Raices y Ramas

Today is the 5th anniversary of my brother Dick's return to our Creator.  I have written this anecdote before, but I wanted to post it on this blog, as well. As a kid, I used to hate fishing. It might have been different had I been able to catch fish. To top it off, I was jealous of my brothers Dick and Tom, because they always caught something. But my older brother had that something special when he fished, because he always caught the fish he was angling for . It was almost a vocation for him. He bought the books. He bought different poles and different reels. He learned what each of them was for and how to use them to his advan tage. He’s fished and hunted in many different parts of the world. When he was fishing or hunting, no matter where it was, he was in his element. As I grew older and—I’d like to think—smarter, I began to realize what he saw in the sport. I also realized that it wasn’t the catching that was important—it was the fishing. When I do go fishing,...

My dad’s birthday, and his and my mom’s anniversary is December 20 th .   He was born in 1907, and they were married in 1941, just weeks after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.   They were happily married for almost 29 years, when my father passed away in 1970.   Their marriage was extraordinary in the sense that they only knew each other for 6 weeks before getting married.   Preparing for this blog entry, I thought I would do something different than what I usually do; recount my memories of them.   So I went back to the blog Mom was writing for a few years while in her late eighties to early nineties and found her account of the courtship and marriage.   I found it quaint, heart-warming and funny.   I hope you do, too.   I must confess I did quite a bit of editing for grammar and punctuation, as the story was told over several entries in her blog, so I cut and pasted all of the posts and put them together—and, she LOVED to use run-on sente...

Marilyn was reorganizing some drawers in the house today and found the logo emblem from my 1972 Ford Pinto. I don’t know why we still have it, but it brought back a flood of memories of that car for different reasons.   The memories evoked gratitude, accomplishment, fun times, frustration, and even a bit of anger.   I think it will be fun to recall a couple here: GRATITUDE & ACCOMPLISHMENT It was the first NEW car I ever purchased.   I was a 17-year-old college freshman.   My mom, and my brother Tom and I had moved to Jackson from the San Fernando Valley.   I enrolled at Delta College in Stockton—45 miles away (one way)—and the car we had was a real clunker, sure to break down with all that use.   Mom told me that she had been talking with our landlord, Mr. Art Telfer, and he agreed to purchase a car for me to drive and I could pay him back without interest, so long as I paid each month on time!   We sat down together and determined ho...

Francesco “Frank” Calvelli was born in Glasgow, NY on June 14, 1914.   Actually, he was born on the 17 th , according to his birth certificate and Social Security records, but he told everybody he was born on Flag Day, and out of respect and love we all just accepted it.   Of course, it didn’t matter that Flag Day wasn’t even proclaimed by Woodrow Wilson until 1916, Frank was so patriotic it just made sense to everybody who knew him. One day, during a conversation with him, he told me that although he was extremely proud of his Italian heritage (both of his parents were from Italy), he was prouder to be American.   He went on to say that he had seen a lot of other countries in the world and that America was the best, “hands down”. When he was two years old, his family moved to Stockton California, where he grew up, went to school and helped on the family ranch.   At 27, he joined the US Army and served in the Tank and Artillery Corps under General Patton, se...

My paternal grandparents had 14 children and outlived 10 of them!   Only my dad (Afton LeRoy), my aunts Leona and Alene, and my uncle Alonzo LaFayette (“LaFay”) lived past 40 and were alive when Grandpa passed away.   I don’t know much about the rest of my paternal aunts and uncles other than what Grandpa wrote in his biography: “Our daughter Mae died November 1, 1940, at the age of 26, and is buried in Oroville. Ruth died tragically December 14, 1948, at the age of 27 in Guam, and is buried in San Francisco. Laurence Elmer died October 22, 1959, at the age of 32 and is buried in Tucson. Lester Burt died March 31,1965 and is buried in Mesa. Of the children who died while we were in Mexico, Carl, Florence and Grant are buried in Colonia Garcia; Alma Ray in Pacheco. Little Vera was laid to rest in El Paso, and Julia in Tucson.” Back in the early 20 th Century, because medicine and access to doctors was not as readily available as they are today, large families ofte...

As a break from the "historic" stories, and to remind us that our ancestors did, in fact, share the same feelings and dreams that we do, I thought I would 'steal' a post from my mom's blog that she wrote almost 10 years ago, when she was 90 years old!  I often saw Dad get up off the sofa, take Mom into his arms and just start dancing all over the living room when the Lawrence Welk Show was on!  A very sweet memory, indeed! Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Dance and the like!!! Over the weekend I had company from Utah and mentioned that Cappy had taught dancing to the Morman Youth Group at one time. It is called something else now but at that time the group was called "Mutual". Of course dancing, as I knew it and still know it, was entirely different than it is now!!!! We danced the Waltz, (my favorite, the "Hesitation Waltz"!) Fox Trot , Two step, etc., etc., etc. Your partner took you in his arms and danced with you to the rhythm of...

Unlike the stories of very distant and traitorous relatives that I wrote about yesterday, it’s good to balance that with stories of the heroism and visions of more direct ancestors. Patriot (and ‘Minuteman’?) Rueben II was the son of Reuben Farnsworth and Mary Holden.   He married Anna Kellogg, in 1773 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA. They had 16 children. It is stated on his grave marker that he was a ‘Patriot of the American Revolution’.   The best information I was able to find out about him was that he was a private in the Massachusetts Militia.   Since Rueben lived and farmed in and around Worcester County during the Revolutionary War, he most likely was a ‘minuteman’ member of “Cushing’s Regiment of Militia”.     Militia were men in arms formed to protect their towns from foreign invasion and ravages of war. “Minutemen” were a small hand-picked elite force which were required to be highly mobile and able to assemble quickly. Cushing's Regiment o...