The Rodgers Group

Ma (Bernadine) and Pa (Dean) Rodgers
Our three children
Harold (Barb), Brenda (Mike) and Linda (Jim)
Our five Grand-daughters
Emily (Craig), Andrea (Joshua), Jennifer (Derek), Kim and Kristin.
Our four Great Grand children
Jackson Dean (JD), Kate, Ella and Jordan.
Twenty in all for the time being.
I was born near Knox, Indiana, our farm was on the
north bank of the Yellow River
Herman and Hazel had bought seventy acre’s and I’m not sure
of the year but think it was just before my brother
Joe was born or just after which put it at between 1915 to 1919
My Brothers & Sisters.
Don , Chuck, Joe, Lois, Dean and Marilyn.
Just two of us left, Marilyn and me.
Bernadine was born in South Ryegate Vermont.

She has four brothers, Ellsworth, Calvin, Charlie and Hamilton

and a sister Pauline. All but Ellsworth are living.

We met in Arizona, it was 1949 in December, Bernadine
was a waitress and I a room service waiter.
At Camel Back resort in Scottsdale.
In early January of 1950 we were on a double date, except we were
not dating each other, Bernadine was with my friend Jr.
And I was with this fat girl (but she was pretty)her name was Phyllis
Somewhere along in the evening the girls decided to change places,
thus started our love affair, which lead to our being married,
April 16 on the porch of a Baptist preacher.
The season was over for work so we honey-mooned across America
Spending our second night on the rim of the Grand Canyon, then on to
Nebraska for a stop to visit my Aunt Mabel, my mother’s sister, then
on to Knox where Bernadine got to meet my family and friends.
Then it was on to Vermont and Bernadine’s family who received me really
nicely. Then it was on to Whitefield New Hampshire where we worked
at the Mountain View House Resort, then in October we went
To Pass-a-grill Beach, Florida where we worked at the Rellum Hotel.
This was our way of life for the first 4 years, then we bought
a Drive Inn Restaurant which we called Dean’s Drive Inn.
In the late fifties I went to school to become a hair stylist and
in 1960 we bought a Salon at 2119 Miami St. South Bend, Indiana
Fifteen years later after multiple salons and other parts of the
beauty business we sold all of the business, with nothing ahead or planned
we took it easy for a few months.
Then I went to work for Georgia Boy Motor Home Company in Edwardsburg
Where we had moved to Eagle Lake in 1962,
In 1980 I went to work for PHM School district as a custodian, I was lucky and got assinged to Else Rogers Elementary School where I worked until I retired on December 31,1995. And four days later we were in Florida at Citrus Hills Park
Which has been our home for the winter months since then..
Now I’ve said all that to say how the Yellow River blog got started.
The last of our Great Grand children was born on August 20, 2006
And my cousin Rose Ann husband past away, at this time I wrote about New life and the ending of life along the River.
dean