.

Nicole continues to be heavily involved in sports. She played on the Saskatchewan team at the National Rugby Championships in Ontario in August and helped her team to a 4th place finish. She had a great time there, playing some very good rugby, getting noticed by all the right people, and even taking some time to do some sightseeing around Niagara Falls, the CN Tower and other points of interest. She has already found out that she will be on the women's national team this year and the scouts have been showing interest in her as well. This fall and winter she has been heavily involved in track and basketball.

Justin is still developing his artistic skills and expanding his portfolio. He hopes to make a living at it some day. He spends a lot of his free time at the computer. He went to the movie "Lord of the Rings" with Danielle & Neil and really loved it.

JACKIE & WAYNE BRANCH

Jackie & Wayne are very pleased to announce that their kitchen is finally complete. The renovations have been in the works for quite some time but everyone agrees that the finished product is well worth it. Now some finish work to do on the living room and things will be pretty much done. They used it to host a couple of big events. They had all their family and several others for Christmas. The new convection oven made all that cooking a lot easier. They also had a small crowd in for New Year's when Wayne fired up the barbeque. One of the nice things about this newsletter is that I'm usually privy to all sort of funny stories and I'm sure Jackie will forgive me for passing this one along. (Or not!) They got a new computer in December and she and Wayne have both been practising on it, figuring out how to use everything. Hopefully they will be on-line soon. The first night when she was finally finished and ready to turn the thing off, Jackie realized that she couldn't figure out how! Those of you with a computer know how important it is to "shut down" properly. If you don't, Bill Gates puts a nasty message on your screen the next time you turn it on, it has to scan every section of every drive and it generally makes you feel stupid. She was anxious to do the right thing so she hunted everywhere to find that silly "Start" button. At 1:30 a.m. she gave up and called Jeanne, who was able to figure out that the Start button was on "Autohide" so it couldn't be seen. That solved the problem. I have to say, it reminds me of when Mom & Dad first got a remote control for the TV and Mom had such a hard time figuring out how to turn the darn thing off after Dad went to bed. Of course it helps when you're pointing it at the TV and not studying it at the kitchen table, pushing buttons while it's pointed goodness knows where! :-) Jackie has also been making the rounds with the specialists. She's having trouble with her knees and has also been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. That's not much fun. Other than that she's enjoying the new kitchen and spending a lot of time with her grandchildren when she can.

Wayne has been working a bit less due to a strike in Thunder Bay. He's enjoyed having a bit more time at home, getting some things done there. He's been spending a lot of time fiddling with his Harley and even found a used motorbike for Brandy so that the two of them can enjoy some "father/daughter time". He enjoyed having a decent amount of time at home over Christmas.

Brandy & Craig have been quite busy. Craig was promoted in May to Manager of Bell Tire Retreaders. In October he bought himself a newer truck, a '93 Dodge Dakota. He had a lot of vacation time to use up at the end of the year so he was off work from Dec. 19 until Jan. 7. During that time he mostly specialized in driving Brandy crazy. She is still working casual with CVA but hasn't had many hours since November. She expects that to pick up again soon. While she was off she did her best to help break in Jackie's new kitchen appliances. She lives nearby so it's very easy to go over there to do her baking. She usually leaves some of it behind for her folks to sample. She had a lot of cleaning up to do the day she had an "icing sugar explosion". White powder all over herself, the floor, counters, cupboards, etc. (If this was the U.S. the entire house would have been quarantined for anthrax testing!) What a mess! Parents should know better than to give their kids a house key and alarm security codes. Oh dear, I hope the above paragraph doesn't come as a surprise to Jackie & Wayne. :-) Brandy & Craig were at her folks' place for Christmas dinner. That went really well except that Craig says Evelyn makes a better stuffing. (Oh oh, I wonder if that's another faux pas on my part?)

Denise and her boyfriend, Pat, moved into a new apartment in January in south end Regina. She worked all through her Christmas break at Sarcan and is anxiously waiting for June when she graduates from high school. She & Pat were at Jackie & Wayne's for Christmas dinner. Brandy & Craig gave her a new computer and she is hoping that will help her with her school work.

Cory has been off work for a few months with a knee injury. He was in Calgary in December for an MRI. In the meantime, he's been a stay-at-home Dad. He split his time between his family and Jess's at Christmas.

DIANE & GERRY BRANCH

Diane & Gerry have had a complete change in their lives since the last newsletter. In September they finalized a deal to sell DiGer's and the new owners took over late in October. They accomplished a great deal with that place, taking it from a tiny little shack and turning it into a bright, clean environment where everyone in town felt welcome. When I used to go there I was reminded of the TV show, Cheers: a nice, friendly little place where everyone knows your name. Shortly after finishing at DiGer's they were involved with their latest project - a lottery kiosk in the Superstore in northwest Regina. It's a great booth and has been welcomed very well by the clientelle who frequent the Superstore. This is primarily Gerry's "baby" and Diane only works there occasionally to help out. Gerry is there 5 days a week and Jeanne takes over the other two, as well as whatever other odd days Gerry doesn't go in. Ger sent me a picture of the old Oehler barn, which is still standing today. Arnie & his Dad are the workers in the picture. It's one of my favorite landmarks in the area.

They managed to get away with Niki for a few days in South Dakota in August. It was a nice break from all the pressure involved in selling the store. They even took a few pictures to prove they were there (see below). In the fall they had tickets to the Olympic Curling Playoffs in Regina. They really enjoyed the wonderful competitions that went on there and had great seats. Gerry even got an autograph and had a nice chat with Kevin Martin just before Martin won for the men. Gerry must have inspired him somehow!

Diane kept pretty busy around the house for several weeks after selling DiGer's. They finished the renovations in their basement and also did a few renovations upstairs. She was involved in all aspects of that. She has also been brushing up on her creative cooking and baking skills now that she has the time. Fortunately, the renovations in the basement include an exercise room where Di & Ger both spend a lot of time working off the results of her baking. Di is also doing a lot of running (literally) around town. She recently accepted a job at the Strasbourg Locker Plant. Beginning in March she will be working the morning shift 3 days a week.

The Sunday before Christmas they took Dad & Evelyn to Southey for supper. They spent a lot of time with Ida over the Christmas holidays as well.

Niki enjoyed the trip to Mount Rushmore and has been very busy this fall with her baby-sitting and her music lessons. She recently talked her Dad into buying her a guitar and she took a few lessons for that, but is mainly focusing on her piano. She is now in school basketball and curling and hopes to go to YAS for basketball training next summer.

Frank has been making the rounds in Regina, working at several different businesses over the past few months. He seems to be quite a hit everywhere he goes but he's having trouble deciding what to settle down with. Too many opportunities. He plans on going on to "higher learning" in university for the fall semester.

He sent me a picture of him with the team he coached at the YAS basketball camp last summer.

GERMAN BRANCH

Axel & Petra spent Christmas Eve at their apartment in Freiburg, then spent time with both their sets of parents over the Christmas season, which involved a bit of time on the autobahn. They have both been very busy this past fall with Petra finishing the written portion of her examinations for her course. She still must take the oral examinations and when she passes it all she will receive the official designation of "Steuerberator", which means "tax consultant". Axel has also been very busy working at his job while he also works at finishing up his doctorate. Because of their workload they have not been on any long vacations at all, just the occasional weekend away. Germany is experiencing an unusually cold winter this year and they aren't exactly enjoying that. The big news in their country is the changing over of the currency from the German DM to the Eurodollar. Axel's parents, Otto & Inge, got a scanner for Christmas so I hope to have a few pictures from them on occasion for the newsletter. Axel is also very pleased to report that his Opel (car) passed a rigorous German inspection and will still be running the roads for some time to come. It's mileage is well over 300,000 kms.

RELATIVELY SPEAKING

Fred Thalgott had surgery on January 2nd to "unclog" one of his carotid arteries. I suppose that if someone is going to slit your throat it's best that it be a surgeon. The surgery went very well and he was home in just a couple of days where his recovery period was also very short.

Mom's sister, Aunt Janette Currie, underwent similar surgery to Fred's in December but it didn't go quite as well. The surgery itself went fine but she had a small stroke afterward and for a time her life was hanging in the balance. Partly thanks to some of her devoted children and family members and a lot of prayer by the rest of us (not to mention her own amazing spirit) she appears to have gotten through the worst of it. She is now in the rehabilitation section of the hospital where she is learning to walk as well as she ever could. Her speech was impaired and that was quite distressing for her.

Brook Thalgott will be moving to London, England in January. She will be attending the London School of Economics and Political Science. She expects to be living there for about 18 months. If any of you wish to keep in touch with her there, her e-mail address will be: bthalgott@hotmail.com I'm sure she'd love to hear from people on this side of the pond.

Wes, Karen, & Kim Brevig have been keeping in touch. Wes & Karen celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in December and also spent Christmas at the Brevig family home in Strasbourg for the first time in many years. Karen had her appendix out in October. Kim is still going to school on-line and has been keeping busy working as well, currently at Subway. She has been developing her skills with the guitar and currently owns 4 of them.

Wendy, Dick & Chris Eddy were also home in Strasbourg for Christmas. Aunt Elinora & Uncle Ingolf were quite thrilled to have their whole family under their roof for the holidays.

Agnes has decided that it's time to get right into the wired world. She recently got all set up with a new computer and is surfing the net with the rest of us. Her e-mail address is: agnesu@accesscomm.ca I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.

Erwin & Joan passed on a picture of a couple of their grandchildren. Cute little tykes they are. Can't imagine where he got all that red hair. :-)

Our old friend and neighbor Johnny Schaeffer passed away in November after a long battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed by our family, as well as by everyone who knew him. Many of us have thought of him as being a member of our family for years now. During the big Uhl Reunion of 1990 he took Brian & Jo-Anne up in his plane to "buzz" the reunion. He also helped provide the musical entertainment that time.

Viola Smith has suggested that we might join forces to publish her Family Tree information on-line. As most of you know, Viola has devoted much of her life to researching and painstakingly building a docoment that reflects the history of the Uhl family for many generations back. I can't begin to imagine the amount of work that has gone into it and I'm completely in awe of what she has accomplished. I'm sure you can all appreciate that this document has a great deal of value, so she has a few criteria that she would like to have met if she proceeds with putting the information on-line. First, she wants any and all mistakes to be reported to her for correction. Second, she wants any and all up-dates (births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc.) in all families reported to her. Third, she would like a short, possibly point form, autobiography from everyone. This includes write-ups on those who are no longer with us. Fourth, she would like pictures of all of us. All of these four items are non-negotiable. If we can't/won't cooperate then it really wouldn't be fair to her for all the work she has put into this. Considering that we are each in charge of only our own tiny segment of the tree, we really must give way to the woman who has built the whole darn thing from scratch! Also, there is one more item that is negotiable. If anyone wishes to make a small monetary donation toward her efforts, she would welcome it with a grateful smile. :-)