FAMILY GATHERINGS

             My family background is German except for my mother. Mom had to tough it out at family gatherings because when the family was together, they spoke German. The family was good to her and tried to keep her in the discussion.

            My Grandfather was born in 1864. I was born in 1939. That means that he was 74 when I was born. He was very happy as I was his first grandson. 74 was  quite old to become a Grandpa.

          Here I am when my grandpa sees me for the first time

                Most of the family would get together two or three times a summer. We only lived 8 miles apart but because of transportation and roads we didn't get to Grandma and Grandpas very often.

        Now skip on a few years. At the family gathers the men visited in the living room. The women stayed in the kitchen. The girl grandchildren were nice the little girls. The boy grand children ran all over Grandpa's very neat farm yard. Grandpa was out on the yard with us trying to protect his neat yard from the grandsons who ran all over the place. Grandpa had  special way of piling his would. We would crawl over his neat wood pile and mess it up. He was probably watching us to see that we didn't harm ourselves.

      So I often think about what he thought about his first loving grandson and that grandson who later ran over his neat farm yard.

      Grandpa lived at our house for much if his last ten years.