Wonder Valley

This is a letter that Leslie Van Houten had written to me on September 28, 2005.

This was after I had already returned home to New York from my trip to Chatsworth California in late August of 2005.

This is an interesting letter because Leslie is looking back at pictures of the town of Monrovia where she grew up and she’s looking back on her early days before her life would be thrown into turmoil.

It’s the human side of her that many people just don’t get to see for themselves.

The reference to the “Gate and the Benches” are items that are at the old Spahn Ranch site now that were not there in Leslie’s time at the Spahn Ranch.

Also, on Page 2, Leslie comments about a smudge mark being on the paper that was put there when she was eating some pepperoni food item. I like how she’s a stickler for details

Also, the “Mark Twain” reference is about a statue of Mark Twain sitting on a bench that i saw across from a Pizza Parlor on Myrtle Avenue that i stopped off at to grab a bite to eat.

The reference to “The Shirt” is about the Light Blue Patterened shirt that i had on in the photographs that i sent to her while i was up at the old spahn ranch site.

The contents of the letter by page reads as follows:

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Letter Transcript – Page 1:

Hi Jim,

Geez – I cannot believe another week has gone by. I would
imagine it is going to be a little crazy for me for the next
few weeks. But i have to admit – it’s been really good to
have something new – taking my mind somewhere else. This is a very challenging job and after all the newness we ars away. I believe i am really going to enjoy it.

I haven’t answered your letter fully yet and I hope to soon.
I mostly want you to know that I have really enjoyed the
pictures. The hotel is really nice. I have enjoyed seeing
all the changes in Monrovia.

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Letter Transcript – Page 2:

And then some buildings are clearly the same old ones. I
wonder why they have Mark Twain sitting there.
(Geez – I think that smudge is pepperoni fingers – sorry)
Anyway, I am surprised that Monrovia is so old. I should
have known it – or forgot it looks so pretty and not at all
how I felt it was when I was young – Thank you for sending
these pictures.

The Radisson is really nice – It all looks so nice. I know
I keep saying it but it’s all so clean. I’m used to the
dinge of prison. I didn’t realize.

I’m staying up to watch the news because the chatsworth/
Simi Valley area is on fire and I wanted to tell you
exactly where. You know the area better than I do these
days. The hills there are really lovely – I loved those rocks.

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Letter Transcript – Page 3:

I really was taken back by the beauty of the canyon photos.
You are right – the rock formations really are something to
see. No wonder you were so sunburned. You really did some serious hiking.

Back to Monrovia – Since when did theaters show so many
movies? How in the world does someone make up their minds? Who ever it was that kept Monrovia going certainly did a good job. It looks like a lovely little town. I wonder how
much impact the free way has on all that – ya know?

Did you ever use the pool or excercise room at the hotel?
I wonder how many people actually use rooms like that when they are on vacation?

Somehow, I just

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Letter Transcript – Page 4:

don’t think you did that much. Be honest now.

Ok the news is coming on. So – let me tell you what’s
burning.

1200 acres near chatsworth. Evacuation for Box Canyon.
Santa Susana Pass – It’s all the brush – you know? It’s so
dry there. Bell Canyon – which i have never heard of. Yeah,
it’s all the old brush – the chaparral – It’s really roaring
and we have the Santa Ana winds going on right now. Geez – here I am looking at these pictures and it is similar to the ones on TV that are burning. I like the ones with you
in them. Hey – I know that shirt – Kinda cool. Even though
you explained it – I couldn’t figure out the gates and
benches – oh well. I suppose that’s all progress.

Let me close for tonight. I will hopefully write soon.
You take care

Les

Next day 17000 acres

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I’ve said before that an appreciation for the beauty, and danger, of nature is crucial – in my view – to the development of children, and that I would be doing my family a disservice if I did not get them out in to the wilderness for this kind of exercise and adventure. Well, a long drive to southern Utah afforded us a great opportunity to venture through some of the really marvelous creations nature has given us. Goblin Valley Utah is a real wonder! If you live anywhere near it, or can take a long detour as you pass through, I highly recommend you visit this beautiful valley full of the most interesting sandstone rock formations I have ever seen. If at all possible, visit the park with kids; they’ll absolutely love it!

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wvccgirl09http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/wvccgirl09Peoplesummer, 2009, Large, salem, indiana, wonder, valley, christian, camp, teens, kids, fun, people, teen, week, dan, owsley, elizabeth, familyWonder Valley Christian Camp 2009

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9 Mahine 9 Divas – Marathi Movie – Featuring Sanjay Narvekar, Makarand Anaspure, Nirmiti Sawant, Pooja Naik & Gautami Davastali. Producer – Tanaji Jadhav, Directed by – Jaisingh Thakur, Music by – Ajit Parab. 9 Mahine 9 Divas is a rib-ticking movie that rotates around an oath taken by Suhasini Deshmukh. From past seven generations, not a single child is born in the Deshmukh family. The couples of Deshmukh family would adopt a child and hence the family would get its heir generation after generation. Suhasini Deshmukh is the eldest of all in the family. Once, Suhasini�s friend insults her. Hence, Suhasini swears that her daughter-in-law will give birth to a child and that to within a year! To fulfill Suhasini�s desire, her brother Doctor Shriram takes up the challenge by giving Mukund and Komal proper Ayurvedic treatment. Will he succeed in making the impossible, possible!? Watch to catch the fun and drama!

Duration : 2:10:49

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Take a woman fresh out of college, plop her down in Silicon Valley, saddle her with a mortgage, let her ride the tech boom, give her three babies in four years, slap her with the tech bust, watch vicariously as her marriage disintegrates, end her career, and hand her a computer. What do you get? Mommy Confidential: Adventures from the Wonder-belly of Motherhood, a memoir in real time adapted from Mindy Roberts’ wildly popular weblog, The Mommy Blog.

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BlackTree TV’s own Erica O’Young and Jamaal Finkley braved the traffic, crowds and the thousands of law enforcement officers to bring you coverage of the Michael Jackson Memorial live this morning from Staples Center. Of course you should stay tuned to http://www.blacktree.tv for more exclusive clips, but we will be uploading reacitons from the streets and parts of the celebration that you may not have caught on network tv. Thank you for watching and stay tuned to BlackTree TV. R.I.P. MJ…..

July 7, 2009
Los Angeles Gears Up for Michael Jackson Memorial
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

LOS ANGELES — After winning a random drawing for tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial, fans danced and sang on Monday, and some tried to make a buck, while city officials girded for the throngs expected to show up at the Tuesday event, invited or not.

As organizers distributed free pairs of tickets on Monday to 8,750 of the more 1.6 million people who had applied online for them, offers of tickets priced from a few hundred to several thousand dollars appeared on Web sites like eBay and Craigslist. Site administrators rushed to remove the postings, saying such sales were not authorized by the Staples Center, the downtown arena that will host the event. Organizers of the memorial said they were confident security measures would limit illegitimate ticket holders.

But the efforts at selling tickets, as well as signs of downtown hotels filling and the police preparing for thousands of people, if not more, by ringing a security perimeter around the event, added to a sense that the memorial was taking on shades of spectacle.

Late Monday night, local television broadcast live images of Jackson family members and others arriving and departing from Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, a San Fernando Valley cemetery studded with celebrity graves where Mr. Jackson’s private service is expected Tuesday morning. A hearse was seen driving from one building to another, backing nearly into it through a large entrance way where men then removed a coffin covered by a dark cloth.

The official list of participants in the service for Mr. Jackson, who died suddenly on June 25 at 50 of undetermined causes, included some of the biggest names in music, past and present, including Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson and Usher. More than a dozen television channels, including the big broadcast networks, planned live coverage of the memorial, which is set for 10 a.m. California time on Tuesday.

Elizabeth Taylor, one of Mr. Jacksons closest friends, sent word through her Twitter feed that she had turned down an offer to speak to avoid what she called the public whoopla.

Debbie Rowe, a former wife of Mr. Jackson and the mother of two of his three children, changed her mind about attending, saying through a spokeswoman that the onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction. Ms. Rowe, who was shown on local television Monday screaming and cursing at photographers trailing her near her home, has not announced whether she will seek custody of the children, whom Mr. Jackson had wanted raised by his mother, or failing that, Diana Ross.

Mr. Jacksons body will not be at the memorial. There were reports that he would be buried Tuesday before the memorial at a cemetery in the San Fernando Valley. A large squad of police and security officers was at the cemetery, but officials declined to comment.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is the citys acting mayor while Antonio R. Villaraigosa is on vacation this week, said she believed the city was ready for the event, though she had not received any responses to her pleas for private donors to offset the citys costs, which she said were expected to include overtime for the police, transportation and sanitation departments.

First Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said a substantial number of police officers would be deployed to control a crowd he said could include least 100,000 people. Some people are coming in from around the world to be part of it, Chief McDonnell said. They just want to be close to it.

The tickets were among the most coveted in a town with no shortage of big entertainment.

It is important to know, she said. This is an unprecedented event for L.A.

http://www.blacktree.tv

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Hello and welcome to the Dahl Family’s space,
We are a family of eleven heading down the Pan-American highway this November to Costa Rica.

You may be saying why Costa Rica?
Well because our father ( Randolph D. Dahl Sr. ) sees Costa Rica not just as a destination but as a “state of mind.”

Back when our grandfather passed away, when our father was only fourteen years old, our father’s family looked at him as a rebel and sent him away to Valley Forge Military Academy there he met his good friend Don Rodrigo Debedot a native Costa Rican.

Our father was getting to know his new friend a little better although it was difficult at times because Rodrigo spoke very little English and our father spoke no Spanish.

Our father at fourteen had no idea there was such a place as the Rich Cost. In the one year our father spent in Valley Forge he learned more and more about Rodrigo and his native country by teaching Rodrigo to speak English .The boys began to build a bond that would last for many years.

After our father left Valley Forge he had lost contact with Rodrigo but carried on through life just the same.
He met our mother, Mary K. Dahl in 1972. They were friends for three years and got married in 1975 and three years later in 1978 they had their first child, Randolph D. Dahl Jr. After Randy they had eight more children: Andrew, Chattele, Joseph, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Adolph, Katherine and then finally Mary.
Mom and Dad topped out at six boys and three girls a total of nine children.
Our father finally got back in touch with Rodrigo in the year of 1995 and went to visit him in Costa Rica
That was the first time our father has ever been to Costa Rica and where he first found his “state of mind”

Our first road trip as a family was full of photographs and unforgettable memories. It was during early spring of 1998. We traveled from our home in Pennsylvania; the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, to the sands of southern Florida beach. We traveled on through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas we visited the Alamo then drove through New Mexico and Arizona. When in California we visited the famous Alcatraz prison and headed back toward the bright lights of Nevada to start our return trip. On our way home we traveled through Utah and Colorado and saw the many miles of wind mills throughout Kansas. After visiting Missouri we stopped for a visit in the windy city of Illinois where our trip was cut short do to the news that the first grandchild had been born on Independence Day . We excitedly rushed through Ohio back to Pennsylvania to see the new baby.
All these events are remembered as “The Road Trip Of 98″

In the year of 1999 our father was at it again, but this time he wanted the whole gang to go. At this point our family had grown from eleven to fourteen, with a new daughter -in- law and two grandbabies. Our father took us to Costa Rica which is where we finally understood the “state of mind” he had always talked about.
We stepped out of the airport to find a world full of color and excitement waiting to be discovered. Throughout all are travels it is agreed that there is NO place like Costa Rica and it is truly a quixotic utopia.

So here we are again in the year 2007 hungry for another adventure. Since the road trip of 98 was full of family bounding and Costa Rica is so full of wonder and excitement Dad thought it would be a good idea to combined the two and drive from our home on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania to San Jose Cost Rica. We are taking a city transit bus which we converted into a comfortable coach that will take us through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and last but not least our “state of mind” Costa Rica. ETD thirty-seven day and counting.
Many trials and triumphs as a family will follow which is why we will be filming this trip and posting them on our website.
check us out at www.myspace.com/thedahlfamily

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http://www.instablogs.com/
Definite edge

The American voter it seems is all determined to punish the Republican Party for their follies. spent last eight years of his presidency fighting the battle between good and evil only to leave the office without any signs of victory. His administrations foreign entanglements led him to neglect economic and social policy. He inherited a surplus budget only to be spent on defense and tax cuts for the rich leaving a huge deficit as the country entered a recession. A very sad legacy indeed, after two years in office. The long election campaign has tested the characters of both candidates, especially when global economic crisis struck has won that contest easily. His policy prescriptions, essentially a redistributive tax agenda, were fairer and more responsible than Mr. McCain’s panicky pledge of tax-cuts. Surely, the Democratic candidate has refuted the strongest argument against his candidacy – that he lacked leadership stature.

No to immigration tests

Every election Winston Peters roles out the same old xenophobic rubbish. New Zealand need not introduce an immigration test since without immigration NZ would die a slow death. In 2000 Statistics NZ issued a report that without immigration there would be more deaths than births by 2050. Further, NZ is crying out for skilled people to replace those skilled Kiwis shifting to Australia, UK and elsewhere following higher pay than here. Right now many regions in NZ cannot attract skilled labor unless they search offshore. Multicultural nations are having big time e.g. US and Canada. The former welcomes people from the around the world that are talented. E.g. Silicon Valley has many Indian nationals making it an economic wonder. US has become world leader in many high tech industries through the influx of people around the world. NZ cannot afford to turn its back on talented people who can help build it into a stronger nation? It is repugnant to see our senior citizens coming out in droves to support such statements.

Pay up!!

Nepal’s former royal family owes the Nepal Electricity Authority nearly $US1 million of overdue electricity bills. Nepal Electricity Authority has given 15 days ultimatum to pay the unpaid huge electricity bills, which were supplied to the 22 palaces and bungalows. The company did not say exactly how much the king owed, since the government has nationalized at least seven of those palaces including the main Narayanhiti palace, which Gyanendra left in June after newly elected national assembly declared the Himalayan nation a republic at its first meeting. But Gyanendra and his relatives still own many bungalows and palaces in Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal that have not paid their power bills. The electricity authority cuts off the electricity of common people if they don’t clear the dues in a short period but due to the power, former royal family has betrayed the country. The dues needs to be clear soon, otherwise legal actions should be taken.
http://www.instablogs.com/

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