Memory Monday: My Daddy's 100th Birthday

My Daddy in 1917

Casper Office Phone Number

MY DADDY’S 100^th BIRTHDAY

I have been waiting for this month since last year when I was looking at my family tree on Ancestry. Daddy (yes, that’s what I still call him) was born in 1917. He was a baby during the First World War, a soldier in the Second World War,  a husband and father of two and a-half-children during the Korean War (I was born in the middle of that war), and went on to have three more children. He suffered through the death of his last child, who only lived overnight. Later, he saw his children married and loved seven grandchildren, but passed away before his last two were born.

Daddy lived through the loss of his beloved mother when he was only nine, was a protective older brother to his much-loved sister, and learned to live with a step-mother with whom he never had a close relationship.

During the Depression, there were nine people living in his family’s two-bedroom house (it did have a screen-in porch) when his father took in his first wife’s brother and his family. One of my daddy’s chores during that time at night was to cut out cardboard insoles to cover the holes in his father’s shoes so his father could walk to work at a grocery store.

My daddy wanted so much to get a college degree. After high school, he would work 40 hours a week or more, then take a college class at night. He tried doing this over the next eleven years—although WWII did come in the middle of that—but was never able to get enough credits to graduate.

He so wanted to make a success of himself. He tried many different ways to better his and his family’s life. But looking back over what I know of my Daddy, I can see how it never seemed to work out--he was an academically-minded man (think college English professor) trying to become a business success. It never worked out for him.

The thing I remember most about Daddy was his faith in God. At times, he was a weak man. At times, his temper took hold. At times, he said and did things he was ashamed of afterward. But he loved God and was a Christian. After he had a major heart attack and was able to attend church again, people said his prayer brought tears to their eyes.

Yes, Daddy was a man who lived in his time with its wisdom and attitudes—many of which are different in today’s world. He was flawed, but he loved his family. I learned a lot from him. And I love him and he is still very much a part of my life, even though he passed away over thirty years ago.

HAPPY 100^th BIRTHDAY, DADDY. 

Throwback Thursday: Veteran's Day

This week's Old and Unknown Picture:

To all our veterans on this Veterans’ Day, thank you for your service.

Feel free to leave Veteran's Day thoughts in the comments below.

Memory Monday: Pictures of Family Connected by History

My Great-Grandfather

PICTURES OF FAMILY CONNECTED BY HISTORY

Sometimes as I go through the old family pictures, I tend to lose touch with the people in the pictures. I know who they are, after all, their names are written (sometimes) on the back of the pictures. But after a while of going through them all, they just become photos. I lose the connection to the family unless I have personally known them.

One of the things that has helped me is to try to connect these people with events in history or in the lives of the family members I have known. The man pictured above is my mother’s grandfather on her father’s side of the family. While he was born in Russia in 1872, he came to America in 1892, then settled and married in 1895 while living in Kansas. Now I don’t know what Russia was like in 1872, but I have done enough historical research to know what life was like in Kansas at that time. I can imagine him, his wife (who also migrated from Russia), and their children living and farming on the flat plains of Kansas. I now can get a sense of my great-grandparents, and maybe a little of what my maternal grandmother’s life was like as a small child.

This great-grandfather passed away in 1944—toward the end of the Second World War (and well before I was born). My father and father-in-law both served in that war. I have heard stories from both of these men about growing up in Texas and what life was like at that time. That also helps me to “see” my great-grandfather and the way he might have lived.

While I will never have the connections to people before my grandparents’ generation that I have with the people I have known, talked to, and loved, I can still get a sense of those who came before and maybe, just maybe, be able to pass that on to the generations that come after me.

Memory Monday: How Far Was a Mile in the 1860s?

My Great-Grandfather in the Civil War

HOW FAR WAS A MILE IN THE CIVIL WAR?

Until recently, I always that a mile was a set distance. And then I found an interesting item in a book, The Ready Advisor and Family Guide  from 1866—the year after the American Civil War ended. Now before you look at the information below, think about the people living in America leading up to the Civil War. They were from lots of different countries. I just didn’t realize that measurements were different in many of those countries. Just think— if a scout (or whatever they were called) reported that the enemy was five miles ahead, but he was from Sweden, and he was reporting to someone who had recently emigrated from Scotland, and that man sent word to someone whose family had come from England years before. Where would the enemy be?

To better understand what I am saying, look at the chart below. It is from the book I mentioned above.

MILE.—The following exhibit of the number of yards contained in a mile in different countries, will often prove a matter of useful reference to readers:

A mile in England or America,   1760 yards.

Russia,                                  1100    "

Italy,                                                1476      "

Scotland and Ireland,              2200     "

Poland,                                  4400    "

Spain,                                                5028      "

Germany,                                         5066      "

Sweden and Denmark,              7228     "

Hungary,                                 8800    "

Now you have a better idea what I was trying to describe. Oh, the confusion that could cause. Hmm, I wonder if it is the same today, or if a mile is the same distance in all the countries. No wait—a mile is a mile in America, all the rest use kilometers, don’t they?