Family

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And so, the pictures are of Lewes. The dog in the second picture, I have mentioned before. Yes, that's Tinker. The biter of legs, high jumping, fanged dog from you-know-where. Tinker is not biting the kids pictured here, because they were Tinker's boys. Family. Rick and Tim to be exact. Um, the pictures are courtesy of my family over at Facebook. THANKS!! I don't have a single picture from when we were young 'uns. So, for that I'll visit Facebook. I get a headache trying to navigate that blasted site- every time.

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So, I thought I'd tell some about my family in the posts to come, only I have no idea where to start. I reckon I'll start with Dad's side of the family since they're pictured here. To be fair, I should start with my Grandpa, so I'll add one more picture- not from Lewes... One moment please.

Done, ok.

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Grampa Stan. He was a quiet man. (hee hee) He could really sing and had quite a deep voice. He used to sing at this place called Bobbits and it was like the singins that we go to over at Ivanhoe. Mostly Gospel and all the local musicians, anyone could get up and sing which was really cool. My first public appearance (heeheehee) was singing For Those Tears I Died with my grampa Stan. They sang a lot of Gaither stuff, too.

Grampa was a serious kinda guy. He really loved his Mama (maybe I should've started with her...). He was short-ish like one of my brothers. He was of Lithuanian/Polish heritage. He was a first generation born-here dude and he was in WWII. I'm pretty sure he met my Gramma at the USO.

Grampa expected kids to be respectful and respectable. He did not drink. He worked 3rd shift a lot. His dad was a coal miner in PA after he and Nana got married- he's the one from Lithuania, she was from Poland.

Ah, Grampa used to read the Reader's Digest Condensed Books and he'd look like he was asleep, but would laugh when you said so. He taught me how to do cryptograms when I was 4. That was really cool. He didn't mind if I climbed up in bed with him and Gramma and read or did a cryptogram. He worked word puzzles and different kinds of things like that, too.

He was a member of the Sportsman's Club. I went swimming there. He loved the river. He'd take me for walks by the river and tell me not to be afraid about the tide washing me away. See, the river near their house was only accessable at low tide. High tide the whole beach was gone and the water was up at the road. To me it looked like a long way down. I'm pretty sure he liked to fish.

Unfortunately, I was pretty young when he passed away, so I don't know too much about him. Plus, he was a pretty closed kinda guy. He was always saying things that I didn't quite get like "don't look a gift horse in the mouth". I hadn't gotten a horse... He died just a short while after his mom did. He got Gramma a place at Lewes just before he died- I think he knew he was on his way out. He loved God a lot and I think he was looking forward to seeing him.

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Well, it's time for me to take an asprin and have early morning art class. For some odd reason the kids are singing "oh, dem golden slippers"... Happy weekend to all!

Update on the baby:

Her name is Sparrow, she's 9 months old and has MRSA and Pneumonia. Her dad has to leave for Iraq again in January. Please keep praying for this baby and her family.

Blessings!