Updates on Winton Cemetery

Pictured is the gate from Cypress Avenue, where you can enter the Winton Cemetery from the back. It's across from Winton Middle School.
The next picture shows how nice the cemetery is kept up. It's always green and there are lots of flowers on the graves left by family.
The good news for us out in cyberspace is the volunteers at The Tombstone Transcription Project are working on Merced County indexes. Go to the website and click on Merced. Scroll down to Winton and click on the camera. I have uploaded a few more pictures that were on my computer. I plan to visit the cemetery soon and take more photos to upload. If you have a picture of a tombstone, read the directions and have your picture displayed online. If the picture is not too large, it will show up in the index right away, with the last name and some numbers until they get a chance to finish indexing it.
I just found out the Winton Cemetery District has a website also. Click here to read more information about them, the Board Members, the employees, the servies they offer and the prices.

Family Visit

My daughter and her two teenage kids came for a visit Tuesday. They wanted to see the Merced County Fair. Before they moved to Orland, they lived in Merced and showed their dairy cows here. I am enjoying their visit. Yesterday my sister invited us to swim with her, so I took a picture of my grandchildren in the pool. After the swim we went to the Jantz Cafe for lunch. It was Wednesday, so we had free pie. Again! We met up with other relatives at the cafe and we managed to get a large table so the eight of us could have a good visit together. It was a very enjoyable day.

Friends

Seven people who retired from the Assesor's office met for lunch today. Well, actually, one is still working, six of us are retired. It was fun to catch up on what has been happening in our lives since the last time we saw each other. We decided that we need to do this more often. Three of us have lunch quite often, about once a month. Our husbands call us "The Golden Girls." It was fun having the larger group and we had a lot of laughs.
I decided not to mention any names, people who know us will recognize us.

Old Timers Reunion

The committee for the Winton Old Timers met today to plan the 48th annual reunion. It will be held September 28, 2008, the last Sunday of the month. Registration starts at 10:00 a.m. and lunch will be served at 1:00 p.m. This allows time for those wishing to attend church in the morning.
Tickets are $7.00 for adults and $4.00 for children under the age of 12.
Randy Heller, pictured above on the left, will again be in charge of the barbecue chicken. Also on the menu are baked beans, coleslaw, dinner rolls, beverages and desert.
Mike Crass will serve as MC. Those in attendance, 90 years or older will be honored with a special award to the oldest man and oldest woman. The person who traveled the farthest will also be honored.
We always have a good turn-out, people from out-of-town, out-of-state come to visit with friends they haven't seen in many years. No reservations are required. We never know from year to year who all will show up. Last year some locals who didn't go, were sorry to miss seeing out-of-state people. So, if you are a Wintonite or former Wintonite, please plan to attend.
The gathering will be at the Winton Middle School on Cypress Avenue, between Gertrude and Almond Avenue.
ALSO, bring your old pictures of Winton, people of Winton, etc. from the earliest days of Winton, up to 1975. They will be scanned into a computer while you wait and may be included in the next Winton history book.
The first Winton book, "Memories of Winton, 1911-1950" will be available for purchase at $35.00. A 530 page hardback book with 750 pictures. Many school pictures included.
Mark your calendar for Sunday, September 28, 2008. Click here to see more pictures from the 2007 Winton Old Timers Reunion. This will bring up thumbnail size pictures. Either click on any picture to see the enlargement or click on Detail, right under 2007 Winton Old Timers to see larger than thumbnail size and detail on some photos.

Dog Days of Summer

If these aren't the Dog Days of Summer, they sure feel like it. It's been well over 100 degrees for at least a week. Hate to think what the Hot August Nights will be like.
Yesterday my sister and I had appointments with our Reflexologist in Turlock, we both needed the treatments, so no way we were going to cancel. We got through just in time for an early lunch at the Jantz Cafe in Atwater. It's always so busy, especially Wednesdays at noon. They give you a free piece of pie with your lunch. We had Coconut Cream. Delicious!!
So, after an hour to rest our tummys at her place, we went swimming in the mobile home park's pool. It felt so good. It was the first time my sister has been swimming in 3 years. But it's been 13 years for me. I tried on my 15-year old bathing suit and was surprised that it was able to stretch enough to cover me.
No, sorry, there are no pictures. LOL. We had a great time in the water. Hated to get out, but didn't want to get a sunburn. Guess we'll have to try that again. We had the pool all to ourselves. I guess the others are smarter than to go in the pool in the hottest part of the day.

Geraniums

I used to have a collection of unusual Geraniums. My husband had someone build a lath house for them and I was thrilled with all the odd flowering geraniums I found to buy. Surprisingly, they were ordered from Kansas. I thought that was so amazing, I live in California and had to send to Kansas for Geraniums. I still have the 1976-77 catalog from Cook's Geranium Nursery in Lyons, Kansas. Wish I could still order from it. Last time I tried, years ago, I had returned mail. I have several books on the subject, my two favorites are "The Joy of Geraniums" by Helen Van Pelt Wilson and "All About Geraniums" by Peggie Schulz. Both out of print. So, I ordered a new Geranium book today, just to see what's new.
The variegated ivy-leaf Geranium with the white flower in the first picture is L'Elegante, from Kansas. One year I entered it in the Merced County Fair and got a Blue Ribbon. It was so pretty. They had it on a tall post and the long stems hung down with one little white flower on it. I don't remember the names of the orange and red flowered Geraniums.
The next picture is Mr. Wren, the flowers look like someone brushed red paint on the white petals. Very pretty, but a bit stingy with the flowers. The white one is "Noel" a cactus flowered Geranium.
The bottom picture is "Rouletta." The first time I saw that Ivy Geranium was in San Jose. A couple of friends went with me to Santa Cruz to watch the Marching 100 Band play in competition. My daughter was in it. After the parade, we looked up this Geranium Nursery in San Jose that I saw advertised in the little magazine that the International Geranium Society publishes. We bought a few plants from him, but the large beautiful Rouletta was not for sale. He only had the one plant. Later, he was selling all his Geraniums and my husband delighted in telling everyone who would listen that we drove all the way to San Jose and paid big money for Rouletta. It was my Mother's Day present and I loved it. This was in 1977. Now you can find Rouletta look-alikes quite often. Rouletta is a sport off of Mexican Beauty. Sometimes it will (or did) revert back to the plain dark red flowers.
I had many other favorites; the Stellars from Australia; the Phlox type; Bird's Egg with the tiny speckles; Tulip Flowered and the Painted Lady types. I had one called "Valentine" with pretty valentine shaped leaves and salmon-colored flowers. I had a few scented ones, "Mable Grey" was the strongest lemon scented one I've ever seen. If anyone knows where these unusual Geraniums can be ordered, please email me at CalifNative37@aol.com Thanks!! See more Geraniums at flickr.

Disaster in the Back Yard!

Well, sort of a disaster. Some people came over to pick apricots and peaches. When they left,I decided to water the fruit trees, the apricot looked especially dry. I was letting the water run slow and easy, so a couple of hours later I went out to turn off the water, just in time to see the Suncrest peach tree slowly tumble over.There wasn't anything I could do but watch it. It's too bad that it was the next tree to ripen, so I know I will miss that tree. The only good thing about it is that it was near the middle of the yard and I don't want fruit trees planted there any more. Just along the fence. So, I don't know when I will replace the early peach tree. I still have Flavorcrest, the earliest one.
Maybe I should get an early genetic dwarf peach. I don't think they get over 6 feet tall. I'm going to try to save the peaches, they were close to being ripe, maybe in 2-3 weeks.
Well, this might be a blessing in disguise. Eventually I could have grass planted in the back yard and hire someone to mow it. Cut down on the number of fruit trees. Hey, I could live here forever and not worry about all the yardwork.

Winton Cemetery

This is a picture that I took recently of the office at the Winton Cemetery. The office faces Almond Avenue and is just past Cypress Avenue, going west on Almond from Winton Way. There is another entrance from Cypress, but the main gates are on Almond.
The employees in the office are very helpful and will give you a map and mark the spot where the person is buried that you are looking for.
I've taken many pictures of the tombstones and sent them to rootsweb. Recently the cemetery website at rootsweb was moved to genweb. Click here for the link to California Cemetery Registration. Click on the county of your choice. They are still in the process of moving the pictures of the tombstones to the new location.
I am toying with the idea of posting my relatives tombstone pictures somewhere else on the web, but am still undecided. I did post a few at flickr, but not sure if that is a good idea. Maybe by the time I make up my mind, they will have them up at genweb. LOL
July 24 --
Hereld is the coordinator for the Merced County, California CAGenWeb genealogy and history website, there are many pictures of tombstones, taken by others at the Winton Cemetery. If you don't find the photo you are looking for at the other website, you may find it here.
I am willing to take digital pictures of tombstones at the Winton Cemetery and send them to the requestor by email. They would also be submitted to the above website. email me at CalifNative37@aol.com