Apple Jack Creek

One day when I was very small, I was eating Apple Jacks cereal at the breakfast table at my grandparents’ house (my parents would certainly never have given me that sugary stuff!) and I thought how funny it was that the cereal had the same name as my grandfather, whose first name was Jack. I decided he should be called Apple Jack too. My parents tried to talk me out of it (I remember Dad saying, “what about Grandpa Jack?” and stubbornly refusing to say anything but “Apple Jack”). Apple Jack himself did not seem to find it problematic, and the name was adopted by all the grandchildren. He signed cards to us with a little picture of an apple, then his name. He was the best grandpa a kid could have—he loved us completely, exactly as we were, and always had time for us. When I was trying to find a name for the acreage, I went through a lot of different options and then, driving on the highway one day, this just popped into my head and I knew this was it.