Uncle Elmer and Aunt Myrtle

"February 21, 1990:  Busy Bees at Nelle T's.

February 23, 1990:  Pinochle Club at Elta J's.

February 25, 1990:  We had dinner for Irene's birthday.  For dinner Dorothy Jo, Greta, Irene, Tom, Merilyn, Nancy, Mary, Rick were here for dinner.  For Elmer and Myrtle's 56th wedding anniversary these came in p.m. -- Myrtle, Elmer, Gaylord, Lois, Jeff, Linda, Karen, Bob, Mary, Michelle, Teresa, Carol, Ryan, Doug and Dana."

I have to comment first on the fact that Grandma apparently didn't proof-read the one entry since she had "for dinner" in one sentence twice.  I point this out because when we were kids especially, Dale and I were always delighted to catch Grandma saying "ain't" or using incorrect grammar.  Since she was an English teacher and our go-to expert for correct word usage, it was great to catch her in a mistake.  Not that she cared, of course -- she just laughed.

I will talk of Aunt Irene later, but will instead yak about Uncle Elmer and Aunt Myrtle here.  They are second and third from the left in the photo.  Uncle Elmer was my grandfather's half-brother, older by almost exactly 10 years.  I don't know how old I was before I finally asked and found out why they were brothers but had different last names.  Being "half"-related was not something that mattered -- they were brothers, period.  Which is how it should be, I believe.  Uncle Elmer's father died and his mother married Grandpa's father.  Simple, but I had to ask to find this out.

The couple lived on the farm place where Uncle Elmer and his siblings lived a fair portion of their childhood.  Uncle Elmer died 11 days shy of his 98th birthday, still living independently out in the country.  The night before one of his kids had come out and everyone had a nice evening playing cards.  How great is that?  I remember going to their farm place and there was always a big dog there that scared the heck out of me.  Funny thing is once we got there and got out of the car, I barely remember seeing the dog again.  I think once he knew we were approved company, he let us be.

Since I hung out with the ladies, I knew Aunt Myrtle a bit better than I did Uncle Elmer.  She and I shared a birthday which I knew from a young age, but somehow when I was out on my own, I managed to be late sending a birthday card to her almost every year.  How forgetful can one be to miss that day?  But she never teased me about it.  She had a chalkboard in her kitchen at kid-height, which I thought was extremely cool.  She made a feather doll for me with duck feathers from her own ducks.  I have it sitting out now and it is in fine shape.  I even have the extra feathers she was thoughtful enough to provide in case the doll needed a repair some time.  One of the highlights of our family Fourth of July gathering for me was Aunt Myrtle's raspberries, swimming in sugar.

One favorite story involving Aunt Myrtle was of something that happened when she was in her eighties.  Her daughter and daughter-in-law came out with a load of firewood for her.  They knew Aunt Myrtle would want to come out and help unload it, which they preferred she not do at her age.  So, they thought they would be smart and park the pickup with the bed flush against the doorway of the garage they were unloading in so Aunt Myrtle would not be able to get to the rear of the pickup to help.  The next thing they knew, she was crawling under the pickup to get inside the garage where they were.  I think stubborn is a word they may have used, but I prefer plucky.