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| Dad's Retirement House |
"There is nothing more important than a good safe, secure home. Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. There's no place like home. Where we love is home-home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." -Unknown
I grew up in the early 60's. My earliest memory is of the Cuban missle crisis. I was 4 years old when President John Kennedy faced off with Russia. Russia had positioned missles in Cuba just 90 miles from the U.S. The thinking was they were pointd at major cities.
I remember my parents packing my entire family in the our station wagon and loading it with canned goods. All nine of us headed to my grandma's house. She lived 30 miles outside on Milwaukee on Okauchee Lake. It was heaven on earth to me. It had four bedrooms, but was really a modest house. I remember the room where most of the kids stayed was wall to wall beds to fit us all in. Her attic was infested with bats. At night they would squawk and scratch. There was no air conditioning in the house, but no matter how hot it was we slept with blankets over our heads because were were worried about being attacked by bats. At least once a year one would get into the house and one of my brothers would do battle with a broom. Aluminum foil was hung in the landing of the 2nd floor to confuse their sonar when they would get in the house. The bats were really the only downside of an otherwise idyllic lake house experience. It really did not seem bad at the time. My dad and uncles did everything they could to get rid of those bats. They never did get rid of them.
It was a family gathering spot. We were there every weekend to swim, fish and boat. We were there on weekends with the extended family to watch Packer games. I remember watching the Green Bay game known as the Ice Bowl there because it was blacked out in Milwaukee. She owned the lot across the road. It was wooded and we would glean hickory nuts there. It also had a path to a junk yard and we would go there to explore. Kids were not so closely supervised in those days as they are now.
The crisis soon passed. The next crisis came in 1968. After the assinnation of Dr. Martin Luther King, there were riots in many American cities. Milwaukee was no exception. My family lived in an area not far from the worst violence. The entire city was under martial law. A police man was posted at the corner across the street. No one was to leave their house.
My dad, a civilian employee of the Milwaukee Police department was advised by friends on the force to get us out of the city. There was fear the rioting would spread to our neighborhood. We lived in the inner city, only about a mile from where initial riots had occurred.
It was illegal to travel. My parents had us dress in three lays of clothes ini case we were stopped so it would not be obivious were trying to flee. My dad drove down alleys and back streets until we got to the freeway. I have a vivid memory of passing County Stadium where baseball and football games were played for years. I did not see another car on the freeway. Where were we headed? To our safe house at my grandmas. I remember staying there all summer. Once again we were safe.
We had a large family and because we did not have alot of money we lived in a higher crime area. One weekend when my dad was up north hunting the woman who lived right across the street was murdered. My mom was understandably scared. She had her brother come and take us to gransma's house. We stayed for a few days until my dad returned. The safe house worked it's magic again.
When I was 10 my grandparents divorced. My grandma tried to keep the house, but it was too much for her both financially and to maintain. My dad had to live in the city since he worked for the city. I was 12 years old and I lost my safe house. It was the place were we swam till our lips were blue, cooked out with the family and ran around with my cousins who alwasy seemed to be visiting. It was a loss for all of us. It is still a scar on my heart. Whenever I see my cousins we all talk about the house and the fun we had there.
My parents had inherited a small amount of money from his parents. Right after we lost our lake safe house, my parent bought a 40 acre old dairy farm in Waupaca county. It needed lost of work and we spend weekends cleaning the place up and doing repairs. I lived up there every summer from the time I was 12 until I sent away for college.
We had a garden for produce, chickens for eggs and also raised ducks and geese. I learned how hard dairy farmers worked from the nine farm kids that lived next to us. They became life long friends.
We rode ponies together, swam in their pond, helped them with choses and picked berries in our woods. We argued over softball and volley ball games. I think their mom thought we never went home.
I would return often to this new safe house. My own parents would divorce when I was in my late twenties. First my mom lived there during the divorce and then my dad lived there. I would vist many times through those years. I would often go home loaded with produce from their gardens.
I visited my dad in winter to ski or in summer to camp on his land and kayak on the near by lakes and rivers. It was a refugee from the noise of the city. It was a place to re-charge. A safe house for the spirit. Just knowing was there in case of emergency was immensely important to me. A place to go with life got dangerous.
I share CMT with my dad. One day when he was 80, he had a fall and would never return home. He spent the last three years of his life in a nursing home We had to sell this safe house to pay the bills. Now I have no safe place to take refuge. Believe me I would be headed there now if I could.
Now being an athlete is my safe space.. Being active is a great way to get outside and get over whatever is bothering me. I always feel better after a swim, bike, run or day skiing. Many of us have lost this safe space because races are cancelled, gyms are closed and even working out has become a challenge. Believe me I understand. The hording of supplies and food are I believe people creating a safe space and exerting some meausre of control in their lives.
I know from experience of losing two safe houses that life goes on. What does endure are the memories and the times spent with family and friends. I will cling to those memories now as I create my new safe space at home. Soon life will return to normal and we will get back to the lives were knew before. Stay safe.
***********************
Chris
Wodke
Founder
& Manager Team CMT
www.run4cmt.com
Chris is
a triathlete and long distance runner. She is a three time participant of the
Boston Marathon. In 2012 she finished
2nd at Boston
in the Mobility Impaired Division. She was on the course in 2013 when the bombs
exploded.
She has
appeared three times at the Paratriathlon National Triathlon Sprint
Championship. She was the 2012 and 2014 National Champion Paratriathlon Open
Division Champion.
In 2014 she was the PC Open Champion at the Duathlon National Championship and
at the Aqua bike National Championship in 2016. She represented Team USA at the Aquathon ITU World Championship in Chicago in 2015i, Cozumel
in 2016 and Denmark in 2018. In 2018 finishing 5th in the 60 to 64
age group.
In 2014 she represented the U.S. as a paratriathlete at the Pan-American
Triathlon Championship in Dallas,
Texas. She has won state championships in cycling
and triathlon as a senior Olympian. In 2017 she placed 2nd in her
age group at the Winter Triathlon National Championship, earning a spot on Team
USA
for the World Championship.
In 2020
she was named a National Ski Patrol Subaru Ambassador and a USA Triathlon
Foundation Ambassador.
She
travels around the country raising awareness of CMT.
She is
the author of the book, “Running for My Life” that details her experience as a
CMT affected athlete and the book “Soup Sundays, A Journey Toward Healthy
Eating”.
Team CMT
is a group of athletes and supporters working to raise awareness and to find a
cure for CMTWe currently have 233 athletes in 41 states. We also have
members in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Vietnam, Iran, Scotland,
France, Turkey, Poland, Norway, Mexico, Wales, Ireland and Sweden!. If you wish to join us visit our web site;
www.run4cmt.com or
www.hnf-cure.org
CMT or Charcot-Marie-Tooth
is the most commonly inherited peripheral neuropathy. It affects over 155,000
Americans (as many as MS). It is a disease of the nerves that control the
muscles. It is slowly progressive, causing loss of normal function and or sensation
in the lower legs/feet and arms/hands.
Symptoms
include; muscle wasting in the lower legs and feet leading to foot drop, poor
balance and gait problems Atrophy in the hands causes difficulty with manual
dexterity.
Structural
foot deformities such as high arches and hammer toes are common.
Poor
tolerance for cool or cold temperatures and many people have chronically cold
hands and feet.
Additional
symptoms may include fatigue, sleep apnea, breathing difficulties and hearing
loss.
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