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Autism has its night! Thank you Temple Grandin and the lights of Hollywood/HBO for giving autism a face, a name, a night to shine. “Temple Grandin” won eight Emmy Awards - Oh what a night it was!
Temple Grandin stood and waved from the audience as actors from the movie of her life won awards, then took the stage herself as the biopic Temple Grandin won the Emmy for best TV movie at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday night.
Cherie Willoughby of Repercussions and Willoughcraft Drums requested that I write a testimony as to how drumming helps people on the autism spectrum. I certainly can do that because my son, Doug, who has autism, was a drummer for many years. He started taking lessons in sixth grade and continued through two years of college at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) where he was member of the Star of Nevada Marching Band.
Individual lessons are important at the beginning for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The individual attention assists with focus to task, socialization, following directions, and of course, one of the most important aspects for any child, building a positive self-esteem. For our family, these individual lessons soon bridged into lessons with another drummer and then into the junior high band as a whole.
The reasons I, as a mother and speech-language pathologist choose drums as the instrument of choice for therapy, communication, social interaction, and personal development are listed below. They are numerous. They are simple to complex. They are about life.
Drumming helps develop: turn taking skills, attending/focus, choices, listening, planning, sequencing, coordination, judgment, problem solving, eye contact, reading body language,
Drumming brings in the right hemisphere of the brain where rhythm is lateralized. This assists with total body coordination for walking, running, and hand-eye coordination. This will assist with reading, writing, and academic skills.
Drumming assists with pragmatic language skills (social language) Being a part of a group that specializes in music is significant for socialization and self-esteem. The responsibility of one person to a group of people does not come easily for a person with ASD ~ but with more practice the better it gets.
Drumming assists with learning how to drive – that might seem far out but from a speech therapy point of view it is not at all. All of the above skills are necessary with learning how to drive a car. In people with ASD, it takes many different aspects of bringing all of these skills together, over time, to accomplish this complicated driving task. Yes, people with ASD can drive. My son, Doug, has driven since he was seventeen.
Drumming assists with happiness and fulfillment in life. Perhaps this is the most important aspect of all. Give your child with ASD something to be happy about. Too many people point out children’s weaknesses and drumming, be it loud or soft, good or bad, within the beat or not, will make them and you HAPPY!
Thank you, Cherie Willoughby, for prompting me to write this testimony to DRUMMING. It sounds to me like YOU do a fantastic job for families with autism and without. Keep the beat alive!
On what have been my dad’s 89th birthday, I sent this to the Hamilton County Genealogy Society. This will be the first narrative post on their website, Iowa Gravestones. This is a site for Iowa history to be saved. My dad would have approved.
Arild Vernon Kepler was born in Stanhope, Iowa to Mable and Vernon Kepler. Raised in Webster City, IA, he married Mary Jane Higbee of Webster City on November 21, 1943. They raised four children: Julie May Kepler Richey (deceased), Kathleen Ann Kepler Harrington, Cynthia Kay Kepler Leitner, and David Vernon Kepler.
The following is a revision of the eulogy I presented for my dad on October 21, 1998 at his funeral.
For My Dad
Arild Vernon “Kep” Kepler
August 22, 1921 ~ October 13, 1998
Interment: Graceland Cemetery Webster City, IA
When I was a little girl, we went on a trip to California in a 1956 red and black Ford. From the moment we rolled out of our driveway in the middle of Iowa until we reached the parking lot of Disneyland, I’d ask my dad the same question, “How much further, daddy?”
My dad, with is patience and wisdom, would always reply in the same manner, “Oh not far, Kathie, it’s just over the hill and around the corner.”
After many hills and many corners, my dad was right; we arrived at Disneyland.
* * * * *
Every member of our family wants to thank you for being here today. We appreciate so very much your compassion and your warmth. We acknowledge your part in making my father’s life a reason to find celebration and joy in our time of sorrow. In the future, when our minds drift back upon happier days, it will not be about my dad’s death that we reminisce but rather about his life. He was happiest as a poet, a storyteller and a Thespian and his love of music provided harmony throughout his years.
Many of you knew my dad when he had black hair. I didn’t. It was always gray and then white for me. Many of you knew my dad when he was young and vital and had a vision for the future that was intense. To me, my dad will always be young and vital. Many of you knew my dad before he had a handlebar mustache. I remember buying him mustache wax. I think that all of you knew my dad as “Kep” but to me, he was my dad.
Many of the people of Iowa Falls and Webster City ate my dad’s cooking at the Red Rooster Grill. It was there he taught me to cook, do dishes, run a business, and make coffee. It was there he taught me dedication, responsibility, work ethics, and the importance of wearing a smile in order to make another person’s day a little brighter.
When my dad went from selling food to selling cars many of you were there.You were there when the good times rolled and you were there when they rolled back the other way. We know you were there, not because you had to be, but because you choose to be.
My dad, loved living. He was a generous and loving husband for over 50 years to our mother. Together, they weathered life’s storms and found rainbows. Together, they built bridges and covered them with love. And together, they walked through each moment of each day as he so eloquently portrayed in his poem, “Life’s Partner.”
You might have known “Kep” as the one who told the best joke at a party or the one who loved to play solitaire on the hoods of cars, tell World War II stories, or look in wonder and curiosity as new technology became a part of our every day lives. You might have known “Kep” as the one who loved John Phillip Sousa Marches or recall his recitations from John Adams to “Jo-Jo the Dog Faced Boy.” However, it was my dad who drove my older sister to Fort Dodge and back every two weeks for seven years when she had braces on her teeth. It was my dad who took me to every Audie Murphy and cowboy movie ever made. That was our Friday night date at the Met Theater. It was my dad who started a citywide collection for new high school band uniforms. It was my dad who went on a letter writing campaign to state and national politicians for “notch babies.” As far as I know, Uncle Sam is still beating the “babies.” It was my dad who searched for the innocents of the fifties in the nineties. It was my dad who instilled in my children the importance of history and the lessons worth learning. It was my dad, whose advice I sought, and whose courage I clinged to. It was my dad who opened my eyes, as a mother, to the acceptance of a child whose dreams were without wings. It was my dad who just two weeks ago bought a new video for his youngest grandchild. He wanted her to learn the most valuable lessons in the world from those who had taught him, the lessons from “The Three Little Pigs.” It was my dad who wrote poetry by finding humor in his ever-aging, ever-handicapping world.
My dad believed in heaven and in a loving God who would remove the pain of the world we know. He believed in the quality of life, not the quantity. My dad had no fear of death. He knew that his time was near and he knew where he was going as he penned in one of his poems, “The Setting Sun.
Each one of us knows people because our lives have sung in harmony somewhere along life’s way. We know that person for the shared experiences we have. I want you to know my dad because he was more than “Kep.” He was more than that sailor, veteran, grocery, restaurant, and dealership owner. My dad had a good life and in that, I find reason to celebrate. You see, my dad may be gone but he’ll always be close to all of the people he loved because he’s in a good place. After all, he’s just over the hill and around the corner.
Ninety years ago today, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, was ratified. The amendment had first been introduced in Congress over forty years earlier, in 1878. Read about it and see great pics at American Historical Association.
Doug and Katie gave Cookies to God
Cookies for God
is a special short story that I wrote for and about a personal experience with my children, Doug and Katie, when they were young. It is an inspirational account of what we can give to God and how. All parents will want to share this experience with their own child. What a great idea for a Sunday School class as well. Read it and enjoy at Divine Caroline.
A farewell kiss
In my hometown of Iowa Falls, hundreds of people were in attendance at a sendoff ceremony Tuesday for about 70 members of the Iowa Falls-based Iowa National Guard C Company of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry.
The soldiers are part of a call-up of more than 3,000 Iowa soldiers in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which is being deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Following speeches by dignitaries during a ceremony at in the Iowa Falls-Alden High School gymnasium, and hugs from family and friends, the soldiers left for training at Camp Shelby, Miss. From there, they will be deployed to Afghanistan for one year.
Where is this from?
This statue is a memory that people from Iowa Falls hold special in their minds. Who remembers where it was and what they did around it?
Did you run ~ did you splash ~ did you make a wish and did it come true? Whatever the memory we’d all like to see it back in it’s place.
Now you tell me ~ where does it belong?
Humpty Dumpty in water fountain at Estes Park ~ Iowa Falls.
Iowa Falls Parks and Recreation Director Brian Lorenzen said he is expecting to turn on the Estes Park Water Fountain for the first time this year today.
Currently, the statue atop the fountain features a nymph blowing on a seashell. (Humpty is holding on tight) However, Iowa Falls resident Shirley Welden is hoping to replace the current statue with the original which had been at Estes Park since 1934. The original statue was accidentally destroyed last August. Welden is coordinating the fundraising effort and says the replacement bid is for $10,000.
We’re off and On the Road with Humpty Dumpty.
Humpty Dumpty at Monument Valley
You’ll see where we travel, events, friends, all of the things I love to do. You’ll also learn what made me (Humpty) get off my duff, pick myself off the ground, and learn to dance again. Kathie Harrington is my voice. She’ll be the one writing about our adventures, so please join us on our other blog as we
see the world.
Original Red Rooster Grill on corner of Hwy. 65/Rocksylvania
This is the original Red Rooster Grill in Iowa Falls, Iowa. It was built by my mother and father, Kep and Mary Kepler in the mid-1950′s. It burned to the ground on Thanksgiving Eve, 1960 and was rebuilt approximately 1.5 years. later. My grandfather, Vernon Kepler, owned the Super Value Grocery Store next to the Rooster where my dad used to work.
Dad did all of the window painting, freehand. I often held the paint cans for him. Note the prices on the windows of the pie and coffee. Dad also painted for the grocery store and when Joe Girard bought it from my grandfather, he continued to paint the specials on the windows for him as well.
There was a party room in the basement of the Red Rooster. My sister, Julie, and I had “sock hops” down there for special events. I remember well, the old 45′s and the poodle skirts.
Julie and I started our working careers at the Red Rooster ~ we were dishwashers! We progressed to servers and my favorite, fry cook.
