2001-05-21 - 20:12 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

A Visit

Went out to Tent City this morning to pick up Heather's younger brother who came on a Northwest flight from Detroit. Although younger than Heather, he and I bonded early on when Heather decided to put up with me and she and I started going out togther.

After high school he went to college and became an engineer, married and had kids. One way or another we managed to keep in touch, family gatherings, also as they came through Denver on the way west to visit her folks.

Being a widower now he travels the country a lot to see his kids and sight see places he has never had the opportunity to experience.

Reminiscences and visiting were the order of the day. We went over to see their older brother (he's my age) for a while, tried to plan out the rest of the week, fed our faces and our spirits, talking about such things as when cars had running boards, headlights with easily changeable bulbs, windshields which opened up from the bottom. We also talked about the times he and I would knock golf balls around, back away in the field behind their house. Picking up Horny Toads to take to his house.

Reminds me of the time we had come up from Florida to visit. While there our oldest son roamed the vacant lots, there were still a few of them then. In the course of his rambles he picked up three Horny Toads, found a shoe box and proceeded to explain how he was going to take care of them on the way back to Florida. He did a good job of it while I drove straight through from Denver to Tampa. Of course things were arranged so that when we stopped for gas near a big grocery store, all four of the car doors would pop open and boys and girls head for the restrooms, Heather would run to the store to replenish supplies. The kids would return, Heather would come with arms loaded with eatables, she would pay for the gas and oil while I went to the restroom and off we would go.

Naturally the further we went the more fatigued I became, and the need for some live body to talk to and keep me awake had priority. ONe of the poor car captives would do the duty.

The last day down the West Coast of Florida I would glance over to see the tiny, new, baby Horny Toads milling around in the shoebox, gee it looked like at least a zillion of them and never could figure out why pregnancy was not obvious. -- Sheesh I thought they hatched out of eggs -- have been wrong about other things too -- shh -- don't tell.

Somehow a few days after we got home the Horny Toads got loose and split the scene. For sometime thereafter one kid or another would come up with the hitherto unknown creatures, made quite a splash, until they were told that we had brought them down from the dry vacant lots of Denver.

Heather's brother taught me a modicum of automobile mechanics and the greasy part of the operation. I used to sit with him, reading one of the text books not in use, in the basement room his Dad made for him to use as a study. Peaceful silence for an hour or two at a time. Me learning or re-learning good stuff. At that stage of my life I was attempting to learn what I would have if not bolting school about four years previously.

He finished his college out of state, met and finally married the gal he chose to be his wife and Heather and I proceeded to raise children.

In that time, 1943, the war was still going on, their oldest brother was in the Navy, everything was scarce. I acquired a 1931 Ford Victoria with 600x16 wheels and damn few ration stamps. He helped me rig up the means of running tubing from the gas tank through the manifold heater and thence to the gravity feed carburetor. After that scientific experiement took place -- determining how many moth balls to a tank of diesel fuel was needed to run the monster. It worked, maybe not well but did work and made many a trip carrying me to and from work.

I learned many practical things from him and his father -- as they were the experts in "make do," survival in the wartime city.

The showing of photos he brought today and some of the recent ones of ours will occupy even more time than what was used today.

The rest of the week is a mish mash of dental appointments, physical therapists and family visiting. Heather and Little Brother are trying to come up with a schedule while I am in here attempting to say something sensible and probably babble a bit.

When it comes to family, good things always happen when a member of it comes on A Visit . . . . .

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