Doing It His Way

HIS CHILDREN

I guess on this page I would like to share with you a few of the fun aspects of growing up in a large family

My Dad always wanted to find out if things were cheaper by the baker's dozen and I guess thats why I have 12 brothers and sisters

{with me that makes #13 }

I'm the second oldest of this children and he didnt get his son til the followin year. Kinda funny when you think about it how us children's ages very accordin to the sawmill conventions held yearly around the united states that he managed to take time out for. After a while we older ones figured out that if Mom and Dad took time out to go to one of these conventions persay that 9 months later we would have a new brother or sister. Usually we were right. Afterall his first two daughters are the same age for 1 day and his first 2 sons are the same age for 1 week.

Dont get me wrong

We grew up in a very strict catholic family where using any kind of protection was prohibitied in these days. There were always times when my father would say "shit happens" and take things as they came along. After all His faith would get him through and he trusted in the good Lord above to guide him always.

Hmm brings to thought another thing my father once said

and that was about this whole marriage bit

In the Catholic churches anyhow...

You need to do these so called weekends/classes etc...

To see where the priorities lie

and If the marriage will be a strong one

Mom and Dad did one of these weekends/classes and Dad told us that if He and Mom would have had to do it before they got marreid ...they would have never been marreid

Guess thats why I'm not married yet ...After all Him and Mom were marreid for almost 40 yrs before we lost him in 97 without the church persayin if it was right or not

GrandChildren

I was thee oldest of his children to make him grampa first on July 28th 1980. I remember him coming into my room after delivery the next day and telling me

with that ever lovin smirky grin on his face

" he had slept with gramma last night... "

Which really seemed ODD as my mother's mother was living with them at the time and I couldn't figure out why he would sleep with his own mother-in-law. Turns out Thank God he was referrin to both him and my mother being "grandparents now"!

Kinda worked out in the long run

to have this many brothers and sisters.

You could be mad at 10 of them and still have two talkin to you

Anohter thing my Father always did was

carry a rosary in his pocket { and with his grandchildren}

kinda make Mom mad when he would pull out his rosary;

hang from his forefinger and start swingin it sayin

"Hang on Jesus ...We're goin for a ride!"

Another thing he always did with his children

and grandchildren was to play with good ol woodticks.

If you grew up in MN and were in the woods as much as he was...

These were "pets" persay

He would find one.... place it on the child's hand and watch this poor little child try to pick this woodtick off of his hand...

anyone who knows anything about woodticks knows they cling big time !!! It would keep the youngest occupied for hours while frustrating them also *S*

Another little remembrance is when our family cat would have kittens he would show us kids how to play "barrel of monkeys" only using the cats - Now CAT lovers Dont be offended -

He would pick up a kitten by the tail...wait for it with it's front paws to grab another kitten around the waist and let that one grab another etc... til you had your "Change of Kittens"

LOGIC

My Dad always made light of any type of situation

That would include driving down the highway

...On The Center Line... sayin

"We pay taxes on both sides of the road; so why not use both"

As a child I could never figure out how my father also knew that a train has always just gone thru a train intersection..... He would say "Another train just went thru" and being the innnocent and trustworthy children we were we would of course ask Dad how he knew

His reply would be "because he left his tracks "

Another one was that he did not ever lock anything up ie: car doors etc.... he figured why pay for a busted window also.

"If they wanted to get in they would no matter what

and that was just an additional cost for the window."