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Saturday
22 June 2002
10 12 pm pdt [ grotto me this ]
I had a packet of family tree information waiting for
me when I returned from Europe. Matthew knew I would be excited and
seemed to delight in watching me open and sort through it.
The information concerned my great grandmother, who was
an orphan train
rider. She was sent to live with a Rev. Father Paul Matthias
Dobberstein (referred to in all the documentation as P. M. Dobberstein)
in Iowa from age 2 to 14, and then moved with his mother to Minneapolis to
live with his sister. I decided to do a cursory search for him and the
first match I find is an
article about him in the "Famous Iowans" feature story in a newspaper.
Well, that's amusing. He built Iowa's number one tourist attraction. He
started in 1912 and my great grandmother lived with him until the end of
1916. Matthew and I immediately began joking about how she had to get out
of there to escape his grotto building.
"Is there some sort of religious significance of
grottoes that I don't know about?" Matthew asked. I didn't think so.
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grotto
pronunciation: grä-tO
function: noun
inflected form: plural grottoes also grottos
etymology: Italian grotta, grotto, from Latin crypta cavern, crypt
date: 1617
1 : CAVE
2 : an artificial recess or structure made to resemble a natural cave
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Matthew and I were cracking grotto jokes left and right
and I found photos of the structure and even of the bronze statue of Paul
M. Dobberstein erected in his honor. We're talking the largest grotto in
the world here! There is even a book
about the man.
So life continues to surprise and amuse me. I am sick
but hopefully on the mend. Matthew and I spent many hours looking for a
new apartment today. I may go hunting by myself during the week. I also
still need to find a new job. Tick tock, yet again...
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