United Presbyterian Home

Chinese New Year 2015, Year of the Ram, was celebrated at the United Presbyterian Home with special music and festive decorations. Brightly colored lanterns and dragon puppets adorned the Activity Center. Gwen Ying and Martha Chalupa provided a piano-and-violin duet. Chong Ying surprised the musicians by singing a traditional Chinese opera song that he and Gwen had prepared for their wedding ceremony. Chinese traditionally celebrate with a family meal as they see the old year out and remain awake to watch the new year arrive.

A large crowd of residents attended movie night in the Campbell Room on Thursday evening to view "Railway Man" with Colin Firth. This movie is an autobiography of a prisoner of war veteran forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during WWII. Traumatized by the torture he received, his story turns to forgiveness as the veteran is able to confront his Japanese tormentor after 50 years.

Marion Turnipseed recapped his WW II experience two times this week to separate audiences. His story is one of factual history that unfolds like an edge-of-your-seat suspense movie. Marion presented his story complete with a United States map to show his training travels after enlisting in 1942; a world map to visualize his flight missions and a model of the B-24 Liberator that his missions took him on. Having been to mechanics school and gunnery school, Marion became the flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-24 his crew called the Phantom Renegade. It was Marion?s job to make mechanical repairs, transfer fuel from one tank to another as needed and control generators during flights in addition to manning his machine gun which he could take apart blindfolded and reassemble. To this day Marion remembers the specifics of the B-24 including how many were made, the manpower needed to make each one, how much each one weighed, the size of the engines, how many gallons of fuel they carried and the number of gallons used. Marion survived three long years and just as many near misses before completing his 35 missions which earned him a trip back to the States in 1945. This story should be told time and again so that future generations can learn from it. One needs only to hear Marion?s story of service, sacrifice and loss to appreciate our freedom and the comforts of home. Thanks to Marion for sharing it.

On Friday morning Leon Hansen celebrated his birthday in the Town Center with doughnuts that his daughter, Denise, brought to share with everyone.

Bill and Mary Wagamon, Carl and Martha Chalupa, Jerry King and Myron Shields hosted the cottagers' potluck on Monday evening in the Campus Center with an Iowa theme for the evening. Placemats were cut from old Iowa road maps and placed at each table with a name of distinction from the maps such as county seats, camping and rest areas and interstate roads. Residents showed their true Iowa spirit by singing, "We're from Iowa," and they joined in a game of Iowa trivia. Did you know that the first bread slicer was invented by a gentleman from Davenport in 1927? The machine not only sliced bread but wrapped it also. The Maid-Rite was franchised by a man in Muscatine, and to this day is home to one of the original Maid-Rite café?s owned by the Taylor family for the past 87 years. Many good cooks and two guests, Luke and Bryn Beenblossom, attended the potluck.

Ten people attended the February meeting of the book club. They reviewed three books about the orphan trains that brought children from Eastern big cities to Midwestern farms. The Children?s Aid Society sponsored the trains. They operated from 1859 to 1929 and carried over 200,000 children to new homes. The nonfiction book was" Orphan Train Rider: One Boy?s True Story" by Andrea Warren. The two novels were "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline and "Orphan Train" by Magnuson and Petrie. Next month?s selection will be "Summer at Tiffany" by Marjorie Hart. This is the true story of two young women from Iowa who spend a summer working in New York City.