A Visit with a Great Cousin

April 17th and 18th; In the "Oregon Mists" --

After a time on your knees de-waxing the kitchen floor, the Ammonia fumes just "gets to you", and you feel the urge to get away from it all. Heck it doesn't take that much to urge Grumpy to "get away from it all". He has always had a sort of visceral animal urge to leave the mundane anyway and get out and see the country/world, et al.

With the annual FORM1040 ritual finalized and mailed, Grumpy contacted the Grand Mother's cousin Bill in Oregon to see if I would be welcomed for a short visit. The answer -- virtually assured -- was "Yes!", so away Grumpy "flew" like the Red Rocket knew how to do only too well. The "Oregon Mist" (that seemingly ever-present liquid precipitation so endemic of the Pac N.W.) intermittently turned visibility to less than 1/8 mile, but Grumpy was able nonetheless to make good time, arriving at Bill's place in time for lunch.

Bill is one of the Grand Mother's relatives that I have always liked and admired. His younger sister, Marjorie, was another one.

Bill: Pretty spry for an 87-year old!

Bill is a very interesting guy: he was born in 1925 of a teenage mother and a barely "dry behind the ears" father. Thus, in his own words, he virtually grew up in the care of his Aunt Ruth, Elynor's Mother. In 1942 at the age of 16, he joined the U.S. Marines by altering his birth certificate to show that he was born in 1923. It took the Marines a year to discover the fraud, but by that time he was 17 and old enough to join the Navy. He spent the next year as a Navy Corpsman, caring for the wounded of Pearl Harbor as well as later casualties. The mental trauma of watching men suffer and die eventually overwhelmed this young man and he has been haunted by the memories ever since.

He obtained a bachelor's degree in law and has been on the police force in several cities and towns in SD, and a State Highway patrolman in western SD for about 5 years. As a highway patrolman, he witnessed a tragic accident, which triggered the wartime memories so he resigned that position and took on a job as an insurance claims adjuster from which he retired several years ago. He has been and continues as a contributing columnist for a few newspapers, including the Haakon county Pioneer Review. One of his columns, including photos he had taken, told the story of the history of the Noble Garage. He has photos, which he took, of John and Robert Kennedy when he had a press pass to accompany their respective presidential campaign tours.

During our visit, we talked about the pro's and con's of digital versus film cameras, the ethics and trials of growing up during the difficult years of the Great Depression, and of the memories we shared as well as those that were private. In the interests of comparing the resolution and color depth of the two camera's (his film and my digital) Bill took this portrait of me to compare with a print of that which he took with his Nikon film camera.

Marvel, scurrying to prepare the table for lunch

He and his wife, Marvel [she is indeed marvelous!!], were married when both were very young, and have four children.

Bill and I are planning to meet "somewhere in Iowa" this coming July to visit Bill's and Elynor's cousins who live in Iowa, as well as subsequent travel to visit in our old home towns in SD. Stay tuned for the travels and adventures of two grumpy old men;     To be presented this Summer!