Unearthing a life.....

Yesterday (Monday, August 7, 2006), my sister Doris and I ferried to Seattle and drove out to our Uncle Don and Aunt Ginette's home in the Ravena area of Seattle. Doris was of the impression that his health was failing badly and so we made this journey in the spirit of 'seeing ol' uncle Don one last time', should that be what the fates decree.

While he did look old (and he is eighty-six), and he did use a cane while going up and down stairs, and his eyesight is failing badly .... still, he did not seem like a man on his last legs. He just seemed like an elderly gentleman whose youthful faculties were no longer in strict attendance. I know how that goes. Experiencing some of that sort of thing myself from time to time.


This is 'Old Uncle Don' (as he refers to himself) with his pet pig back about the year 1924. And this would be grandpa Charlie's homestead out near Deadman Lake, a few miles northwest of Othello, WA. I think -- anyway, it looks like it ought to be. I'm sure there were some legitimate crops involved with that homestead, but the boys recall that it mainly produced rocks and rattlesnakes.

Now ... this is Don with his three older brothers about 1932. Left to right they are: Forrest, Gilbert (my Dad), Harold and little Don. In a year or so, Gilbert would marry a local tomboy, Lucile 'Alyene' Roach, and shortly (though appropriately) thereafter, I would be thrust into this life that I am still enjoying. Despite .... despite the misadventure that befell me at the age of six months ... when my tomboy mother decided she wanted to take a picture of her infant son sitting on a horse. My father was off at work on the railroad, so she enlisted the assistance of uncle Don (now fourteen). He was to stand on the opposite side of the horse and hold me in position withour letting his hands or head show. His grip was light, the horse moved a bit to the side, and I fell to the good earth of Othello and land on my head. When Dad, that evening, inquired as to the source of the scratches on my head, Mom told him that I had been napping on the bed and rolled over and got my head wedged between the mattress and the plaster wall.

Don went off to war as a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corp. He participated in the invasion of North Africa and was stationed in Casablanca when Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met there. Then he was involved in the invasion of Italy and then on to France and Germany. Amonst the trophies of war that he brought back (postage stamps, foreign currency, Nazi toy soldiers, old coins) was a sixteen year old French wife by the name of Ginette. Ginette of Dijon, France. He had to leave her in France, but she arrived in America a few months later and was given a military escort as she came across the country by train. The photo below was taken the day of her arrival in Othello .... here with Dad and Don (above).

So here are Don and I (yesterday) demonstrating our 'do not fall off the horse' grip.

We had a lovely vist with Aunt and Uncle. Don was full of "You remember whens...?" and occasionally Ginette would have to remind him that I was just an infant at that time. And he'd get into a story and then stop and ask "Where was I going with this?" ... and she'd be right there to get him back to his tale. And Doris came home with three bags of cuttings from their shrubs and bushes.