My great-uncle Carl Rasaka died recently. I’ve slowly been organizing digital scans of my grandma’s photos and have a few great photos of him. My memories of him are from the farm where he and his wife Colleen lived in rural Oregon, the elevator (so fancy!) in their house, the farm tractors, the big tree, their collection of Dr Seuss books which I devoured whenever I visited them, and the always delicious cookies that Colleen would make.

When I was a kid I loved that part of my mom’s family – my great-aunts and great-uncles who all lived in various parts of Yamhill County in Oregon, mostly on farms or hilltops with lots of trees to climb and views to see and tree fruit to pick in the summer.

His daughter Julie (my mom’s cousin) commented on my blog a week ago. I was thinking of him because of her comment, and because of my digital photo organization project and the dashing photos I have of him in his younger years.

1970 Carl Rasaka

1944 Carl Rasaka

1954, Carl and Colleen with Baby Julie

1992, Carl & Colleen Rasaka