This is the story of Leon Nelson Harris, Sylvia’s father.  Leon was born September 7 or 8, 1917 in the family home south of St Johns, Michigan.  The date is uncertain, because the time is uncertain — was he born before or after midnight?  We don’t know.  In the rush and excitement, nobody thought to look at the clock.

Leon & Elouise in 1934

We love to hear how he met, and later married, the lovely and charming young lady, Elouise Irving.  In his own words, “I was a small second grader when a big shiny auto pulled into the school yard and out hopped a most beautiful gal. It was Elouise Irving and we had an instant mutual attraction. During high school we dated.”

Elouise and Leon in 1935

As a youngster, he used to walk to school on his hands.  It got him a lot of attention.  He worked in restaurants, ran a gas station, had a mail route (Star route — independent contractors hauled the US mail in some places back then.)  Later he worked in the sign business.  One of his jobs was selling musical instruments.  He learned how to get music out of just about any instrument you want to name.  However, his favorite was, and still is, the accordion.

Leon, Elouise (1945) Karen, Sylvia, Joyce

Here’s part of his story as he told it in 2005: “I left my parent’s home in 1935 and went to Detroit, staying at my brother Gerald’s place in Melvindale, where I worked in a restaurant.  Later I got work with Animated Advertising Co.  We did the annual new model auto sales promotion for both Ford and General Motors.  Elouise was working in a nearby beauty shop and we were married in 1939.  I was paid $20 a week.  Our three room apartment was $25 per month.  I paid $50 for a 1937 Plymouth.  New cars sold for five to seven hundred dollars (the used ones soon needed costly repairs).  One Christmas fire destroyed our farm implement business building with my car inside.  That night on the way to Christmas with the Irving family, I drove into a patch of smoke and fog and drove into the back of a truck.  We were able to continue in my borrowed car.  I was not badly upset and had a feeling that better times would soon be at hand.  It turned out that this led to the purchase of a gas station and a booming after-war business.”

Elouise suffered a stroke in 2001 and passed away.  At 94 years of age, Dad still lives alone in the house his father-in-law built.  It is just around the corner from where he was born.  We are glad that he is still with us and is active in church and family activities.

September 2011

It doesn’t show in these photos, but Leon used to have bright red hair.

Mary Annette Wyman, my mother, was born August 24, 1920 in Michigan.  She was the third child in her parents’ family, but the first for them together.  Her parents had been married before and each had a son.

Mary, Alfred, Edward, Gerry & Emma

In 1921, the family left Michigan and moved to western Washington.  Mary’s paternal grandmother had moved to Washington some time earlier and other aunts and uncles lived there too.  A brother, Al, was born in Belfast, Washington in 1923.  In 1925, Mary started school.  In 1927, the family returned to Michigan.  They lived in Eden, which is just south of Mason, the seat of Ingham County.  (Later Sylvia and I would live in that same small community.)

Mary, Alfred, Al, Gerry, Emma John, Beatrice

Beatrice was born in 1928 and John a year later.  Mary attended school in Eden.  Later the family moved a few miles east and south to the community of Housel.  Mary continued her education in the Housel school.  For high school, she had to go to Leslie.

There were new faces in high school.  One of those was a sophomore, LeRoy (my dad), whose family had just moved to Leslie that year.  In the way of boys and girls, they became friends and the friends became sweethearts.  He graduated in 1938.  She wanted to quit school and get married, but he didn’t agree and insisted that she finish high school.  She did graduate in June of 1939.  September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany attacked Poland and WWII had begun.

They were married September 30, 1939 at her folks’ home.  It was on that same day the German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee sank its first merchant ship, the British freighter, Clement, off the coast of Brazil.  The war had come to the Americas, but it would be a while before it would intrude on their lives.

On August 25, 1940, a day after Mary’s 20th birthday, she gave birth to a son and named him Charles.  In 1943, Mary and LeRoy moved to Leslie where their families lived in anticipation of him entering the US Army Air Corp.  Earlier that year, Mary had given birth to a daughter, Barbara.  Mary would need the support of family while her husband was away.

The two years that followed were very difficult for Mary.  She did not handle the stress well, but she did make it through.  Eventually the war ended and her husband returned home.  The next summer, Mary and LeRoy bought and moved into a house a couple of blocks away.  LeRoy would live there for the rest of his life.

The family in 1946

In 1951, Mary had a second daughter, Clara.  Margaret came along in 1954.  Once these younger daughters had grown enough to take care of themselves without supervision, Mary began to work outside the home.  This was good for her.

Mom was a great cook.  Dad loved pie, and we had pie almost everyday.  What I remember most was BLT sandwiches when tomatoes were in season.  What a treat they were!  I believe her specialty was split-pea soup.  She would cook up a ham, and remove most of the meat from the bone.  That bone with some meat still on it would go into the soup pot along with the peas and a few spices.  I always remember my mother when I eat spit-pea soup, and love it.

Mary & LeRoy

When Dad died in 1990, Mom was acting a bit strange.  I thought it was the stress of his losing battle with cancer.  She would later be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.  It was difficult to see this wonderful woman and mother in her final years.  At that time, I was living 800 miles away in Connecticut.  I would visit her when I could and usually my sisters would be there too.  One time, she asked my three sisters if they knew each other.  They answered that they did and that she was their mother.  She just said, “Oh.”  She didn’t know who we were, but we knew who she was.

She passed on September 20, 1996.  She is buried next to her husband, LeRoy.  Yet she lives on not only in the memory, but also in the lives of her children.  We all follow in the way that she taught us.

LeRoy Elmer Hutchinson, my father, was born April 7, 1919 in McBain, Michigan.  He was the fourth of eleven children born to Frank and Margie Hutchinson.

LeRoy in 1920

Dad’s parents lived in the country and did a bit of farming.  Sometimes his father would find work in a large city like Grand Rapids or Detroit and he would live apart from the family for a while.  But he would always return home to his family.

Robert, Chum, Doris, Mary, LeRoy (in back) Mamie, Frank (their father) and dog	– 1926

In 1935, the family moved to Leslie, Michigan.  That September, LeRoy entered Leslie High School as a sophomore.  It wasn’t long and a certain freshman, Mary Wyman caught his eye.  Romanced bloomed.

LeRoy graduated in June of 1938 and he became an apprentice painter and interior decorator.  He worked out of Lansing, Michigan.  Mary graduated from Leslie High School in June of 1939.  On September 30, 1939 LeRoy and Mary were married in her parents back yard in the rural community of Housel.  You won’t find it on any map as it is only a crossroads with a now deserted church and several houses clustered nearby.

LeRoy and Mary on their wedding day

I joined the family in August of 1940.  Europe was at war, and the US was supplying materiel to the British.  We lived just a few blocks north of the state capital.  Then in December 1941, the US entered WWII.  As 1942 began many young men were volunteering for the war effort.  LeRoy continued to work as a painter.  LeRoy moved his family to Lansing in the spring of 1942 to cut down on commuting costs.  By the end of 1942, LeRoy discovered he was going to be a father again.

War drums beat louder as the US troops were fighting in Europe and the Pacific.  The draft began inducting married men and later fathers into the armed services.  LeRoy joined the Civil Air Patrol.  In June of 1943 he became the father of a daughter, Barbara.  Sometime after that, he moved his wife and two children back to Leslie, Michigan, where his parents and in-laws lived.  They would be there to help Mary when the inevitable happened and he entered military service.

October 1943, LeRoy enlisted in the US Army Air Corp at Mason, Michigan (the county seat).  As November ended, he received orders to report in early December to Fort Shridan, Illinois.  He was accepted into the flight cadet program, but did not finish his training before the war ended.  He was released from service at the end of October 1945.  He returned home to his wife and two children.

Two more daughters joined the family.  Clara in 1951 and Margaret in 1954.

LeRoy enrolled at Michigan State University and studied there part-time until he found employment at the Post Office in Leslie.  (Dad had one favorite professor that taught one of the required courses.  I made sure that I was in his class too and introduced myself to the prof who still remembered Dad.  Sylvia also took his class during her third trimester of her pregnancy with our first son.  When she introduced herself to the prof, he observed that he could say he had had three generations of our family in his classes.)

LeRoy sorts mail for his rural route on his last day before retirement April 1984

LeRoy would paint houses for widows around the town or do home repairs for them.  It was his way of helping those in need.  After retirement, he volunteered to deliver for Meals On Wheels.  He was well known and well liked around our small town.

In September of 1989, LeRoy and Mary celebrated 50 years of marriage.  I was living in Connecticut at the time and had come back to participate in the celebration.  Dad had been bothered with chronic back trouble during his later years and had a back surgery scheduled for later that year.  The day before the celebration, Dad had a chest X-ray as a routine pre-surgery check.  The X-ray showed a tumor in a lung.  It was cancer, and it spread quickly through his body.

Cancer claimed LeRoy’s life December 11,1990.  I had driven from Connecticut to be with him those final days.  I had left his side to sit in an easy chair and listen to the news on the radio in the next room.  After several minutes, I realized that I could no longer hear his labored breathing.  When I checked, he had gone.  I still miss him.

This is about Christmas with Sylvia’s family.  They have always made it an important part of the year.  Sylvia’s mom would save all year long to buy presents for everyone.  Starting around June she would buy an extra bag of sugar with the groceries, when she could afford to do that.  She also bought Karo syrup, brown sugar and chocolate chips until she had about 100 pounds of ingredients stashed away.  After Thanksgiving she would start making candy.  And she made lots and lots of it.  Everyone got a big box of it for Christmas.  When we sat down to eat, it always had to be at one table, which usually comprised an assortment of tables end-to-end and stretching through two long rooms.  After the meal was finished and the tables cleared the rest of the afternoon was taken up with a gift exchange.  It took quite a while to open the presents in turn and for all to ooh and aah over each one.

Mom & Dad  —  Christmas 1992

 This will be the eleventh year without Mom, and we miss her greatly.  We tried to carry forward the old traditions, but it just wasn’t the same without her.

The Christmas gathering is still one of the highlights of the year.  Sylvia and her sisters still make Christmas candy, but in much smaller quantities.  We no longer do the gift exchange.  Some bring Dad bird seed for his bird feeders and others do a little something, but he doesn’t want things for himself.  So someone will make a donation in his name to provide a critter to a needy family in a third-world country.  Or perhaps the donation will provide clean water or sanitary facilities for someone else.

In his sweet gentle spirit, Dad has reshaped the focus more into a celebration of togetherness and sharing.  We separate the tables to make it easier to move around.  When Mom and Dad were the only senior citizens present, it was easier to navigate the crowded passageways.  Nowadays, we find it easier to use several tables spaced so that folks can make their way around with less effort.

The last few years, the highlight is going around the group sharing something new from the year that is ending.  In recent years, I’ve shared snippets of family history.  (One of my favorites, and I’ve shared it here before, is of Dad’s great granddad taking his pregnant wife and two daughters to visit her parents.  He returned home, packed a few things and left a note in Norfolk, England while he boarded a ship for America.)

We’ll be getting together with Bryant, Barbara and Briana on Sunday afternoon.  That’s our family tradition.  Briana will be flying out to Mexico on Monday, and that’s why they will not be with us at Sylvia’s dad’s place on Monday.

What Christmas family traditions do you have?

Leave a link to your blog below.

First on a personal note, Wednesday I felt terrible and thought it might be a case of the flu.  Thursday, I felt a bit better and spent most of the day snuggled up with the heating pad in the recliner.  In the evening, I was feeling better, so Sylvia and I spent some time at the church’s food pantry helping to organize shelves and prepare some Christmas packages for needy families.  Today, I’m doing better, but woke up to realize that I hadn’t prepared this blog post.

Last week, I told you about my sisters.  This week, is about Sylvia’s sisters.  (Please excuse me if it is short.  More later, and that’s a promise.)

Sylvia, Karen, Joyce

Sylvia has two older sisters, Karen and Joyce.  Sylvia is not sure where this picture was taken, although it seems like it was only a few weeks ago.  (Okay, it was probably around 1946 in St Johns, Michigan she says.)  Notice the homemade teeter totter.

Later, a brother and then another sister came to join the happy family.  Here’s a more recent shot of the sisters with their father.

Joyce, Gay, Dad, Sylvia, Karen

This picture was taken at Joyce’s country home.  Joyce lives a few minutes from her father–mother passed in 2001.  Gay calls Florida home.  Dad lives on the farm where mom grew up.  Sylvia and I are just under an hour’s drive from Dad.  Karen is a couple of hours away.

I like Sylvia’s family a lot.  They enjoy being with one another and they do that fairly often.  Joyce has three daughters, and Gay has two.  Karen, Sylvia and their brother Bruce have two sons.  It has been crowded in the old farm house for some of our Christmas celebrations, but no complains.  We have a lot of fun.

Here’s another photo taken at a recent family reunion:

Gay, Bruce, Dad, Al, Karen, Chuck, Sylvia, Paul, Joyce

Gay’s husband, Dale, was not able to attend.  Bruce is a widower and lives a few miles from Karen.  We had a good time with other members of Dad’s family.  We looked at photo albums and shared notes on genealogy and family history.

There is so much more that could be said about Sylvia’s family and the good times that we have had with them.  I’m sure to tell you more about them another day.

I invite you to join me in this meme.  Share stories of your family and sign up with the Linky at the bottom of this post.  Code for the badge is in the box at the bottom of this page.  Read about the banner and the meme (short version) here.

This week I want to tell you about my three sisters.  Here’s what we used to look like:

Clara, Chuck, Barb and Maggy

We had a good life in a small town.  We all attended the local public school and were active in a local church.  Our mom stayed home until the younger ones were grown.  Dad worked in the local Post Office.  We lived next door to our maternal grandparents.  I tell you more about that another time.

We four kids with Mom and Dad

We’ve grown a lot since then.  And the world is not the simple and seemingly benign place it was for us in those days.  Still we are all healthy and happy.

During warm weather, we are all within an hour’s drive from the two younger sisters, who live only a few minutes apart.  During the winter, Barb and her husband, Gary, go to Florida where they have a lot of friends.

Here are some more recent photos of us at a get together here on this Secondary Road:

Maggy

Maggy is the youngest and does some awesome photography.  She loves cats, but allergies don’t allow her to have them in her house.  So she dotes on Midnight when she comes to visit.

Clara & Rick

Clara retired from a career as a computer programmer and systems analyst.  She is also an [inactive at the moment] blogger.  She has a daughter (also a blogger) who lives in Virginia with her husband and two children.  Rick is a computer genius who work for EDS and spends a fair amount of time on the road.

Barb & Gary

Barb and Gary have 8 children.  I lost count of grandchildren and great grandchildren a while back.  They have faced some tough times together and have come through on top of the heap.  Winners in my book.  I think of them suffering in Florida this time of year, and even more so when I’m out on the tractor clearing 9 inches of partly cloudy off the driveway.

Sylvia and me on the left

It was hot that day, but what a good time we had.  We try to get together often.  That’s a bit easier now that everyone but Rick is retired.  Nobody complains though.  Someone must pay FICA so we can draw our Social Security.  (Is that cold?)  Sorry about that Rick.

I’ll tell you more on subsequent Fridays.  Please consider participating in Family Friday and be sure to leave a link and a comment.

The core of our family is Sylvia, our two sons, a daughter-in-law, a granddaughter and me.  We got together in August to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, which didn’t take place until September.  Briana (granddaughter) had just returned from an internship in Mexico and the next week would be returning to the university and her nursing studies.  A photographer friend shot photos of the six of us.

Click image for a larger view

I’ll be devoting Fridays to family stories, anecdotes, photos and most anything that has to do with family.  That includes history and genealogy.  Come join me in this Family Friday meme.  The code for the banner is at the bottom of the blog.  Leave a link to your family themed blog post here:

Come back soon and join your friends on Family Friday.