Greetings from Endicott, NY

We've enjoyed your blogging. Haven't had much chance to post. Mark's been working a lot of hours as Lockheed goes through their "force reduction" and I've been volunteering at Sports for Health, a kind of "summer camp" for adult visually impaired participants.

We had a lot of fun when Larry and Melia came back east (and Alan, Bette, and Aunt Jean came out west?). Here's a photo of Melia and Tierney out for breakfast after a hellish bike ride. At least they have a good story to tell.

An old picture...

Found this a while ago on my last move... If you remember Bette, you could tell us what the occasion was?

Love,
Karen

Photos from Jerauld A. Manter

Here is a link to Connecticut History online, http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cdm-cho/search.php

Where it says Find Results with and enter Jerauld Manter under "all of the words", you will find 300+ photographs that Great Grampie took during his long career at UCONN as a campus unoffical photographer. I've visited the site before, and saved many pictures for myself. It's great to see where the love of photography history came from for our family.

Love,
Karen

Does anyone recognize this? Remember Stories?

NC Update

After three days of rain (which we desperately needed)....the sun is shining and the birds are singing! I'll take that! Larry, you didn't tell me that the flight home was bumpy! Melia, did you take J.T. to watch Harry Potter with you?

Have a great weekend, everyone! No races tomorrow.....going out on the boat!!!

Great Grandpa and Stanley (Storrs)

I was hoping to find a Manter croquet tournament in the slide archives, but it hasn't emerged yet. In the meantime, here's Grandpa and Stanley in our back yard (I think it wasn't at Gurleyville, but it's possible) playing Jarts. It was never the same as croquet, but Grandpa loved his lawn games!

This picture came through Cory; he took a digital camera picture of a slide shown on the screen and given all the mediation it went through, it's not that bad. Carlye now owns a gizmo that goes directly from slide to create a jpeg file, but she can't find this slide. It's a slow process, but I'm grateful that they are doing this. When married to Steve for 15 years, everything was on slides and that means all of our family gatherings and kids growing are unavailable to me!

It is strange to imagine those days; slides were cheaper than developing a whole roll of film and then we could make prints of only the good ones. This was more in ideal than in practice - we almost never actually took slides in to make prints! As a result I have very few pictures from that time and I love to see them. I thought some of you might enjoy seeing Grandpa and my dad too.

From Minnesota

I just wanted to check in quickly. I'm in Minnesota, visiting family, going to a niece's wedding, and also attending a conference.

My mom recently moved to an apartment in the same town, so us kids are getting started on doing some repairs and cleaning out the house. The best part of the house is the view from the dining room table -- the Mississippi river.

JT meets the Obama's!!

Here is the West coast Manter's first travel experience with JT. He was fortunate to meet the Obama's during our layover in DC!

What’s in a Gnome?

For those who do not know, Jerry the Gnome (J.T.) has traveled around quite a bit and left his mark on the planet. In honor of Jerauld T. Manter, J.T. continues the tradition of world travel. A year ago, J.T. began a journey with Alan and me and we left some of Uncle Jerry’s ashes along the way. The full story will unfold over time, but this weekend we passed J.T. along to Larry to continue his journeys. Our ultimate goal is to get a Legacy family video out of this!

In this series, we have arrived at the airport and J.T. doesn't understand that they don't serve Gnomes. What to do? Finally, J.T. settles for a sip of water.

After a long wait, J.T. boards the plane and is set for take off. He's really excited! Off to Poland via Germany!

Hello from Boise

What's up Manters? Not much here. Just pumping up the jam. Bringing the awesome.

- JERRY R.

Grandpa's Gnat

My brother commented on the manteri-bug under J.T. meets W and I didn't want others to miss it. How many of us recall this lovely family relative? Does it bug you?

Flight home

Melia and I had a good flight back to California. On our brief layover in DC, JT was fortunate enough to meet Mr & Mrs Obama, photo to follow. Melia was anxious to get home to attend the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie with her friends so I need to stay awake so I can pick her up at 3am. It was great seeing everyone. Our short visit together had many highlights including my quality bathroom time with Allen and Aunt Jean's cycling demonstration. I look forward to reading every ones blog input.

The Gang of Eight

So, Why a blog devoted to the Manter clan and extended family? Well, it is something that we decided to try as an experiment when we were in in Bingo-land on Sunday, July 12.

The "gang" included Alice, Jean, Larry, Bette, Carol, Mark, Alan and Melia (roughly ordered by seniority, not status). We were talking in the living room about how wonderful it is when we catch up, but how hard it is to do. For example, I have not seen Larry and Melia since Uncle Jerry died 2 1/2 years ago! In an age of constant communication, it seemed like we should try to do better, and the Manter-Blog was born.

Ours was a short trip for the Storrs bunch; Mom, Alan and I zoomed in for dinner on Saturday and left by 7 pm Sunday, but it was a great visit. Under Carol's guidance we played a classic Manter tournament of Croquet, introducing Melia to the tradition. Carol kicked some serious croquet butt!

We also made a trip to Uncle Jerry's memorial tree in the local park, which was our first visit. The various modes of conveyance included car, foot and bike. Jean even had a brief turn on the bicycle - video to follow when finalized!

The success of this project depends on ALL of us. Our life (Alan and I) is far too dull to maintain interest. With all the siblings, cousins and second cousins and in-laws, there is much to report.

And so, perhaps it is fitting that I wish to dedicate this blog in memory of Jerauld A. Manter, who began the tradition of historical recording via journals, photos and movies. This rich tradition has continued in his kin. Besides, I don't know of anyone else in the family who has a bug named in their honor: Apemon manteri.

J.T. meets W.

Here is Jerry The Gnome (J.T. for short) greeting the former POTUS.

This Blog is dedicated to keeping our small family informed about anything we wish, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Please be generous with photos, videos and stories to make us all want to come back and visit often!