Saturday morning I sent Chuck upstairs to the hospitality room to commune and tell sea stories and I walked over to Monet’s garden. The Muskegon garden society is very proud of this little town and has turned a whole corner plot into a lovely garden with benches, pond and walkway over the pond. I painted in the sunshine and have come away with an image of "the pink house" and the pond with a lovely pink tree overshadowing the scene. The iris flowers will bloom next week. There are many budding flowers and a few tulips left. I then went to the art museum again and visited the "interference pool" which is created with lasers. As I moved around the room, the pool moved and sang a humming lyric. It is pretty amazing. Then I walked all around and enjoyed a good art show. Later we dressed up for the banquet which was very well attended. The speaker was from the Silversides museum, Maryly Skallos from Muskegon Community College, and she spoke about the year long history course the Silversides Museum sponsors. "Making History come alive" is taught by speakers who sailed and fought and were survivors of prison camps in World War II. Among the course speakers was Chuck’s chief of the boat on the Quillback, Chief Kidd who spoke about the 1942-44 campaign for the Pacific and about his brother who won among other honors the Croix de Guerre, the French Cross the equivalent of our Medal of Honor. Dr Katherina von Skallos Kellenbach, author of The Mark of Cain, spoke about research she did on her uncle who was responsible for killing 30,000 Jews in Minsk. That was a courageous deed for her to admit this was her heritage. Martin Lowenberg spoke about being saved from prison camp by a gentleman who wanted to save Swedish women but sneaked out many men. As a Holocaust survivor, Lowenberg now dedicates his time to telling the story. Speaking about these teachers of history, Skallos reminded us that as we get older, we won’t be able to talk about WWII… she urged the sailors before her to tell the story now! The courses can be seen on Youtube.com/muskegoncc playlist 2014 WWII. We stayed talking until the band stopped and the lights were dimmed….. then we came back to our waterside room, looked out at the quiet night over Lake Muskegon and fell into bed. Blessings on this Sunday morning.
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