Shepard Family Update October 30, 2009

.

There is nothing funny about Halloween.

This sarcastic festival reflects, rather,

an infernal demand for revenge

by children on the adult world.

~Jean Baudrillard

Hello Shepard Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from Anacortes, Washington where I find myself on this rainy weekend of Halloween! I am here to celebrate the birthday of my mother Maida Shepard. This Sunday, on the day after Halloween frighteningly enough, she will turn 85. She is nothing short of a saint in my book, which is only fitting since her birthday each year coincides with All Saints Day.  

Maida Gower was born in Mountain View, Arkansas but grew up in Okemah, Oklahoma before moving to San Diego just in time to finish High School. San Diego is where she met and married the young sailor Eugene Shepard (see the picture on the right). They had been married for 58 years when he died in 2003. She is the senior member of our particular part of the Shepard family, with children, grandchildren, and Ggrandchildren spread out across Washington, California, Texas and elsewhere.

Since this is a special birthday for Maida, I have put together a slide show of pictures of her over the years. Select this link to see the birthday slide show.

Happy Birthday today to Pam (Engan) Shepard, also of Anacortes. Pam is a member of that unique group of women who are daughters-in-law of Maida. Pam has been married to Maida's youngest son Russell Shepard for 23 years. They are the proud parents of Steven and Linda Shepard. The picture on the left shows the two birthday girls for this weekend, Maida and Pam, in a picture that was taken in the summer of 2008.

Happy Halloween! Last week I included a Halloween slide show of costumed family members over the years and invited you to figure out who those people were. Even though no one knew who everyone was, some of you made some good guesses. Here are the identities of the people in the slide show: 1 - Russ Shepard; 2 - Nathan and Cindy Shepard; 3 - Rachel Shepard; 4 - Gary Shepard (1952!); 5 and 6 - Nathan; 7 - Barbara Shepard; 8 - Nathan; 9 - Linda Shepard; 10 - Patrick Shepard; 11 - Nathan; 12 - Bura Shepard; 13 - Cindy and Steve Shepard (1980); 14 - Jeremy Ortiz; 15 - Nathan; 16 - Cindy and Steve Shepard (1971); 17 - Christopher Shepard. The music is "This Is Halloween," from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Congratulations to my sister Barbara who made the best attempt to identify everyone by getting 13 out of 17 correct. She knows her spooks and witches!

Kim Clark emailed me recently regarding the picture of Bura (Davis) Shepard that I included last week. "This brings back a memory for me. Grandmother (Gram) went to my school Halloween carnival dressed in that costume and I didn't recognized her. I forgot all about that until I saw this picture. Thanks for the memory."
- - -
Steve