1. ORIGINS
My Irish paternal grandfather entered the U.S. from Canada very late in the 19th century, passing through Sault Ste. Marie, and ended up in northern Wisconsin, helping to found the town of Embarrass. His son, my grandfather Byron, lived in Reedsville, Wisconsin where he served in various capacities, including Postmaster and principal of the high school. I remember him smoking his pipe after dinner in his easy chair and reading the newspaper. He often fell asleep while reading in that chair. With his grandkids he had a gentle way. He was a great carpenter. For Christmas gifts he often crafted toys for us from wood. His wife Edith I remember as being a great cook, and someone who had the best cursive handwriting I ever could remember. One day when he was eighty Grandpa Byron had been reading in his easy chair after dinner. He fell asleep. And died of a heart attack without ever waking up. I last saw Grandma Edith during the summer of 1975 at a nursing home, along with my younger brother Scott. She was suffering from severe Alzheimer's. One minute she'd know who I was, the next she'd think it was 1939 and call me George, my father's name. At that time I looked very much like my father when he was young. And the next minute, she'd ask, "Who are you? I don't know you." It was painful for my brother Scott and I to see someone who we'd grown up always looking forward to seeing, reduced to such a state. She died a few years later.
I actually met one of my maternal great grandmothers when I was five, in northern Minnesota. At that time she was 100 years old. She had emigrated from Germany and still spoke only German. She rubbed the hair on my head and said a few words. Years later, after taking German, I realized that the words she said translated to "Curly-haired child." She died later that year. My maternal grandparents were Elmer and Lydia. Elmer had a fuel business in the late 1920's. He bought a Baldwin Monarch upright piano for my mother and aunt to learn on. That was 1929. The piano is now in dining room of my house. I actually have the purchase receipt and Baldwin guarantee for the piano in my files still. I was the first to learn to play the piano in the family using it. Neither my mother or aunt, nor my older brother succeeded in learning. After 1929 and the stock market crash, Elmer sold his fuel business (Standard Oil wasn't going to accept the chickens he was being offered for payment) and he bought a 40 acre farm in New York Mills, Minnesota.. My mother never really lived at the farm, going to school at a nearby town, and then working in the bank in that small town. A look at the character of Grandpa Elmer was can be given by this story. When very young, my aunt Helen had a very high fever. Nothing the doctor did could help. The doctor said he was sorry, but he was afraid Helen would die. Elmer couldn't accept that. He went into town and purchased lots of ice. He packed Helen in ice, managed to bring the fever down and saved her life. Elmer was a very determined man. I rarely saw him fail at anything he tried to do.
My parents, both having grown up in the depression era, were quite conservative, especially with their finances. Everything was used completely. I remember them arguing a few times about money when I was a kid, but that was it. All though things might have been tight financially on occasion, no one ever went hungry. My mother, Ruth, never went to college, but she is very sharp and still is at 86. My father, George, was a pharmacist, but only practiced that profession for a short while, becoming involved with the sales force of a pharmaceutical company, Burroughs Wellcome (now part of the large pharmaceutical conglomerate Glaxo Smith-Kline). He stayed with Burroughs Wellcome his entire career.
My older brother Mike, myself and my younger brother Scott were all born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My father's job ended up taking us to Paramus, New Jersey then on to Greenhills, Ohio (suburb of Cincinnati), then to Villa Park, Illinois (suburb of Chicago) and finally to La Habra, Califonia (suburb of Los Angeles). While we were living in Greenhills, my sister Karen was born. Karen is a Downs' Syndrome child, and so is mentally retarded. She is usually sweet natured and is deeply attached to her brothers.
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