Stirring up the memories.........sharing the stories:

Teri: I always thought the little white house was big.  My memories are snippits. Lorrie and I playing in the dark basement under the stairs, grandma taking out her teeth, succutash, rolling down the big hill, the stone grill, the big dictionary, white soft minty candy in the candy dish, and grandpa's big hands.

Judy: I remember the wide staircase at the Indianola House.

          The big house had the buzzer in the dining room floor. 

          The staircase seemed huge to me especially when Grandma had me sit on it for discipline. I was probably 2. 

           I remember the large dictionary at the top of the stairs. 

           I remember the little cottage and the backyard that went down hill. 

           I don’t remember the farm everyone talks about. 

           I remember Hideaway Hills. 

           I remember Bobbie and I would spend time together during the summer at each other’s houses.  

           We spent holidays with family. 

           I remember Grandma & Grandpa's Golden Anniversary of course. 

Carol: I remember grandma sitting me on the bottom step of the stairs because I was too bossy.

            I remember the farm and grandma's pet chicken.

            Mom (Dottie) made Judy and me matching dresses (turquoise with big lace collars) for Aunt Donna and Uncle Dave's wedding.

            Uncle Dave painted the side walls of the tires on his car white. I wonder if their is a photo of that car?

            Grandma taught me how to do embroidery. The sampler I made is in my granddaughter Delaney's room.

            Grandma also got me interested in playing piano. (Hoping Delaney will be interested)

            I remember when Uncle Norm was "courting" Aunt Ellen and he would play the grand piano in the living room of the boarding house on Indianola.

            The Indianola house had such neat back stairs out of the kitchen.  And we found the buzzer underneath the dining room table. I guess it was for a former hostess to signal the kitchen that people were ready to eat.

            I remember grandpa's big dictionary on a stand. I never could get it open.

            I remember when grandpa built the stone barbeque grill in the backyard of the little white house.....the house with the big hill in the backyard.

            I remember when a jet engine fell off a plane and landed in either grandma & grandpa's yard or a nearby neighbors.

            I remember grandpa's "doghouse" in the basement.

Mike:  There are obviously so many memories growing up with Grandma and Grandpa, mom & dad, my sister, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc.  It’s hard to know where to begin.  So these will probably be pretty much just random thoughts as they pop in and out of my head.   

            Some of my earliest memories about Grandma and Grandpa pretty much center around family gatherings, particularly in their home.  We used to have many great family dinners on the patio behind the house.  Grandma knew that I didn’t care for raisins, (an understatement), but she made and apple cobbler which I ate heartily. When I had finished, Grandma told me that it had raisins in it.  I immediately got sick to my stomach.  Don’t tell a little boy too much!. 

             I remember that we always had grape jelly in our house.  G & G would make jars and jars of it out of Welch’s grape juice.  There was also always candy in the candy dish.  Bill and I would sometimes spend the night at G & G’s and would usually play army men.  Bill always had the best metal Tonka Army vehicles.  They were awesome.  They just don’t make toys like that anymore.  We would sleep on the sofa’s in the living room.  Always a great time! 

             If there was a piano around, then there was always Uncle Norm playing and the sisters singing.  They were actually quite talented!.  I remember when a fuel tank from a plane, dropped in the middle of G & G’s back yard.  Close Call, just a another few feet and it would have come through the house.  Grandpa was very ingenious.  He built a work shed out of cinder block and put a grill and a bench on top, so that it was easy to sit there, watch your hamburger being cooked and served, all within just a couple of feet.

             Grandpa used to make whistles out of the willow tree at the back of his house.  I used to remember how to do it, but can’t any more.  They were really cool!

             Family Christmases were always memorable.  I can remember one Christmas where I slept under the dining room table at Indianola, and of course the famous dart game that in Uncle Charlies basement where a dart hit the water pipe.  

              I remember the dinners on Yorkshire Rd., and Uncle Norm’s jokes.  Eating marbles from the marble cake that Aunt Ellen told him came from the fishbowl.  Cutting off Bill’s tie to make it even.   Playing Chess with Uncle Norm.   He never let me win.  It took me several years to finally notch a win.   Blowing soup all over Aunt Ellen’s wallpaper because Uncle Norm told me to blow harder. 

              I remember one Katzenbach Herrold family reunion that was held at a park.  I was very young, so I don’t really remember much more than that I was there. 

              Bill and I used to love lighting off fireworks.  He was ingenious enough to take a pipe and turn it into a cannon.  We aimed at a bird and came much to close to hitting it.  Scared me to death!

              I remember rooting for Ohio State, and thinking that Michigan was just evil.  Now I root for the Dawgs, and hate Alabama. 

              There was the time that I pulled the china closet over on  myself, miraculously I wasn’t hurt.  I was in the only section that didn’t have china.

               Upper Arlington Football Games and marching to the game in the band. Script Bears,  and losing to Waterson on television.  Just didn’t think that was possible, but then we won the state championship game in Massilon a few years later. 

June:      Grandma & Grandpa took care of me while my Mother worked.  I have distinct memories of their house in Arlington with gazing ball in the front yard.

               I remember Uncle David, back from France after the war would come over and play the piano and speak French to me very fast.  Aunt Donna was a bobby-socker.  I remember her in the obligatory twin set, pleated skirt, bobby-socks & saddle shoes. I don't remember the standard pearls but she probably wore them.

              There was also the little green chair where I spent what would now be called time-outs.

              According to my mother, Grandpa was sent to Omaha by the government when there was an out break of hoof & mouth disease. He meet Great-grandpa Ingrham who was also a vet and through him, grandma. Grandpa may even have been staying with him, but I am not sure about that. They were "courting" & grandpa got his next assignment. 

              Grandpa rented one of the few cars in Omaha.  He took out out to get the feel with his brother Charlie.  Charlie told him -You better shut her down Will.  Your up to 15mph.

              Grandpa always joked that her had married her even though she hadn't even combed her hair.  Grandma wore her long hair in the fashionable style called a turban.  Her mother would comb out and redo it. She would do Grandma's one day and here sister Josephine the next.  One the day they planned to elope, it was Josephine's turn and Josephine refused to trade days. They got married & said nothing.  

              After they were married they returned home.Grandma & Josephine would borrow each others clothes. A few days later Grandma told her she needed her black stockings back because she was going with Will.  Josephine was stunned. " You don't mean your MARRIED!"  That's how it finally came out.

              I believe they went to Ohio and Aunt Dottie was born.  A few years later they were back in Omaha where my mother was born.  She was christened Marjorie Mae, but since they had expected a boy, she was always called Johnnie.  My mother was"sickly" and not doing well.  Grandma, who was a pharmacist,  mixed up a formula based on barley water to bring her through.  My mother was a tomboy, always climbing trees & hanging upside down.  In a effort to make her more "lady-like" Grandma bought her black satin underpants hoping the embarrassment would keep her upright. Didn't really work.

              In Virginia, grandpa keep chickens.  One of the chicks was sick.  Grandma brought it into the house to nurse it through.  They called it "chicken little" and, according to my mother, Grandma even had it paper trained.

             They were always moving due to Grandpa;s job.  My mother said she went to 10 different schools
             The house in VA had a walk-in pantry with a drop latch. One day I closed the door when Grandma was inside.  We were alone & I was too small to reach the latch.  Grandma enticed me to go get the little green chair to stand on to let her out which I finally did.  The little green chair was where I had to spent what are now known a time-outs.  Grandma gave it to me one time I was in Ohio.  She said I probably spent the most time sitting in it.  I have pictures of Greg as a toddler sitting in it. 

             Grandpa was a farm boy but that wasn't for him.  He asked his brother Charlie to help sent him to college.  Then he would help Charlie & they both would do the same for their sister.  I believe they did.  I know Charlie was a vet also.  I don't know about their sister. 

             I know that Grandpa taught school in a one room schoolhouse for a while.  He said he still had to take some remedial courses when he went to college.  

             The things I remember about Grandpa were his big hands with the cats eye ring he always wore and that he always had the unabridged dictionary on its stand.  I believe Bill has them now.

             Aside from the house in Arlington, I remember the brick house on Indianola with the button under the dining room table that rang a bell in the kitchen to call the servants. 

            Grandma always said that she like their last little house because it was the only one she got to pick.  When Grandpa got a new assignment, he would go on ahead & find a house for them. Then Grandma would follow with the girls.  My mother remembers 4 days on the train to go to California. Grandpa rented a sleeping car room for them.  The girls had fun.  I bet Grandma was more thrilled to get off.
            My mother married Edward when I was 3 or 4 and we moved to NY.  My memories after that are of the visits when we all got together in Ohio.

Lorrie: I remember Mom and Dad dropping me off @ Grandpa and Grandma's to stay the night. I would sleep in the back room under the Notre Dame window picture. I tried to be very quiet while Grandpa would sit in his chair (I don't remember where Grandma sat) and watch The Lawrence Welk Show when I was sure absolutely everyone else was watching Gilligan's Island. 

            Teri and I would look for ghosts in the Thames basement by walking around to the furnace room and say Mary Margaret three times in a mirror but she would never appear.  We also played with a very old box of crayons that Bill probably played with too. 

             Teri and I made gifts for Grandma with our plaster cast set of praying hands and Jesus and would paint them gold. We must have made dozens...

              I loved Grandpa's blue violin candy dish with butterscotch candy, his licorice smell when eating his black lozenges, and the burning smell when he incinerated trash in his backyard.

             Grandma always made tapioca when I was ill which seemed very often and she always called when Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was on tele. Grandma had this porcelain spice rack where the little shaker drawers had porcelain knobs that looked like spices, like a nutmeg.

             I played Tiddley Winks and Pick-up-sticks at their kitchen table. Grandma had a singing  button on a string that I couldn't get to sing and she would like show me her Pansies along the side of the house.

All my older cousins were beautiful and elegant. 

             One of my greatest blessings was having Aunt Donna and Uncle Dave in my life. With them I felt loved and welcomed. Uncle David always had a story and that smile-and-chuckle and according to my parents, was always famously late. When Michael gave Uncle Dave's eulogy, I found out why. Uncle David was Mr. Friendly.

             At 22, when I had finally saved enough money, Uncle David drove me around to pick out my first car.  He really wanted me to get the Maverick but I went against  advise and bought The Chevy Chevette (it had a hatchback) and yet Uncle David still loved me.  Uncle David and I went scuba diving with Manatees at Crystal River. 

             When I was having lunch at Aunt Donna's house, Aunt Donna would be on the phone calling Teri "Gwendolyn" and Michael "Clyde" so that people must have thought she had four kids. There were always good sandwiches and her angel food cake had colorful dots inside. I spent years trying to make angel food cake with colorful dots inside like my Aunt Donna's and before she passed away Aunt Donna told me her secret. She bought it at Tom Tarpy's.

              I knew in my heart Michael was a Beach Boy. Dad would laugh and laugh telling me about his jokes with his straight man, Michael: the soup, the marble cake with marbles and something about a goldfish...

             Teri Ann was so dang cute (and still is) and always seemed to have purpose and a forward direction when I, as the older one by six months, was a dork. I am a little less dorky now I think.