I turned
fifty a few weeks ago. My family and coworkers completely humbled me with an
outpouring of love and good cheer that still warms my heart when I think about
it. I am a very fortunate person and I
want to celebrate my fiftieth year with a series of events, not just a single
party. I’m hoping to use my fiftieth
years as a catalyst to get out and do some things I haven’t taken the time to do
in the past. There are rivers to fish, trails
to hike, brush to crash through, and road trips to take. With my 50th looming, I had been thinking
about how this all would work and I decided it would be more fun to have a theme,
something to tie things together.
One night
while I was sitting around the house, tossing ideas around in my head, I noticed
the bronze plaque that sits on our counter amongst the framed family photos and
memorabilia. It features the relief image of my grandfather, Ira Edward Fritz,
seated, and drinking a cup of coffee.
This plaque was cast and designed by my late uncle Hugo sometime in the mid-1970s. He took the image from a photo of Ira and
cast it into an 8 inch diameter bronze “coin” with the words “Patriarch Ike” written
above and below his torso. It’s a
classic pose that those of us who knew Ike were familiar with. This was a pose he struck often in the summer
while sitting on the side porch at The Hills, our family property located in
the foothills of the Olympic Mountains east and south of Sequim.
Ira Fritz
married Ida Hokanson and they formed the nucleus of the modern Fritz clan, of
which I am a member. The Fritz clan has
grown over the years and now includes a vast array of kin that numbers around
30 or 40 folks. Ira and
Ida—affectionately known as Ike and Peggy—had three daughters, Irene, Dorothy
and Carolyn who in turn had nine kids of which I am the youngest. My mother, Irene, passed away 30 years ago;
Carolyn and Dorothy are still active and play pivotal roles in our extended
family. We gather each summer for a long
weekend of feasting and fun at the Fritz Family Farm—AKA The Hills—which is the
remaining homestead property where Ike was born and raised.
Ike was the
stoic patriarch of my extended family. After
retiring, he and Peggy spent considerable time at The Hills keeping it fixed up
and running smoothly. As a kid I spent
large blocks of time with them each summer. Not only was I taken to a lot of
cool spots, like secret mushroom patches, old logging roads where you were
assured to jump a grouse or two in the fall, creeks full of little trout, and
berry patches, I heard all the “back-in-the-day” stories that included
references to many of these locales along with even more fishing spots, hunting
camps and other important places across the local landscape.
As I muddle through this year I want to reacquaint myself with the Fritz family cultural geography. Perhaps even update it a little. Just to make things more interesting I plan to carry the bronze of Ike with me on these outings to commemorate my 50th year and provide a tangible connection to my family. Reports to follow.
