Happy Howl-o-ween!

Coco in her witch's hat

Coco showing how she really feels about her witch's hat!

Pebble made a very cute bumble bee

Coco, Me and Mr Jack O Lantern

Halloween is also the birthday of my friend Tommy who I've known forever and ever and ever. The photo below was taken last May and is of Tommy with Teedee and Matt taken at Janice and Pat's house in Visalia before a Bon Jovi concert in Fresno. Matt is the youngest son of Janice and Pat. Janice went to the prom with Tommy in High School.

Born on the exactly the same day and year as Tommy is Larry Mullen, Jr., drummer for U2. Here he is singing DirtyOldTown from the Zoo TV tour. I saw LMJ sing this in Anaheim stadium with Lori and Nic in 1992. In 2005 I went to Boston to meet Lori and Amy and to see U2's Vertigo Tour. It was amazing.

Here are Lori and Amy enjoying a refreshment in a pub in Boston.

Gimme the Ball!

Daybreak at the Dog Park. Coco has started waking up really early, raring to go, so we've found ourselves seeing the sun come up at the dog park several times this week. Usually we are by ourselves in the small dog section but there are always several big dogs romping in their section. This morning Coco ran up and down the fence line, racing with a German Shepherd. I took video with my cell phone but since mercury is in retrograde I'm having issues emailing it to myself.

Playing catch up today so here are some odds n ends....

Coco and Pebbles getting ready to walk. It was a chilly fall evening so Pebbles is sporting a pretty red sweater

Coco has expensive taste...

I forgot to post these 3 photos on Teedee's Birthday post...

The first two were taken in Carmel in March 1971 and are two of my all time favorite photos.

This one is of Teed and Masumi taken in the back yard of Dad's place on Theta Circle. More about Masumi later.

Finally, here is a video of Coco taken this past June.

Knotts Scary Farm

Went to Knotts Scary Farm with the Jessup family for Nate's 14th Birthday. It was a blast, rode the rollercoaster from hell (never again) and went through lots of scary mazes. Oh, and yes, the fried chicken is as good as I remembered!

Coco couldn't go to Knotts so she amused herself at home....

October 12, 2006

Happy Birthday Teedee!!!

Happiest of Birthday wishes to la Teedalina.

May you alway be surrounded by love, laughter and adventure!

The Quinn Meeting

Saturday, October 7th was the annual meeting of shareholders of Harry Quinn, Inc. Harry Quinn was my great grandfather and he was born in 1843 in Kilkeel Keel, County Down, Ireland. He grew up helping his father raise sheep and at the age of 16 he left Ireland for Australia. In 1868 he left Australia for San Francisco and eventually made his way into the Central San Joaquin Valley. He partnered with Archibald Leitch in the sheep business, married Mr Leitch's niece Katherine Robertson and settled on Rag Gulch, near Richgrove, CA.

Rag Gulch, 1988 Watercolour on paper by David Richardson

Harry and Katy Quinn had 7 children, Margaret, John, Thomas, Archibald, Cletus, Mary and Mildred. Mildred is my grandmother.

Mildred married Bernard (Pink) Richardson and they had 2 sons:

Bernard Foster (Barney)

and Kenneth Harry (my Dad).

Barney married Mary Jones and they had 5 children: Kenny, Patrick, Sheela, Tom and Katy. Kenny married Barbara Snider and they had 3 children: David, Beth and Sarah (Teedee). In one of those strange twists of small town life, Barney's wife Mary's sister Betty married Kenny's wife Barbara's 1st cousin Loren but that's a whole other story entirely...

Anyway, to make a long story short, when Harry Quinn died, his children formed a corporation to manage his estate. The shareholders are decendants of the seven children and we meet once a year. It's really a yearly family reunion. Here are some photos from this year's get together:

Harry Falconer and his son Tom. Harry is the son of Art and Mary (Quinn) Falconer.

Robert, Michele, Rocco and Janet (Falconer) Marrongelli (seated). Janet is the daughter of Harry Falconer, granddaughter of Mary (Quinn) Falconer.

Pam Falconer and her son Shawn and his daughters. Pam is the daughter of Murray Falconer, son of Art and Mary (Quinn) Falconer.

Ken Hurt, Betty Moreland, Larry Moreland, Mary Jo Deathridge, Dona Hurt (seated). Betty, Mary Jo and Dona are the granddaughters of Tom and Irma Quinn. Their mothers were "The Quinn Girls", Katherine, Margaret, Lois and Patricia.

Ramona Phillips and her brother John Nelson Smith. They are the grandchildren of Nelson and Margaret (Quinn) Smith. Their parents were John Nelson (Jack) and Idella Smith.

Anne Ward and Julie Bannerman. Anne and Julie are the daughters of Charlotte Quinn Bomke and the granddaughters of John R Quinn, who was the Tax Collector of LA County and ran for Governor of California

Anne's daughter Colleen

Anne's daughter Katie and Katie's son

Colleen's son with Katie's daughter

Michele, Rocco and Colleen

Here is a photo of Katheryn Quinn Richardson, daughter of Barney and Mary Richardson, granddaughter of Pink and Midge (Quinn) Richardson. I didn't get a photo of her at the meeting.

More from Camp Nelson...

It's a 5 mile hike to the Needles Lookout and back. It took us about 4 hours to including rest stops and lunch at the Lookout. It's an easy to moderate hike according to the guidebooks. There were some up hill parts that seemed to go on forever but just when I thought I couldn't go on anymore, the trail flattened out and allowed me to catch my breath and enjoy the view again.

This is a view of the Needles Lookout from the trail.

The view from the Lookout

US Forest Service Ranger Margee inside the Lookout. She lives there during fire season. There is a stove and refrigerator but no running water.

6 Degrees of Separation Dept, part one...

While talking with Margee, I mentioned that my grandfather, Wes Snider had been a District Ranger in the USFS. Margee knew the name and pointed to a photograph hanging on the wall. She asked if the man in the photograph was him. It looks alot like him to me and I took a photo of the photo to send to Aunt Marge for confirmation. She couldn't be sure but thinks it might be. David and Uncle Tom, however, think the hat is wrong. I think it's Grampa Wes.

Dome Rock from the Lookout Tower

The Needles.
Although you can't see it on this photo, there were a couple of climbers on the face of the rock. We could just barely see them moving up the rock from the tower.

Looking down the stairs that we climbed up to the tower.

Quaking Aspens

We got back to Nancy's cabin and had a great dinner to celebrate her birthday and officially christen her cabin/garage.

Katy & Kathy helping Nancy blow out the candles

Linda and Katy

6 Degrees of Separation Dept, part two...

Katy gave Nancy a book on the early days of Camp Nelson writen by Porterville local Jeff Edwards. Among the typos and historical inaccuracies in the book is an uncredited photograph of three kids on Dome Rock with the caption that reads "This view of Kern Canyon is an impressive sight as these children are enjoying". This photograph was taken by Bill Rodgers and the children enjoying the view are David Richardson and Mary Kay and Susan Rodgers. Bill Rodgers was mayor of Porterville in the 60's and was the owner/editor of the Farm Tribune. When Bill died, Susan and Mary Kay gave Jeff Edwards his archives. Bill was Mayor of Porterville when the Hell's Angels came to town in 1963. He led a group of locals who turned the firehoses on the bikers and ran them out of town. Author Hunter S. Thompson wrote about it in his book "Hell's Angel's" Anyway, my point was thatJeff should have credited the photo and named the kids....

l to r, David Richardson, Mary Kay and Susan Rodgers; photo by Bill Rodgers

6 Degrees of Separation Dept, part three...

After Nancy's Party, Annie, Katy and I went to Pierpoint to check out the nightlife. The Dukes of Rhthym were playing and the joint was a rockin'

This nice old gentleman comes up and asks Annie to dance. Since we had just finished a 5 mile hike she declined but we started chatting with him. Turns out he is a grape farmer from the Delano area...Katy and I look at each other and I start asking him if he knows, the Perelli Minetti's and of course he does. He says his name is Dick Kramer and that he is from an old family in Delano. Well, Katy and I come from an old Delano family named Quinn (more about the Quinns in the next chapter). Now I knew that the Quinns and Kramers were old friends so I asked him if he had heard of the Quinns and he said of course he had, one of his relatives had married one of the relatives of Nelson Smith who was a relative of Harry Quinn. Nelson Smith is the father of Katy's and my 2nd cousin Lonon Smith. Then Dick says he remembers many years ago attending an Edison Company Christmas party with his first wife. She worked as a receptionist at the Edison Company Substation in Delano. Anyway, he remembered meeting another a man at the party who was also related to the Quinn Family of Delano...turns out it was my Dad, who worked at as a Service Planner for the Edison Company.

The Stagg Tree

The next day we hiked out to the Stagg Tree. The Stagg Tree is either the 4th largest or 6th largest tree in the world depending on who you talk to. Either way it is a pretty spectacular hike to the tree and the tree itself is awesome.

More Quaking Aspen

We had such a great time we didn't want to go home...