Alright, so here it is, the last blog post that I will probably be making... EVER. Unless of course I am put into another class where it is a part of my grade, in which case I will be typing until my little fingers bleed for that professor as well.
So I'm running out of things to talk about, I feel like all of my former posts have been pretty interesting... but I'm not the person handing out the grade so I guess I will find out soon enough.
So one thing that I never really talked about was my family history. This was partly because on my Dad's side of the family, there is a lot of divorce and weird genealogy going on. But on my Mom's side, my grandma is SUPER into genealogy. Unfortunately, she is quite the world traveler, and contacting her isn't always an easy thing to do... So instead, I'm just going to talk about my grandpa, Donald Leroy Jagla. His is my mom's dad, and was an orchardist in the Wenatchee Valley for pretty much all of his life. The Jagla Family has been in the Wenatchee Valley for what seems like forever, so long in fact, that on Wenatchee Heights (which consists of many orchards and homes), there is a Jagla Road. This is where my mom and her two siblings grew up. By grandpa (Papa Don as we called him) was one of about 8 children. I say "about" because I'm not sure how many siblings he actually had growing up. So between him and his 7 or so other siblings, there are A LOT of cousins in the valley. I never really realized how much family I actually had until I went to my first Jagla family reunion. Oh. My. God. There were so many people. And I later found out that the whole family wasn't even there... EEK! My dad used to joke with me and tell me "Be careful who you date in this valley, they might end up being your cousin." of course my response was "Yeah sure dad, whatever." Well after attending this family reunion, I must admit that I did become a lot more careful when it came to pursuing women. Don't worry though, I can confirm that I have never dated any cousins, whether on accident or on purpose. Also, my Papa Don was kind of a celebrity, or at least, my family thought he was. His orchard (or the fruit packing company in which he contributed largely to, I can't remember) was one of the largest exporters of cherries to Japan. So my grandpa got his face on a billboard in Japan!!! Now that is pretty cool just in itself, but since I'm in an Asian-American Literature class, it seems even more appropriate to mention. My grandpa is also responsible for the creation of the Jagla cherry. This cherry is a mix of some two cherries (can't remember that either) that my grandpa worked with and created a whole new type of cherry! So now, after picking season, my family ends up with a bucket load of Jagla cherries. Whether or not these cherries take off like the big name cherries that many people consume today like Bings or Rainier, well that remains to be seen. But hopefully it will!
Anyways... well there is it, the mark on the world that the Jalga family (my Papa Don more specifically) has left. Not to mention my grandpa's face on a billboard in Japan!
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