Cousin Chats gets written up

Check out this story about cousin Chats' church, which is growing under her leadership, on the front page of today's Wichita Eagle. We're very proud of her! Above, Chatsie wore a CAT shirt in this 1966 photo, taken in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland near Camp David.

Guess what Uncle Ed made for dinner?

Why, Uncle Ed made fish, of course! Here he is frying up a batch he'd caught that day in Lake Pepin for the Friday night Sprick fish fry at Grandma Sprick's house in Lake City, Minn. This was probably taken in the 1960s, when Uncle Bill was in Vietnam and the Millers were just renting the Old Frontenac place. Uncle Ed was a godsend during that time, helping out Alverna and keeping the kids busy.

Spricks across the generations

Grandma Sprick proudly posed with her great-granddaughter, A., in 1985. By the way, Happy Birthday to A. and her sister C.! C., a student at Stanford University in California, turned 20 on Jan. 2. A., who soon will graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, will turn 23 on Jan. 16.

The forester's wife

Uncle Joe sent these delightful photos of our own Aunt Mavis that show what it's been like to be married to a forester and wilderness explorer: Uncle Joe's caption on this one was, "So what did you do on your honeymoon?" Mavis is washing clothes ... miles above the ground! Looks like they stayed in a fire-watch station during their honeymoon! Uncle Joe's caption on this one was, "Forget about the bears, it was the noisy campers that kept us awake!" Mavis in the sky, once again, this time in the Montana wilderness in 1982.

Alverna in the Great Smokies

Alverna hiked toward Silers Bald, a mountain in the Great Smokies in Tennessee, in 1955. This was a year before cousin Pam was born in Knoxville.

Sam and his not-so-venerable elders

Cousin Sammy looked a little startled in this 1960s photo. And no wonder, since he was smack between scamps Davy and Chris. (Note helpful nametags.) Lord knows what goofiness they plied innocent little Sammy with. Luckily, he persevered to become one of our most respectable citizen cousins.

Cousins at Christmas

Wally, Sam, Dan, Joe, Sandy, John and Tuck opened gifts one Christmas in the 1960s.

A scene from the '70s

Cousin Sammy rocked out on his drums. His three sons probably listen to the same kind of music he did.

Grandma and her brood

We'll guess these photos were taken during one of Grandma Sprick's birthday parties. Grandma with Sarah, Dan and Sam ... ... and with sons Ed, Joe and LeRoy.

Oh, brothers!

Cousin Sarah looks a little startled in this photos taken at Danny's confirmation. Perhaps it was at the sight of Sammy's vivid pants and wide white belt.

Before parenthood

Cousins Steve and Patty Pepin in their dating days.

Safe in her dad's lap

Cousin Sarah relaxed with her dad, Uncle Wally, and her bunny during a family gathering in the 1960s. Wow, who had the gold curtains and rug? The scrapblog editor is clueless on the where of this one.

A good time being had by all

Uncle Wally, Aunt Marion and Uncle Ed were clearly enjoying themselves at this gathering. No clue when or where it was taken, though it looks like a Christmas snapshot. Is the ceramic pink miniature house a clue for any cousin?

The Brobergs and their other aunts

It's important to remember that the cousins aren't a closed circle; they have other cousins, aunts and uncles on their non-Sprick sides. Yes, cousins, you should be sending those people Christmas cards, too! Here, for instance, are photos of cousins Dan, Sam and Sarah with their other aunts: Aunt Marion and Uncle Wally posed with Wally's sisters (from left, Harriet, Dolores and Lavone Broberg) and mother outside Grandma Sprick's Lake City home in the early 1960s. Cousin Danny got something really cool for Christmas in the 1960s from his Broberg aunts, Lavone, Dolores and Harriet. (Better than a jar of peanuts, we'll tell you that right now!) Sadly, the latter two Broberg sisters passed away in 2007, but we've enjoyed Lavone's company at several recent family gatherings. The cousins have their own friends and neighbors, too. In this 1970s photo of delicious cake, bread, Jell-O, milk and empty plates awaiting heaping food at the Brobergs' Coffman Lane home, you may also notice some people. From left, they are cousin Pam, cousin Danny, Aunt Tex, Uncle Wally, Ardis Munter Norlander (Sarah's godmother), Sarah, Broberg neighbor Susie Johnson and cousin Sam.

Miller-orama

Snapshots from the Millers' New Year's Day get-together: Izzbee played the piano. Her renditions combined a touch of John Cage with a seasoning of her papa, cousin Chris, and a little, shall we say, jazz riffing. We forgot to record audio, so you'll have to trust us on that. Princessa H. and her dad, cousin Chris, were on the winning team in a very noisy game of Trivial Pursuit loosely moderated by cousin Pam. The winning team consisted of Mary-Bear, Izzbee, H. and Chris. The losing team was made up of Countessa M., Zack, Noah, and guest girlfriends Sarah and Tara, who appeared a tad overwhelmed by the Milleresque cacophony. Zack and Noah occasionally nodded off, apparently because they stayed up too late the night before, if you know what we mean.

Fashionista cousins

Cousins Cindi and Davy wore shell necklaces of their own making during a 1970s trip to Florida with their parents and maternal grandparents.

What makes a cousin a cousin?

A friend gave the scrapblog editor the above National Geographic/IBM Genographic Project kit for Christmas. You scrape a swab of DNA from your cheek and mail it in to the researchers, who add you to their DNA map and let you know where your forebears were more than 1,000 years ago. That's pretty cool. The scrapblog editor will share the results, just for fun. However, despite her obsession with our Sprickiness, the scrapblog editor isn't very interested in conventional genealogy, and lately has found herself explaining that to e-mailers who've Googled their way to the scrapblog and written in hopes that their Arkansas or Connecticut or Iowa Spricks are our Spricks. Here are the two reasons why she's not a genealogist in the traditional sense: 1) Our family includes many adopted cousins whom we never think of as anything but our family. (Adopted cousins are in some ways luckier than bio ones -- they don't carry that dreadful gene for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, for instance, or the one for giant eyebrows.) 2) Genealogy doesn't take you to any one place in the past, but to countless places. For example, consider this: You have two bio parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, 32 great-great-great grandparents, 64 great-great-great-great grandparents, 128 great-great-great-great-great grandparents, and so on, doubling every generation. By the time you get to your great X 15 grandparents in the 1500s, you have tens of thousands of direct forebears! Genealogists usually follow just one thread in that huge group (DNA tests do the same; they trace males back along one male line, females back along one female line). What really interests us about family are these things: 1) Stories: You all have them. Sometimes the old photos we post tell a story, or accompany one. Personal stories are always interwoven with human history. For instance, World War II becomes much more interesting when you picture our own Ed stumbling onto Omaha Beach or through the Hurtgen Forest. An old building in Wabasha County is more intriguing when we know Grandpa Claus Sprick built it. 9/11 will shape the young cousins whose world it changed in the same way that Pearl Harbor transformed the fates of Alverna, Anna, Marion and their contemporaries. Current events in China are all the more interesting because they brought little cousin Izzbee into our family. And so on and so on. 2) Character: The strength of any family is not in numbers or names, but in the character of its best and most beloved members, bio or adopted. You'll notice that we focus a lot in stories and photos on those whose character we especially admire -- Anna, Joe and Mavis, for instance. We look up to them not just because they're our elders, but because they have taught us so much, and are so worthy of love and honor. There you have the scrapblog editor's late-night riff on genealogy. Still, she'll let you know if the DNA project finds that bio-Spricks are descended from the marauding hordes of central Asia or the brutal Germanic tribes that made the Dark Ages so very, very special. Some of these people share genes, but it doesn't matter. They're all very different, though they live in the same period in human history. And yet, they are cousins for life. They won't ever need those nametags to tell who is whom.

The Millers clean up for a big day

Aunt Alverna and the Miller kids got all dressed up in 1968 to welcome Uncle Bill back from Vietnam. It was a joyful day.

Scrapblog editor confesses all

The scrapblog editor, although perfect in most ways, except for her tendency to talk too much and forget things, and a few other inadequacies, well, more than a few, has a particularly glaring vulnerability: her struggle with weight. Unlike some drug abuse and fetishes, the weight struggle cannot be kept secret. Every extra Nut Goodie, margarita, spaghetti dinner, magic cookie bar and God knows what else the scrapblog editor has consumed is visible on her portly person. Recently, the scrapblog editor's doctor suggested that this could be a problem beyond looks. So the scrapblog editor (who got a haircut today, as the photo above shows, in an attempt to shed .001 pound; by the way, note exotropia of right eye) is doing what she hasn't done in some time: trying very seriously to address the problem. She rejoined Weight Watchers, sneaking into a meeting and trying to hide in the back row, which was hard to do, since she was the largest person there. She decided to share her dilemma and doubts with the cousins, in hopes they will send bon-bons -- WAIT! she means motivational sayings -- and encouragement to her here or privately. No, no, the scrapblog editor will NEVER look like she did in 1985 (at right, serenading a big bottle of wine and a lovely cake -- WAIT! we mean cousin Chats), when she was only 30, walking 5 miles a day and in love, which causes one to eat less. At this venerable age, 51, frankly, she would settle for weighing less than, say, a Vikings linebacker. At a certain point in one's life, perhaps at age 51, one either decides to give up on such problems or face them yet again. And so, cousins, send a good word or thought to the scrapblog editor as she wrestles with that modern American problem, obesity. Every month she'll weigh in, so to speak, with her progress or lack thereof (not numbers -- too embarrassing -- just general progress). At the very least, it will keep the scrapblog editor humble.

Alverna-orama

Just a couple nice photos of Mom/Aunt Alverna...

"What else you got, Grandma?"

Cousins Sam, Sarah and Dan looked a little dubious about something Grandma Sprick was giving them during a visit to their Minneapolis home in this 1960s photo. We especially like the look on Sammy's face.

Who says you can't wear tennies with black socks?

Cousin Danny looked up to cousin Chris in this 1960s photo. Of course, that may just be so he could avoid looking down at young Chris' spindly legs. Inexplicably, or maybe not, photos of cousin Chris seem to draw the most response from our readers, either electronically or in person. ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller! may not be so sure about the scrapblog, but scrapblog readers love seeing him there.

Leah and Duane at their wedding

Cousins Leah and Duane opened gifts at their 1961 wedding. Cousins Patty-Lou and Miniature Scrapblog Editor stood curiously by, hoping, no doubt, to see some priceless blue plates in those fancy boxes.

A dear friend and her daughters

Every once in a while the scrapblog editor likes to celebrate her dear pals in this space. Here's one: Colleen Stoxen with her lovely daughters, Marquette students Alex and Lauren, this week in San Francisco. Collie is the Page 1A editor at the Star Tribune. Looks like she enjoyed her vacation! Can't imagine why! Below is the Stoxen family's Christmas photo. From left, Alex, John, Wynn, Colleen and Lauren.

Happy New Year to all!

Happy New Year to all the cousins, elders and friends of the scrapblog! May your 2008 be full of peaceful days and priceless blue plates! We welcome the new year with this photo by Uncle Joe of the coveted Burnt Wienie trophy, which sits on his mantel. Who will win it in 2008? Start writing up your bloopers now! (The writing on the trophy reads: "Waldesruh Burnt Wienie Award: Presented annually to that member of the family who committed the biggest goof.")