Pictures from Oita, Japan Click image for a larger view. Our home in Oita, winter scene. It seldom snows here, but when
it did in 2005 it made a nice picture. Lindal Cedar Home
![]() We have a nice view of the mountains, especially from our upper
deck where the living room is located. I did all the brickwork.
![]() Cal visited us in August 2009 on his way to China to teach English.
He loves Japan, and having lived here until the age of 12, he is completely bilingual. While a student at the University of Washington, he spent three
summer vacations here working in a mall at a big department store.
Living on a mountain side is wonderful. Lots of
critters like it too, like the wild pigs that tore up my grass.
![]() This is the jacket I got for playing baseball on the Yokosuka
Navy base baseball team in 1966.
Honda S-600 on display. It's the same car I owned when I first came to Japan in 1964. Mine was red. What a surprise!
Pictures from the U.S.A. Cal and Mitsuko on top of Diamond Head, Honolulu, Hawaii. 2004
My brother, Les, born in 1946. He has a thriving honey-bee business in the upper peninsula of Michigan. In December 2009, there was an excellent article about him in the American Bee Journal, the country's biggest and oldest bee trade magazine, "Bee Keeping in Michigan's Yooper Country." You can read it here: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=27582&page=1 (Page 1165)
L-R, Ann (step-mother), Don, Reimi, Julie (friend) Brian and Kathy (my half-sister).
Mitsuko getting ready to skydive in Eugen, Oregon. She sure looks happy about jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet. She likes bungee jumping, too. No extreme sports for me, though.
Some old family pictures:
Homer McBean. 1910-1993
My mother & grandmother in front of the house where I lived from 1957 until I left Michigan. My grandmother lived to be nearly 100--just 2 weeks short of the milestone.
I shot this 6-point buck when deer hunting with my Dad at Kenton, Michigan in the U.P in 1968. That is a Lincoln Continental. Dad was big on classy cars; he also had a Ford Thunderbird and a 1957 Ford convertable.
Judy and Reimi in front of Dad's old building built in about 1949. His barber shop was on the left and a restaurant on the right.
Dad in his barber shop, 1949. At the left, rear, you can see an old shoe-shine chair. That was my introduction to the world of work. When I was about 11, I started shining the waiting customers' shoes for 10 cents a shine. Haircuts were one dollar then.
Judy and I in front of the old house. 1945
This is where my Dad worked for about 25 years. Romeo, Michigan. I also worked there for three summers as a gardener during my college years. I still love gardening today.
Next Sections:
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![]() Summer view. I enjoy taking care of the grass and doing various
home improvement projects. Oil-staining all that cedar is a never-
ending job.
Mitsuko and Reimi on M's birthday, 2005. Reimi made the cake.
Reimi with Santa in his wig. This is my modified Santa outfit. I put
on the full-course outfit each December when I do a Christmas
lesson with my students.
Not content with tearing up my grass, one pig jumped in my com-
poster in our vegetable garden one night. When I went out with a
flashlight to shoo him away, he got so excited that he ripped apart
the composter trying to get out.
![]() I really enjoy bass fishing in the summer time. There is a nice dam in the
mountains about 45 minutes from my house where I can get away from it all--
no people, telephone poles, noise, signs, etc. In the summer of 2008, I caught
my biggest bass ever, 19 inches or 48 centimeters, on a rubber frog.
I play tennis 3-4 hours every Saturday & Sunday and 3-5 times during the week. I started at age 55, rather late, but it came easily to me, probably thanks to all those years playing shortstop. That beige car in the background is my Toyota 4Runner SUV.
![]() USS Ajax, AR-6 (Repair Ship). I was stationed on this ship 1964-66.
Fortunately, the ship spent most of its time in its homeport of Sasebo,
Japan. It carried 700 personnel. The Ajax was scrapped some years
ago, but the memories remain strong.
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Click image for a larger view.
Cal and Reimi in Hawaii. 2009
My sister, Judy, born 1943. Now retired from 30-plus years of
teaching/school librarian, she spends her summers in Michigan
and winters in Florida.
The house where we grew up as it looks today. Peck, Michigan
With Cal, climbing Diamond Head, Honolulu, Hawaii
Click image for a larger view.
Shirley Eloise McBean. 1914-1988
My father, taken on his 83rd birthday.
Dad with Cal and Reimi in Almont, Michigan
in 1989.
This picture was taken just after I graduated
from Navy OCS, New Port, R.I. in 1964.
My Dad was the only one to cut my hair until
I went away to university. Picture is 1960.
Post office, Peck, Michigan. This is where my mother worked as post-
master for 30-plus years.
This is one of the streams about a mile from my house were I trapped
muskrats as a young boy. I checked the traps before and after school.
We skinned them, then stretched the pelts on a special board. When
dry, we sold them for a dollar a pelt, not bad money in those days.
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