100 years ago this summer, my maternal Grandfather OK Zufall, at the age of 26 left the farm fields of Frankfort Indiana, to explore the world. He first headed to Durango, Colorado to become a cowboy and to work on the Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (www.durangotrain.com) Eight years later, he headed to Calgary, Alberta Canada so he could enlist in the Canadian army and fight Germany in World War I before the United States got involved. After returning to Calgary from France at the end of the war, he became a Canadian citizen and married my Grandmother Mabel Alquire. My mother (Rosemary Zufall Blakesley) was born in 1923 and soon after the family moved to Pasadena California.
From September 2005 thru November 2007, I was in Kenya with the Peace Corps and started to have dreams about my Grandfather, even though I only had one memory of him. I decided that when I returned home, I would follow in his footsteps and try to learn more about him and about myself. That was the beginning of the Being OK Tour.
Starting in mid June my sister (Sue Ann Blake) and I will be spending 7 to 8 weeks going from Lafayette to Durango to Calgary to Pasadena, camping or staying with friends and family and trying to reconnect with our roots. Along the way we will be asking people to give us their best OK sign, attending the Calgary Stampede (www.calgarystampede.com),
visiting artist Hillary Eddy (www.hilaryeddy.com), attending an Outstanding in the Field Farm Dinner in Portland Oregon (www.outstandinginthefield.com), and blogging along the way (www.beingok.blogspot.com)
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1 comment:
Wish I could be with you! Know that my spirit in in your lap, on your shoulder, and by your side.
H. Feet
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