Photo from early 1940's from his days as a cook in the Aleutian Islands during WWII.
His favorite sports: Baseball (big Yankees fan - Ruth and Gehrig), chess: lots of hours playing postal chess and a lot of games with Leo Falardeau, his Coleraine friend. We played some backyard basketball. His specialty was the two hand "kiss" shot (a version of a set shot)
Favorite baseball players: Tris Speaker, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Pie Traynor, Burleigh Grimes.
Favorite song: " It's a long long way to Tipperarry"
Skills: He could do some cooking (see chef-hatted photo). Dishes I remember: macaroni and eggs, poached eggs, corned beef hash (with eggs), fried green tomatoes. He didn't like ripe tomatoes, because he ate too many one summer as a kid, he said.
He could recite poetry from memory: "Jennie Kissed Me," "Jim Bludsoe," "Face on the Bar Room Floor," "Cremation of Sam McGee," "Little Britches," "The Night Before Christmas," and more.
He coached Cub Scouts softball teams, and a town team in Coleraine and Bovey with older guys. He seemed to me to know a lot about baseball. He used to say that he could have been a pro, except that he threw his arm out pitching. The truth? Who knows. He taught us to play "running bases," a game to hone skills to get someone caught in a run down. He taught me to bunt and how to field a ground ball. He let me play second base and I have thought of myself as one when playing baseball ever since.
He played some baseball into his fifties and mostly pitched then. He could run, but had an uneven gait that seemed ungainly, but was reasonably fast. He batted right handed, threw right handed.
He didn't like to fish. He said that he scared the fish away. He did some deer hunting in his younger days and joined John McCune, John Gomulak and Marvin Anderson in some northern Wisconsin hunts. He used a 30-30 Krag(?) in those hunts. There were many talks about hunting adventures while we visited the family at the Yellow Lake farm of Grandpa Richard Anderson.
He seemed to have some familiarity with boxing, maybe from the service. He bought us boxing gloves one year and set up fast punching bag in the basement.
He liked dogs rather than cats. He liked his coffee black and strong. He liked Plymouth cars (Chrysler Corp.) rather than General Motors.
He was the third of six children and seemed to have a special fondness for his two sisters, Jane and Betty.
He was 5'11" tall and had blue eyes. He never weighed more than about 160 pounds.
He smoked Lucky Strikes and Raleighs - cork tipped - in those days. He never really quit, even in the intensive care wards after heart attacks.
He taught Sunday school at the Methodist church one years in Coleraine. His professed religion and that of his brothers and sisters was Methodist. Mom was a Lutheran, and thus theirs a mixed marriage.
This is his high school graduation picture from about 1927.
Comments and corrections are welcome.
6 comments:
He broke a leg in a lumber camp on the North Shore. Drove truck for a living for a while. Liked to drive, I think. He was in the Aleutian Islands (Am Chitka?) when his only daughter was born in 1944; he was attached to the army. He wasn't regular army but said he had army dog tags and a rank so in case he was captured by the enemy he'd be treated as a prisoner of war. He thought dogs should have short, one syllable names like Spot, Sport and Tag. He saved someone's life once -- from drowning, I think. He did not approve of sandwiches for supper (dinner was the noon meal) but expected there to be bread on the table, always. He spent one semester at college, then his father died and he went home to help out the family. The great depression formed and changed his life, as it did the rest of his generation. He was a math wizard, quite smart. He wasn't the best father in the world, but he wasn't the worst, either. May he rest in peace. He called me Tilda Jane -- don't know why. Some or all of this may not be true, but it is what I remember.
I never knew him. He held me once as a baby, I'm told, when we came down from Canada. I went to his funeral and cried because everyone else was crying, being too young to understand what was going on. He was the only person allowed to call Teresa "Terry" without incurring her wrath. I heard a lot about him all my life and I was taught many of his favorite expressions. I like to know my family's history and to see the photos of bygone days. NM
A couple of more things. He couldn't sing a lick, he was a monotone. I remember being in church near him and hearing his attempts at singing hymns. It wasn't very pretty. But oddly, many of his descendants are quite talented musically.
He wasn't much of a hugger either. I don't remember being hugged much as I grew up, but I know that he liked babies and was happy to hold them.
SS: He also called you "Honey Girl." And all of what you said is true.
NM: I'm happy to share what I remember after all these years. He was an important role model and kind of idol of your dad, who I hope reads this and adds some of what he remembers, too. He had a couple more years with him than I did. TT
From the one of the younger two. He smoked Kools for the last fifteen years. Always re-started Chess games (for fair and competitive play). Had the only family Chess team for 2 or 3 years at the University of Mn. in which he was first board and one of his sons were 2,3 & 4. A novelty for there. He valued post-secondary education and expressed it often, never had any animals except a dog when I was too young to remember, and a cat when I was in elementary school which was suppose to be Marks. Sam McGee, was another one of his favorites as well as Casey at the Bat. (That one rubbed off!) He also had one I think he made up, about the Cockroaches and the Bedbugs playing ball. I truly appreciate a tribute to a man who will live on in our minds and memories. It is nice to share these. Great pictures!
Quite an interesting set of statistics and memories. But as the oldest, I must make some corrections bro. The chef's hat comes from the days when he was a cook in the CCC in the 1930s. He once told us that the commanding general would come by the camp where dad was cook at lunch time just to get the specialty that he had accidentally created. It seems he had made some cold slaw and some how it got left on the stove and thouroughly cooked and the general loved it.
In the Alutians he was in charge of vehicle maintenance. He went up there as a truck driver but because he had done his driving in areas where you had to fix your own flat tires, it seems he was one of the few people who knew how to "boot" a truck tire so that became his job. Teaching others. He was on the island of Kamchitka I believe. He said it was the other side of yesterday. He was an excellent cook.
The thanksgiving day after mom died was one of the best we ever had. Dad did everything that day because he did not want us to miss thanksgiving dinner because mom was no longer with us. Guys, it was the best we had ever had. He did it all, from turkey and stuffing to all the pies and other trimmings. He was one good cook, probably better than mom and she was good. But he would not infringe on her area out of respect. He loved her totally. One of my fondest memories is seeing her chase him out the back door with a spatula in her hand and both of them laughing at the top of their voices. Happy and in love. I have more and I will be posting them.
Thanks for posting, Tommy. I'm sure that your memory of the cook's hat photo is correct. I don't remember the Thanksgiving that you recall, but the fact that you do is one of the reasons that I write this stuff. The things that I remember of his cooking, for instance, are different than your memories. Do you remember any of his other cooking specialties? TT
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