Memories of old friends — and a 'Wit Twister' for you to puzzle through

I was so glad to see the mention of the 100th birthday of my friend Helen Miura. I have not see nor talked with Helen for a very long time, so I am glad to be able to wish her a very happy birthday — even though I'm late.

Helen and I worked on altar flowers years ago at First United Methodist Church, and many of them came from her garden, as well as two beautiful green plants which stood on either side of the chancel.

She gave me three plants for my garden, which I still have — a clivia, a special pink and white belladonna lily (commonly called a naked lady because the flower stalk stands alone with no foliage), and a pretty, delicate vine with little lavender flowers in spring. I think of Helen every time I care for these plants.

I was a member of FUMC when we first came to Lodi and remained one for 30 years. After the death of my first husband, I went back to my family's Episcopalian roots and joined St. John's. But I still see old friends from my first church and think of them often.

The other day I wanted to find my WAC physical training manual to see how those exercises compared to the ones I am doing now — and it wasn't in all the places I thought it might be. I finally found it on a shelf in the den without much trouble, but in the course of searching, I went through some cupboards and drawers I don't usually bother with — and found all sorts of things, some to be cherished, others not.

I found a lot of music, opera and choral, and the sheet music for a favorite song, "Duna."

I didn't find the music for another favorite, "By the Bend of the River." Both of these songs have a gentle old fashioned lilt to them, nostalgic reminders of other times.

And I found years of black and white drawings which my cousin, an artist, made for his family Christmas cards. Many of them were winter scenes from his property in New Canaan, Conn.; others were from places around the world where he had traveled.

Best of all, I found an album of pictures of my second husband and me at our wedding and reception at St. John's 16 years ago. Everybody was so much younger then! What struck me, sadly, was how many people in those pictures have since died: Ozzie Wilson, Guy P. Wakefield, Fink and Emily Beckman, Joe Blanchard, Alice Shelton, and a special friend from Southern California, and, just lately, my husband's daughter, Beth.

A great find was a bunch of word games from The Saturday Review of Literature I had carefully clipped and pasted in a notebook for use in my English classes. I think these were composed by Thomas Middleton. These just might pop up in Column Write from time to time!

Another search for my WAC discharge papers led to another treasure trove of memorabilia, mostly from my days at Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga., where I edited the WAC Weekly before going to Officer Candidate School. I had some clever friends who did the artwork and cartoons which lightened several pages full of writing about this and that on the post. It was plain to see I had not had any reportorial training back then — too wordy!

On that subject, it's time to leave!

But here's a Wit Twister; the same six letters, rearranged, will fill the various blanks and complete the poem:

In lordly _ _ _ _ _ _ the lions prowl;

From _ _ _ _ _ _churches glares the owl;

The_ _ _ _ _ _, humbles of them all,

Creates his own dew-spangled hall."

Gwin Paden has been a Lodi resident since 1956. She has a BA from the University of Delaware and an MA and teaching and administrative credentials from the University of the Pacific. In addition to teaching at Lodi High School and Delta College, she has had careers in advertising, the Women's Army Corps, newspaper reporting, radio broadcasting and public relations. She has been active in many organizations.