Our Family Tree Begins to Sprout

As I have mentioned a couple times before one of the main reasons for me taking the time and making the effort to create this blog is for my granddaughter Ka'mya's benefit later on in her life. I don't expect her to really appreciate any of my ramblings till she becomes a young adult.  I know it wasn't till then that I myself started wondering about some of the relatives I did not know very well, mainly my biological dad.  Telling that single story about traveling to find my dad alone will take at least a couple of postings, but I am going to save it for a bit later on...

Ka'mya with you living all the way out on the east coast and myself living on almost the opposite shoreline, I figured it would be hard for you to know much about your family which lived out west.  I am not made from the same cloth as your other Grandma whom will come live with your family from time to time so you can know her better. I have watched as other people go about living their lives and I can see I have lived by an unusual life style then almost anyone else I know. It is true I am acquainted with hundreds of people in my local community but in the same breath I can say I have merely a small handful of folks I would truly call my friend.  Being removed from people has it's ups and downs like anything else in ones life.  When someone you know is trapped badly in a car accident your emotions do not overwhelm you to the point where it is hard to concentrate on the life saving task at hand.  Unfortunately when someone you love and care about deeply doesn't see or hear from you very often it makes them feel like I don't care about them, which is the farthest from the truth, (aka son and daughter).  In these next few postings I am going to try and help you know a bit about the other west coast relatives you  most likely will never get to meet, but many in some small way played a part in whom I became as an adult...

...I only knew my Great Grandparents names by Ma and Pa, which I think would make them be your great, great, great grandparents, I was too small to remember them before they both passed away.  My mom or your great Grandma Charlie will have to chime in here a bit for you to get much story about them. I have a vague picture in my mind of Ma but I think it is from old pictures I have seen of her.

This was their house seen many years after Ma and Pa had passed away

You are going to get a very lopsided ancestral lesson about your west coast family because I never new my real dad and was never close to my step dads (Lyle's) family. (deep breath) The family I remember starts with your great great Grandpa and Grandma Gray.  They had four children, Dorothy whom was married to Uncle Ed Waldren before he was killed in a notable landslide while working during a big rain storm.  My mom, your great grandma Charlene was born then a few years later.  The twins Jack and Jill were both born before Grandpa and Grandma Gray put a stop to having more children.  Over the next few days my goal is to give you, Ka'mya, a quick look at each of these family members.  I had written a request on my blog for members of our family to let me know a bit about themselves so I could include their thoughts to you.  After your great grandma Charlie's piece months earlier, Aunt Jill is the second person in the family to make contact with me about her life and here is the paragraph she e-mailed to me...

My goodness did we not feed you right as a child, now you need to know what relative to blame. Or, do you really not know us, as to our life and again your Mother did not teach you to ask a women her B. date. I don't think the limb on your family tree can hold me up.      Love Aunt Jill

...hummm LOL  ooook, Ka'mya my Aunt Jill, believe it or not married a guy whose first name was Jack.  Funny thing is Aunt Jill's twin brother Jack, married a lady called Jackie.  So I had my Uncle Jack Gray and Aunt Jackie, and my Uncle Jack North and Aunt Jill in my life while I was growing up.  Aunt Jill was a nurse much of her life and her husband Jack worked for the Wonder Bread Company I think as a bread truck mechanic.  The most notable things I remember about Aunt Jill is her loud laugh when at family parties.  From across the room you would be able to hear Aunt Jill scream and start laughing loudly about something.  Anybody else in the room would look at each other an exclaim "sounds like Aunt Jill is here".  The other notable thing about Aunt Jill is she always wrapped all her presents in the newspaper comics.  Aunt Jill never had any children of her own but her generosity towards poorer families in her community of Medford is well known.  Aunt Jill came down with some kind of cancer and managed to struggle through that low time in her life.  Her husband and her are now both retired and travel back and forth between Arizona and Oregon as the weather dictates for both their health.

front row

Cousin Karen  

Grandma Gray

 Aunt Jill in the green

back row

Cousin Arnie blue shirt  

Cousin Lonnie 

 Aunt Dorothy

A young billy blaze with the hat on

 your great Grandma Charlie in white

Uncle Jack and his two children

Jason and

Sheri

A picture of middle America living on the west coast...