nov.21 ...

an email exchange from my two favorite cousins...good reading .


tom

That Dark Day when we lost Grandma and Uncle Vane in 1985…but best thing is to remember them on Thanksgiving this week and the joy we had in knowing them.

As Vane would say grace for example: “Bless the potatoes, bless the meat, why in the dickens don’t we eat?” or something like that. Boy was Theo mad at him, while Dan and I couldn’t stop laughing, at Grandma’s table in the kitchen.  Maybe I was 10 and Dan 7, don’t remember, somewhere in there Ca 1966. But it was not Thanksgiving.

One time Paul Timlin went out with Ben Hoover, deer hunting on Thanksgiving weekend at old 27 , just tagging along. I seem to remember that, maybe 1964? They must have given him an orange jacket.

There may have been a Thanksgiving 1963 when Uncle Lyle came to visit because he was on tour with the San Diego Chargers to broadcast the games. Or it have been late October. The guys all went out golfing, Lyle, Ben, Vane, and Paul.

Or at Easter 1969? Passing around the corn at our Ridgefield Rd home, 10 times around the table before anybody noticed it had gone around that many times…..priceless cousin humor, all four of us….

This is the one I remember the most: 1973…car breaks down on the way back from Grandma’s near Mt. Pleasant on 27 (now 127 = big farkin’ deal, they just had to change the highway number didn’t they?) and we had to thumb a ride to a gas station about a mile down the road – there were no cell phones back then of course. Actually Paul and Dan thumbed down a ride on top of the overpass. I got bored and later left mom and the dog in the car and walked all the way down there to the gas station and joined them,  wanting to find out what was going on. Tow truck time. Think it was a solenoid. Had to wait for a part for an hour then they put it in. We had gone up to Grandma’s Wed, night, then drove up to Theo and Vane’s with grandma Thanksgiving morning, came back late that night to Clare. I remember hearing a program on the 10th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination on the radio all the way back. Nov. 22 is also on thanksgiving this year, same dates. So it must have been Friday we drove back to Lansing.

As I get older I am starting to forget many Holidays and other happenings from the 1960’s and 70’s and would not expect to remember anything from 0-5 years old. But I remember eating Turkey on TV trays in Grandma’s living room while the adults ate in the kitchen several times. I remember the 1973 Thanksgiving specifically because the car broke down, triggering the other memories described that happened beforehand that weekend. As I have a 17 year old now, it is hard to describe to him the human adventures of things like these, as he obsesses over the virtual world of computer games and shit not human or real like my memories. However, today since I was off of work I needed the car and drove him from school to college (an act that is a predictor of his future transition from high school to college). He humorously pointed out that there was a small dot in the distance moving toward us. He said it was the white haired tall skinny old man, walking his dog. He said the man does it every day when he passes him with the car as the man walks against the traffic facing the car. Son said “Now watch him wave, he does that every day.” Sure enough, as we approached and moved to out left to avoid driving to close to him, skinny Santa Claus waved. Hahahahha…. I busted out laughing with him. So my son encounters human activity after all……thank God.


dan

TV trays at Grammas, were aluminum and had some stupid Pink or peach type color with greyhounds or something on them.  I later grabbed one of those hunting jackets; at the time they were red.  A wool red one that was hanging at grammas and asked if I could have it as it fit me.  I was prolly 14. A little big on me but had a zipper in the back with a giant pocket for stuffing bird or other small game in, and I like it for nunchucks to take to school, or math book of course. And of course if there was enough snow on Thanksgiving we'd go out on the snowmobile but usually had to wait till Christmas and after for that.  Yes, I've been thinking about that day alot this week. Last Sat had to attend funeral of one of my Black belt instructors grandmother, (my cardiologists mom) But I may go up to Cherry Grove, those silk flowers I put up are still there. (weather still nice here)  Don't know if I show leave them or grab them.  Veterans day they had put Flags up on Grampa's too. I miss gramma, and vane, and will never forget that day.  And I think about Pat too as he was there with us and we went from Vanes burial over to Grammas. and..awe fuck it I'm done here, very cheery e-mail.  Just grateful were still here.  And grateful to have known them and have had them in my life is all.  And as the years unfold, I still miss our parents and am so grateful for all the truly wonderful things they did for us.  If you take inventory of all that good stuff it would take forever to write about it.