HOKUSAI (1760-1849) Japan’s mountains receive abundant snow, but Tokyo is a coastal city. Winter brought cold rain, grey sky, damp air. It looked cold, and it felt cold. People on the streets walked huddled inside their coats, cheeks and hands red and chapped. Shops were open and unheated. The only source of heat in traditional … Continue reading Japan: 1956
Author: lorettawillems
Bk 3. 9: The Log House in Monroe 1960-1961
It was Laura who first took us to Monroe. It was one of the places on a tour she gave us of the small towns north of Seattle. It was a beautiful little town then, with nice well-kept homes along its two major intersecting streets: Main Street, which went out to the Stephens’ Pass highway, … Continue reading Bk 3. 9: The Log House in Monroe 1960-1961
Bk. 3. 8: Northwest Journal Granite Falls, May 1960
Phoenix was not our first choice for a home, but we built a good life for ourselves there. We had good friends and neighbors we liked very much. We enjoyed working on our house and fixing it up; we enjoyed taking drives out into the desert and up to Flagstaff to visit Ben’s folks. And … Continue reading Bk. 3. 8: Northwest Journal Granite Falls, May 1960
Bk 3. 7: Northwest Journal May 1960
I began keeping a journal back in my late twenties. At first it was an occasional entry, a writer’s journal started as an assignment for a writing class at Arizona State University. Gradually it evolved to become an all-purpose means of working through problems as well as recording observations and ideas. It was a way … Continue reading Bk 3. 7: Northwest Journal May 1960
Bk 3. 6: Northwest Journal February 1957
The ship in whose depths I have lived for the last two weeks entered the Straights of Juan de Fuca, the deep strip of water that separates Washington’s Olympic Peninsula from Canada’s Vancouver Island. It was a troop ship on its way to Seattle, and I was one of the military dependents who boarded the … Continue reading Bk 3. 6: Northwest Journal February 1957
Bk 3. 5: The House on Melvin, Phoenix 1954-55
This another piece about my senior year, the year of my engagement. There is a different quality to my memories of the house on Melvin than those of times before then. I feel more aware, more myself. I was on the cusp of adult life, and I was eager for it. The long years of … Continue reading Bk 3. 5: The House on Melvin, Phoenix 1954-55
Bk 3. 4: The Wedding
My father insisted that Ben and I get married the day I arrived in Tokyo. The wedding was to take place in the chapel at Yakota Air Force Base where Ben was stationed. Even though the base chaplain and his wife wrote to my parents extending an invitation for me to stay with them the … Continue reading Bk 3. 4: The Wedding
Bk 3. 3: Tokyo Wedding Backstory Part 2
Note: On September 7, 1955, I flew from Phoenix, Arizona to Tokyo Japan. I went there to marry a young airman I had met in the summer of 1954, just before his departure for the Far East. We were both very young. Ben was nineteen at the time of our marriage; I was seventeen.The following … Continue reading Bk 3. 3: Tokyo Wedding Backstory Part 2
Bk 3. 2: Tokyo Wedding Backstory, Part I
When I was sixteen, a junior in high school, my family moved from our home in Stockton, California to Phoenix, Arizona. We were going there because my father had answered a call by the California branch of the International Union of Gospel Missions to start a Rescue Mission in that city. After several trips to … Continue reading Bk 3. 2: Tokyo Wedding Backstory, Part I
Bk 3. 1: Japan 1955
On September 7, 1955, I flew from Phoenix, Arizona to Tokyo Japan. I went there to marry a young airman I had met in the summer of 1954, just before his departure for the Far East. We were both very young. Ben was nineteen at the time of our marriage; I was seventeen. Memories of … Continue reading Bk 3. 1: Japan 1955
