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Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 6:56 pm
(This post was last modified: August 7, 2014 at 7:20 pm by Jenny A.)
This is the place for interesting and not so interesting tales about your grand-parents and great-grandparents and relations of that age or older.
I'll start:
My paternal grandmother was born in the U.S. in 1907 or so, but her father took the family home to Sweden during the Panic before she finished her first year. She came back with her younger sister on her father's dime when she was 16 because great-grampa was sure the good life was in the U.S.A. The girls could read and write but not speak English when they arrived.
Grandma famously pronounced ice cream ikka cray-em. She did learn English, but always spoke with a heavy accent which she denied having.
"Yennifer, you wanta wacha a some tee wee, ya?"
"Thatsa bad boy, he went to yale."
I can't do the cadence in print. It goes daa, da, daa, da, did, daa, da.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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RE: Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 7:15 pm
My maternal grandparents were both born in '16. They both served in the South Pacific during WWII (Grandma was a nurse), although they didn't meet until after the war. They met during a group movie date where a couple each invited four friends. Grandma always said the only reason her ten kids (and a small swath of consequent humanity) were who they were was because Grandpa was the only one that had sense enough to buy popcorn.
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RE: Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 7:21 pm
(August 7, 2014 at 7:15 pm)Cato Wrote: My maternal grandparents were both born in '16. They both served in the South Pacific during WWII (Grandma was a nurse), although they didn't meet until after the war. They met during a group movie date where a couple each invited four friends. Grandma always said the only reason her ten kids (and a small swath of consequent humanity) were who they were was because Grandpa was the only one that had sense enough to buy popcorn.
Popcorn is a very good thing.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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RE: Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 7:31 pm
My mom's parents met when they were in a local community play; my future grandpa had to take my future grandma over the knee and spank her.
Makes me see my grandparents in a whole new light...
hock:
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
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RE: Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 7:41 pm
One of my grandfathers was a pretty big cattleman at one time and a couple of times went in with a few other cattlemen to hire box cars to haul their cattle to Chicago. And they had a private rail car to enjoy on the way there and back.
We just have the story, I'd kill for pictures, it must have been grand!!
Grandpa later did a 'creative/strategic bankruptcy' towards the end of the Great Depression and in less than 10 years was the biggest farm operation in the county.
The guy was sharp, except for a little speed bump with the IRS around 1950, he literally pooped gold.
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RE: Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 7:45 pm
(August 7, 2014 at 7:41 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: Grandpa later did a 'creative/strategic bankruptcy' towards the end of the Great Depression and in less than 10 years was the biggest farm operation in the county.
How did that work?
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RE: Family History: In Honor of the Derailed Mormon Thread
August 7, 2014 at 10:00 pm
He lost his farm in foreclosure, but made enough money on the farm sale he had to put a successful bid on a much bigger operation. He was underwater on the mortgage, and quit paying on the note. He did real well on the farm sale, and the he bought the bigger farm just on the cusp of WWII.
The US government promised to buy everything the farmers could produce for the duration of the war and they did. He sent several sons to war, but had 2 stay, and enough daughters so they could farm all they had. Some of the neighbors couldn't make it when their sons went to fight, and he just kept buying farms.
When his sons came back from service, 2 of them had received heavy equipment training in the war and they helped improve drainage, and cleared land and leveled fields. The 50s were very good for the family.
