A Brief History of Marta K. Rose and Immediate Family
|
So far, I have experienced over fifty orbits of this Earth, this visit. I am the eldest of five children born to...
|
Somewhere in Colorado, I have a cousin who has been tracing the family tree for decades. She has employed the paper from several trees pursuing this. My Father's family was Danish; all had arrived in the United States of America by 1920. My mother's family heritage was French/German.
Parents of Mary Clare Flanders (and my Aunt Eleanor) were Lawrence and Eva Flanders (early and latest available photo-scans welcomed).
Parents of Charles Poulsen (also my Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Frank) were Paul and Magdalena Poulsen (if you have photos, please scan and send to me).
|
My parents, Charles & Mary Poulsen
|
|
When I was in the 4th grade, we moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was a great lot of fun for the five of us. Though we had had a lot of snow in Omaha in the winters, we now had access to rivers and lakes. These made enough snow in the winter for snow forts manned by huge snowmen, defending with a gazillion snow cannon. I can distinctly recall the winter aroma of wet wool, drying on the radiator. In the summer, we had high adventures in the park, which included a railroad train switching station. Green Bay is where I began hoping for experiences with flight.
From Wisconsin, we moved to Lafayette, Indiana. Over the ensuing years, I have moved into and out of Indiana several times. I went to Lafayette Jefferson High School, graduated in 1964. Indiana's "passion" is High School basketball. Jefferson High School won the State Basketball championship in 1964. The entire school body was hoarse from the cheering for a week afterwards! That year, I saw my first hot-air balloons "up close and personal". The calm grandeur of those floating rainbow bubbles from heaven caused me to decide that one-day I would fly one. Not take a ride, but pilot one.
I went to Purdue University for a couple years, met my first husband.
With that decade came the magic of becoming a parent myself. I gave birth to my cherished children,
Monica, Christa and Rob.
During the marriage, we traveled with his job. First to Southern California, then to Scottsdale Arizona, and eventually Fort Worth, Texas. In Texas, I began going to college-again. I did manage to become a Registered Nurse.
There was a divorce. He moved back to Indiana, taking the children with him. So I followed him.
In Fort Worth, I attended a hot-air balloon rally and was "allowed" to help with a balloon on the field.
In Indiana, I successfully obtained permanent custody of the children, and we proceeded to live ordinary lives, having adventures along the way. Christa and Rob were finally "launched", either having graduated college, or within a year of it. They lived in Chicago and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I had gone back to college too, and I was nearly finished.
The kids had heard me discourse on hot-air ballooning for so long that they gave me a gift of a paid ride. I "cashed" this in during the weekend of Rob's graduation from University of North Carolina.
That ride included a CRASH landing. I subsequently have learned that it was a miracle that no one was hurt on that landing. All I remember was that I had to get back into one.
When I finished the Masters degree (Nurse Practitioner) at Indiana University, I prepared to leave Indiana. My neighbor's son was cute and fun, and about 8 years younger. He convinced me to marry him.
We moved to New Mexico. Within one month of arriving, I discovered this area has the second highest per capita number of hot air balloons in the country. (Albuquerque is the first-in the world).
I began to "crew" for pilots. Then one day, the bank manager/balloon pilot said he didn't know what they were going to do with the balloon since the merger (that happens a lot out here, banks committing "merger"!). I told him I would buy it. And so I did. But I hadn't yet learned to fly!!
I traded my last husband for a hot air-balloon (MoonRose), and it was the best trade I ever made!!
I found an affable instructor, and we began the adventure of my life. I even began to write about some of my experiences in periodicals such as The CloudBouncer (www.hotairballooning.org), Champagne Tales (e-mail: hconnell@zianet.com), and Ballooning Magazine (www.bfa.net).*
I am still flying … physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Soft Landings,
Marta Rose
PS: I've added a few of my favorite family photos (below) from my old adobe-textured web site.
PPS: You'll see that the word "grandchild" is now an active part of my vocabulary too.
* see my MoonRose Page for those and other related media items.
Charles & Mary
|
My parents...
Charles Martin Poulsen
(22/Jul/1922 - Jul/1992)
Mary Clare Flanders
(31/Aug/1922 - 21/Apr/2002)
Both of my parents were born in Omaha, Nebraska.
[Text to be posted]
|
Marta - about 1 year of age
Marta
- more recently
|
Marta (me)...
Marta K. Rose
Born near the mid 1900s ;-)
I was the first of five child born to Charles and Mary. |
|
My brother, Gene...
Gene Martin Poulsen
(22/Jan/1947 - 5/Nov/2002)
Growing up, Gene was the next child after me, so he was my first little buddy.
We hadn't seen him draw or paint in a long while, yet his interest in furthering his artistic skills was obvious, due to the fact that I uncovered two new airbrush sets in his house (after his passing in the fall of 2002). It was Gene's vividly detailed and uncommon views on life from multi-vibrational layers or points of perspective that I recall and cherish still.
He has helped me to better understand some other people I've met along my path. As truth and one's experienced reality are always felt from the inner observer uniquely, and are not completely shared by others.
The tiny scanned images (at left under the photo of Gene and Dad) are notes Gene made, possibly for us to better peek into another potential point of view. He recorded in some detail those possibly more rarified of observations onto dinner napkins tucked neatly in an aged envelope (found after his passing) marked "Secret Stuff".
The tiny detailed sketches and thoughtful verbiage he used to delineate motion and images were quite amazing. It is interesting how even the people we grow up with can have quiet perspectives, observations and interests we may be unaware of. I value his choice to subtly find his own way to share some of his world with us.
Christa transcribed the very alien text from hand-written double-sided, thin, translucent, napkin notes, which was a fairly arduous task, as you will see if you care to read Gene's "Secret Stuff"... more>>>
|
Kara, the early years
Kara at the beach
Kara found her joy in gliding
|
My sister, Kara...
Kara Sue Thompson
(31/Dec/1950 - 13/Jul/1994)
My sister Kara and I shared a dream ... to fly.
She realized her dream in a glider, and I found
mine in a hot-air balloon.
Eventually, I owned and
piloted my first hot-air balloon named MoonRose,
a lyric from a song --"All My Life's a Circle"-- that Kara an I
both loved. And in this way I chose to dedicate MoonRose
to Kara, who didn't live long
enough in this world this time around to see me fly. Yet,
when I fly, I feel her close.
All my life's a circle;
Sunrise and sundown;
Moon rose thru the nighttime;
Till the daybreak comes around.
All my life's a circle;
But I can't tell you why;
Season's spinning round again;
The years keep rollin' by.
It seems like I've
been
here before;
I can't remember when;
But I have this funny feeling;
That we'll all be together again.
No straight lines
make up
my life;
And all my roads have bends;
There's no clear-cut beginnings;
And so far no dead-ends.
[Chorus]:
I found you a thousand times;
I guess you've done the same;
But then we lose each other;
It's like a children's game;
As I find you here again;
A thought runs through
my mind;
Our love is like a circle;
Let's go 'round one more time.
[Repeat Chorus]:
I found you a thousand times;
I guess you've done the same;
But then we lose each other;
It's like a children's game.
—Circle lyrics by Harry Chapin
|
Lara (a.k.a. "Lolly")
"Lolly"
|
My sister, "Lolly"...
Lara Beth Evans
(05/Apr)
[Text to be posted]
|
Sara
- the earlier years
Sara
|
My sister, Sara...
Sara Jane Matheny
(11/Jul)
[Text to be posted]
|
Monica
|
My daughter, Monica
Monica
(--/----)
[Text to be posted] |
Christa
Christa up close
Ray, Mickey, Christa
Christa & Ray
Ray is a musician too
|
My daughter, Christa and family
Christa Wessel
[23/Feb]
Christa was raised in both Indiana and Texas, and with a few years as an International speaker (full-time classical announcer), she thus considers herself lucky to have escaped any sort of overly weird regional accent.
You can hear her between the tunes Nationally via affiliate FM Radio stations, C & KU Satellite, Bands, the first "audio-only" Broadband, as well as via the WorldWide Internet at WCPE
(TheClassicalStation.org).
She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University where she studied French Horn performance and Arts Administration. She still tootles her horn from time to time with the Durham Symphony Orchestra.
(www.durhamsymphony.org)
Classical music is her first love, but she has also been known to travel the world following rock star David Byrne (from the Talking Heads). Christa arranged to interview David in 1997.
(www.singintomymouth.com/ byrne/david.html)
In addition to her work at WCPE she also volunteers her announcing skills at WXDU-FM, Duke University's community radio station, where she hosts the Thursday evening program, "Divaville," (www.divaville.org) featuring the swinging jazz vocalists from the big band era. And she is quite a kick herself!
My daughter's guy, Ray...
Ray Ubinger
(18/Jun)
Ray was born in Pittsburgh, PA and is a resident of Durham since 1992. He works at Duke Medical Center as a clinical data assistant in cardiology research. And before that he was an Army Lieutenant (1987-1991).
More recently he has become active in politics, due in part since it is becoming more evident that many elections have traditionally been rigged. The tallies in many areas are even openly falsified. Thirteen current Durham officials claim to have won UNANIMOUSLY. Ray sees the fraudulent situation as primarily coming from an illegal ban on write-in voting, passed by the G.A. in 1987.
Ray has ranked himself on political scale as Libertarian... being extremely liberal on social issues, yet, extremely conservative on economic issues. His site can be seen at: www.governyourself.com
Ray recommends this link for the "World's Smallest Political Quiz" at: www.lp.org/quiz
Other of Ray's interests are bicycling around town (especially to and from work), music performance (voice, violin), Opera Co. of NC and Durham Savoyards, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Libertarian Party, Constitution Gang, John Galt, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (on TV),
and his favorite book is currently A Country With No Name: Tales from the Constitution (Sebastian de Grazia).
Christa figures Ray is lovable enough and yet odd enough to be concidered part of the family too... I agree.
|
Rob - color was unstable in many sixties' photos
Rob
Rob & Lulu
My granddaughter, Roxi
|
My son, Rob and family
Rob Wessel
(--/----)
[Text to be posted]
My daughter-in-law and
Rob's wife, "Lulu"
Elizabeth Wessel
(--/----)
She goes by "Lulu" ...
My granddaughter, "Roxi"
Roxanne Olivia Wessel
(5/Jul/2004)
[Text to be posted]
|
Jasmine (Joy's daughter) and Joy
|
My niece, Joy
Joy...
[Birth date]
Joy is the only daughter of my sister, Sara.
Shawn, Joy's husband
[Birth date]
[Text to be posted]
Jasmine, Joy's daughter
[Birth date]
[Text to be posted] |
| |
My niece, Valerie
[Birth date]
Valerie is the daughter of my sister, Lara.
|
my guard cats
|
And finally...
...are my cats family too?
[Text to be posted]
|
The 4 Questions of Value
My gift to you for visiting my Family Page.
With your mouse's curser over the image above,
right-click, then from your alternative menu,
choose "Save Picture As...", etc.
Or click on the gray title to access a
higher-resolution (300 pixels per inch) version.
There may be other photos of interest to be found in the PHOTO GALLARIES PAGE.
Gene and dad 
.jpg){kind=link}
