Update on 2010 Centennial Reunion, or K.I.S.S.

Hello family of Doris,

The consensus is why fix it if it ain't broken. Instead of having our food cooked and prepared for us which was an idea I heard from others, we will stick with our pot luck. I encourage you to look at Doris's Cooking blog on www.ourfamily2010.com for her favorite foods and add to them if you have something you like to cook better. Are there any professional cake-makers in the family? Anyone who loves to make pies? Cobblers?

For those who have children who have e-mail addresses please send them to me to be on our master list for updates. All blended families are included in the reunion plans. Remember, my Hotmail account is exclusive so you have to send them to me first. Are there any bands and singers in the family? We have four known published songs of Doris and are hoping to get them on CD. The highly talented Andy Lloyd may be able to help with this. Thank you Andy and happy birthday.

I've since learned that a triathlon is a swim, bike and run. However, during the Olympic year in 2010 ours will differ to suit our children. So plan on arriving by 10:30 a.m. to have the 11:00 swim portion on time before the pool fills up with other people. I wrote Dole and received decorations for our train pinata. The Dole Plantation in Oahu has a train.

If you write the e-mail address below you will get my story btw. It's been two months since the picnic already. Enjoy your summer and stay in touch. Please share this with your family who is not online.

Love you.

48 1960, Alaska 2008, Hawaii 2009
50stateclub@gmail.com
=^..^=

Head Count Requested For 2010

Hello and greetings to all descendants of Doris,


Once again I'm already excited about our next picnic and hope you'll come and support our efforts by celebrating Doris's 100th birthday together as family. Additionally, if you are unable to make the trip to California I wholeheartedly encourage you to have your own Centennial Reunion where you live with as many family members as possible. We have family scattered throughout the U.S. and Europe.


In order to ask for a fair per person cost of the California Centennial Reunion please respond to Jade and me with the number of your own family who plans to attend including children old enough to sign their names. If members of your family do not have e-mail will you ask them whether they plan to attend please? With an estimated number of 50 persons the cost would be on a sliding scale of $11 to $13 each. This figure would go down if the count gets bigger of course.


Right now the hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. officially and as long as you want to stay unofficially. The chef is aware that the BBQ is for noon. He will be bringing in his own gas and charcoal grills and this has been okayed by Holbrook Community Park. He has sides for both tri-tip and chicken breast included in his $7.00 per- person estimate. He is not charging for his time, just the food. This is his idea, not mine.


There are other things in the works such as getting Doris's published songs put to music by family members. My brother Richard Davis spent three hours looking for his original copies which were left out for family to look at in June. This would be so wonderful and a special keepsake for each family member.


Once a per-person cost is determined you will be asked to send in your money and the order of arrival will be the drawing number for the door prize, or in this case, gate prize.

For those of you who have not signed up as family on the Web site please do so. I'm glad that the living children of Doris are signed up, namely, Richard, Phillip, Joyce, Olivetta and Rosella, or Rich, Phil, Joy, Olie and Rose. Thank you to those who have signed up as her descendants.


RSVP August 1.

11 More Months Until Centennial Reunion

If you are a descendant, or a descendant's spouse, of Doris this update is for you. Sometime last year I thought it'd be great to have a family reunion on Mother's birthday and her 100th is next year. I've been planning and organizing it and if anyone wants to take over the responsibility at another location after 2010 this is your invitation. Holbrook is still the 2010 location and the grove will be reserved which includes 10 swimmers and 20 non-swimmers in the reservation fee.

Our theme is Hawaiian and a shell lei greeting is planned at your 10:00 arrival. Wear muumuu or aloha shirt. I was prepared for community games last June but the pool was very inviting and they didn't happen, much to my disappointment. I'm planning a triathlon and it's an Olympic year as well. The swim portion must be done at 11 a.m. before the pool fills up. This is for 17 and under and if adults want to have one, fine. A three-legged race, beanbag toss, clothes pin drop in a bottle can be part of the triathlon.

Since the Centennial Reunion only happens once I have arranged for a friend/chef to BBQ and prepare food, have a professional sheet cake, and entertainment. I invite you to look at the blog at www.ourfamily2010.com about Doris's cooking and bring one of her dishes to make the picnic more special. This all will cost for the food, cake and entertainment and I'm hoping to ask for donations on a sliding scale basis and no one will be turned away for lack of paying. Your reservation and money paid will be the number on our drawing, so if you're first to pay you'll be drawing number one, and so on. The per person cost is TBD.

The itinerary will go something like this:

10:00 arrival
10:30 triathlon dry portion begins
11:00 swim portion (this can be in the shallow end--just get in the water or swim)
11:15 awards for triathlon
11:30 decorate pinata bags
Noon welcome and blessing on the food
1:30 individual family pictures and group pictures
2:00 entertainment
2:45 drawing (will include family gift and a child's gift)
3:00 pinata

I have volleyball that someone needs to set up, mini pool table, badminton, bat and ball, soccer ball, scuba gear, etc.

If anyone has any objections to having our food cooked for us by Bil Orlando now would be the time to make your preferences known.

As you may know none of Don and Bev's family was represented at the June picnic. I feel an annual family picnic is long overdue and the cousins deserve to know each other. Please clear your calendar for June 12, 2010.

There may be T's offered for sale as well so it just depends on how much you want to spend. They can be worn to subsequent picnics.

Thank you for your love and support.

Olivetta

Attending Church While on Vacation

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On 6/2/09 6:03 PM, "Olivetta Chavez" <bellaeuropa@gmail.com> wrote:
Olivetta Conklin Chavez
Concord 1st Ward, Concord
California Stake
bellaeuropa@gmail.com <mailto:bellaeuropa@gmail.com>
Donation/2 June 2009
ensign@ldschurch.org <mailto:ensign@ldschurch.org>
ATTENDING CHURCH WHILE ON VACATION
Because of the dream of my mother, Doris Eleanor Thomas, to visit the 48 contiguous states my younger sister, Rosella, and I at ages 13 and 12 drove with our 50-year old mother in the summer of 1960 and did just that. She drove a pale green ’55 Chevy pulling a trailer where we slept and prepared meals. On Sundays we often put on dresses and looked for a church to attend. Donald Lee Davis, her oldest son who later became a bishop, and his wife Beverly who had been tracted into and baptized, encouraged her to take the missionary discussions. Mother had always wanted to be baptized having read it in the Bible. My sister and I took the discussions with her and were baptized March 25, 1961, the spring following our driving trip. She had also visited Alaska more than once. Mother died and was buried exactly ten months after her baptism, on Beverly’s birthday. It had been my goal over the years to visit all 50 states. One of my family’s favorite parts of travel is attending the local wards. We love attending the Mt. Shasta Ward during our annual camping trip and each time we get invited to move into the ward. For our silver wedding anniversary my husband Michael and I left on our temple sealing anniversary May 7, 2008, on our Alaska cruise to the Inland Passage, my 49th visited state during Alaska’s 49th anniversary as a state. It has been such a blessing to visit local wards while vacationing. On Mother’s Day the bishop’s wife kept her promise from months earlier to pick us up for church in Juneau, Alaska, in front of the Red Dog Saloon. We took a walk after the early ward and returned to the afternoon ward, thoroughly enjoying the spiritual experience. Then on May 16, 2009, we flew together for the first time in 26 years of marriage to my 50th visited state, Hawaii, during their 50th anniversary as a state which took almost 50 years for me to achieve. We attended stake conference the first Sunday; I attended a seminary graduation followed by a lei-giving frenzy; I attended Enrichment. Our second Sunday I attended three sacrament meetings, three Sunday School classes and one Relief Society of the Manoa, McCully and Makiki wards in the very beautiful Honolulu Tabernacle. My husband gave up after attending five meetings. The stake center has a mosaic of the Savior on the building with a blue reflecting pool and the giant banyan tree spreads its branches over the lawn with green parrots that fly between the palms and banyan branches. It is a rare and choice blessing to renew covenants and meet with the Saints while traveling. I thank my heavenly Father for these spiritual experiences.

Doris Eleanor Thomas, by Rose Greene

Doris Eleanor Thomas was born on June 13, 1910, to Washington “Watt” Thomas and Olive Rosalind Pitcher Thomas in Puyallup, Washington. She was the third of their four daughters and was a cut-up and instigator with her sisters, Joyce, Gladys and Ruby (the youngest). She was a tom-boy as a girl and was such a good baseball player that the boys nicknamed her “Babe Ruth”. She was a Daddy’s girl and her favorite thing to do was to keep her Dad company when he was logging. She helped her Dad take care of the two big horses that pulled his rig, Jake and Bill, and she adored them. She was definitely an animal lover.
Doris was a strong swimmer and played the saxophone when she was young. She had an 8th grade education, but that didn’t stop her from writing stories and novels and composing music under the penname of “Jade Greene”. One of her songs was even published. Doris had a beautiful soprano voice and was not afraid to sing out at Church. Her wonderful voice could be heard above all the rest. She was a talented whistler as well and whistled on the radio once. She and her sisters loved to jitterbug, and she would have won a local dance contest one time, except she couldn’t get down on the floor to do some of the moves because she’d had rheumatic fever as a child. Doris was also a clown – literally. She marched in parades, wearing a big, bright chartreuse shirt, baggy pants with big suspenders, and she entertained the crowds and was a joy to watch. She made a living selling greeting cards door to door, and she made many friends along the way.
Doris had a penchant for traveling. She went on a trip to Juneau, Alaska, and, while there, reached out and petted a huge pure white husky – that had never allowed any other woman to touch him ever before. Many times she got the urge to visit her family, would pack up the car and she’d drive straight through to Yelm, Washington, where her sister Joyce lived. We’d make the rounds, visiting her Dad and Ruby in Seattle and Gladys in Tacoma. She always drove through the Redwood Forest on those trips and stopped to see the huge statues of Paul Bunyan the lumberjack and Babe his big Blue Ox; then we’d drive right through one of the largest redwood trees. She drove cross-country to Ontario, Canada, to visit her Dad’s family there, and brought back Granddad’s brother, Allen, whom he hadn’t seen in more than 50 years. What a grand reunion that was! Doris’ grand finale was a trip through every state in the continental United States, crossing the border into Mexico so she could say she’d been there, and revisiting Ontario and many relatives we’d met there.
Doris' first husband was Harold Bashey. She married Lee Davis in 1930, and Donald, Richard, Phillip and Joyce came from that union. She next married Joseph Conklin and Olivetta was born. Then she met a sailor a couple years after the end of World War II and Rosella came along. Doris had a marvelous smile and beautiful green eyes. She once owned a café called the Chick Box and did the cooking herself. She later owned a bar-café called The Blue Room, but she never drank liquor and she never smoked. She was Christian Scientist until her conversion and baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints March 25, 1961. She was buried exactly ten months later in Vallejo, California, across from the auto movies she went to so often. She made sure Olivetta and Rosella would go to a good home, that of her oldest son Don and his wife Beverly and their daughters. She died of cervical cancer at age 51. She could out laugh the boisterous Laughing Sal at Playland At The Beach in San Francisco; she was a marvelous cook and made the best fudge you’ve ever tasted. Doris Eleanor Thomas was a woman of many talents and was truly wonderful.

This part is by Olivetta: August 3, 2009, I drove from Concord to Fairfield to find some information at the County Seat taking me from Family Law Calendar Clerk to Vital Records across the street. A clerk there copied a document and said it was of a husband of Doris. The document stated she married George Thomas Bachelor of North Hollywood, age 47, and her age was 42. The file date was 2 December 1952, a month after my sixth birthday. I have no personal recollection of this marriage and the length of it is unknown as well. I was very surprised to learn of this unknown union. Additionally, the family is in possession of four published songs written under the pen name of Jade Greene, circa 1946. Her son Richard recalls another called We'll Win the War in '44 but there's no proof, also Joy says she wrote one about a handsome man. He is in possession of one of her stories which I thought was ruined and thrown out after her death. He told me Rose's father owned a '46 Chevy.

40 + 60 = 100

I can't keep up with the Poyners but if I'm near correct Doris has some 100 family members. Forty were in attendance at the 2009 family picnic and another 60 makes an amazing 100 for Doris's Centennial Reunion next year. Who knew? Some of us have remarried and have blended families and helped raise children not officially adopted and these are included. Can someone who knows the exact number of children of all the families do a count as well?

Family Picnic 2009

Thank you to all family of Doris who came together for the first annual family picnic held at Holbrook Heights Community Park, Concord, California, on what would have been her 99th birthday. Four of a possible five children of Doris were in attendance with most or all of their own families. Richard, Phil, Joy and Olie, all living in the Bay Area, were there. Personally, it was a thrill to look around and see the descendants of my mother all together for a good time. It was about 72*, sunny and breezy making sitting in circles in lawn chairs a pleasure. The pot luck was plentiful and varied. Some cooks thought they were cooking for the entire bunch of us and there was more than enough to share with the pool manager and lifeguards. I may just have a giant sign next year for the Centennial Reunion saying "COMMUNITY GAMES (I GET THE KIDS BEFORE THEY LEAVE FOR THE POOL)." Because a tournament of 3-legged race, beanbag toss, drop the clothes pin in the bottle, etc., did not happen I have all the prizes I was planning to give away stored for next year. Did anyone find a magnetic dart and beanbag? They were lost at the picnic. I propose beginning around 10 a.m. The children could sign up and already decide on a partner ahead of time and begin a triathlon by 11 a.m. in the pool before many people come, for a race either the length or width of the pool. Additionally, Oklahoma Centennial hats were donated with "100 Years" on them! I also forgot to give these away but did manage to give away the Giants cups for the children with the second name tag sticker attached. Elizabeth forgot hers if she still wants it. Because Richard, Rick, Evelania, Linda's family, the Roberts, the Genters, Donna's family, and I were in Oklahoma during their Centennial for Bev's funeral I'd like to offer a hat to all of us first at our Centennial Reunion. Otherwise, all extras will be given away in another drawing. I won't make you hang onto a sliver of paper next year. This was a dry run and just signing in was plenty without waiting for a number. Due to the unique creativity of Jade and Christine http://www.ourfamily2010.com/ was born. Please contribute your pictures, stories, and become a member. The signage was also Jade's idea, bought by Joy. T-shirts like the one I was wearing will be available for purchase for 2010 as soon as they're offered. Also, there's the matter of food. I chose to make Mother's jello salad and sure enough Joy noticed it. My husband Michael made a great chili for us, another of her favorite dishes. For 2010 and beyond it seems appropriate to take a look at my blog about Doris's Cooking and make one of the dishes she cooked regularly. There is also the idea of having someone BBQ for us and so we would need suggestions. Mexican sounds good to me even though we never ate it growing up. The side dishes we bring could be what she made, again from Doris's Cooking. I don't think I need to bring the 5-gallon orange water dispenser either since most had their own water and sodas. I could bring a smaller thermos though. I will be reserving the inside portion of Holbrook which includes 10 swimmers and 20 non-swimmers in the fee which by the way Joy has offered to pay. The reason we didn't play volleyball is because it was not set up by anyone. Also, what I thought was T-ball in a box was actually a pitching machine that required batteries! I also had miniature pool and checkers for playing at the tables. Any and all suggestions are welcome for 2010. I counted 40 members of Doris's family and one guest. I loved looking around seeing you enjoying yourselves, eating, laughing, Richard telling stories, visiting, sunbathing, playing ball with your children, playing with them at the playground, watching them swim or swimming yourself. I do laps a few times a week and love the pool. Thank you to Paul for helping collect borrowed tables, unloading, setting up the pop-up shade tent, manning the pinata which was a huge hit, and packing up everything with me. The Mecklers, then Paul and I were the last to leave. We've lived in Concord nine years June 3 and for the Centennial Reunion it will be our 10th year. So circle June 12, 2010, as soon as you can. For those who missed this year's picnic we look forward to seeing you next year.