The Terrible Catsafterme

My extended families have always been tight-knit. I’ve always been close with my Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It’s easy to see why since my parents started me off right by making frequent visits to their parents and then posing me in pictures with them. These are from the series of slides from the early months of 1972 that my Dad took with his relatively new camera. My maternal Grandparents were living on Cunnington in Kettering and my Grandma and Oscar were on Bellaire in Belmont. Read the rest of this entry »

Just one day before the world’s tongues were abuzz about the untimely death of super-whatever Anna Nicole Smith, a man of infinitely more character and wisdom passed away on February 7, 2007. Bob Cline was my Dad’s first cousin, being the son of my Grandma Range’s brother Ira. As far as I recall, I never got the chance to meet Bob. I had talked about making the trek to his hometown of Evansville, Indiana on several occasions to visit with him, but like many things we plan to do, it never happened. Read the rest of this entry »

Easter fell on April Fools Day in 1985. Thus, less than a week after Great Grandma Murphy’s funeral and again we were having a gathering at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Kruss. I don’t have any specific memories of the holiday, but know that we conducted our usual Easter Egg hunt. For many years, someone would always prepare colored hard-boiled eggs and every family member would have one (with our name written on it in white crayon) hidden somewhere in the house of the Easter host. After we ate lunch, we would engage in a hunt to find our own specific egg. Finding others didn’t count. These were always enjoyable affairs that I remember fondly. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is my Mom’s 57th birthday. (She’s the little one at left). I won’t be seeing her today to celebrate because we are currently crossing paths in the skies between California and Ohio. I am heading there and she is heading home. Before she left, she had been talking up a blue streak about the trip she had already taken there a few weeks ago, as well as about the preparations and plans for the one she is coming home from now. I’m sure she’ll have lots of stories and tiny details to tell us and everyone else. Denise and I will hear the stories upteen times each and will give each other a knowing glance every time she starts to tell it again. Read the rest of this entry »

Mom, Bob, Ashleigh, and I took a short weekend trek up to visit with Denise, Aaron, and of course, baby Adam last Saturday, January 27. Just before leaving, Eric Hubble – who I had not spoken with in 20 years – returned my call, so we arranged to meet that afternoon. After we had a couple of drinks in a local pub, Eric took me back to Denise’s, met my family, and took off. Most of us headed out to a Chinese buffet. Aaron was out playing poker, so he had to join us later. The food was great and as always, I ate way more than I -or any human, really- ever should. But, mmm, was it good.

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