Evenin' Folks Huggy-Kissy Kin I bet you ladies had relatives who were overly affectionate? My sister Angel attracted at least one like that. I'll call him Leon. That was his name anyway. My family was never into the huggy-kissy-touchy-feely type of greetings that many people seem to go for. We were a hands off family. Hell, gramps wouldn't even shake hands with anyone. He considered uninvited touching as a kind of physical assault. Dad was always friendly and outgoing. Mom was quiet and reserved. I guess that rubbed off on the rest of us. Mom had this cousin named Leon. He was about mom's age. Leon attended the same church as us, often the same mass time. He sat in the last pew on the left. After mass, dad liked to loiter around the parking lot and talk to people he knew well. One Sunday Leon came over, was greeted by mom, who Leon threw his arms around and kissed her on the cheek. Mom hid her dislike and introduced Leon to the rest of us, who never met him before then. Leon hugged dad, hugged me, and gave Angel a long lingering hug. I should explain here that Angel was 12 years old then. She was very well endowed for her age. Tall for a girl, tanned by hours on a tractor and quite strong. And she hated being touched. Well, we continued seeing Leon at mass on Sundays. I noticed he seemed to get there early and would intently watch every woman that entered until she was seated. My first thought was "you old pervert". And, after mass he would come over to my family in the parking lot for hugs and kisses. Angel would bolt out the church door after mass and run to the car to wait for the rest of us. Well mom, not thinking Leon would accept, invited him to visit sometime. He did. It became a Sunday habit, until one eventful Sunday. We had just exited the church and were visiting with people in the parking lot, as was dad's custom. Leon came over, grinning like a possum, arms outstretched. Angel had flat out told him one Sunday as he visited us at home, no hugs. Leon must have had a memory lapse because he made a bee line for Angel before she could get to the car. Wrapping his arms around her, he tried kissing her as usual. I saw the look on Angel's face and knew this is going to be good. Leon made a ''woofing" sound, his face took on a pained expression and he hunched over. Angel backed away, fist clenched, face wearing her most evil look. Mom yelled something like "Angel, what did you do"? Mom ran over to Leon, who was retreating to his car, still hunched over and walking funny. She asked if he was ok. Leon waved her away, got in his car and drove off, still leaning forward in the seat. So, no more visits from Leon and, he attended mass at later times so he wouldn't see us. Amazing, what a hard knee to the groin can accomplish. And that's where my aversion to being touched comes from. a trait from mom's side of family. Sometimes I meet well meaning women who can't seem to keep their hands off. While talking to me, they touch my hand or take hold of my arm or pat my cheek or shoulder. This always make me nervous. Once, I was working in a plants machine department. My job was to keep the machine operators supplied with parts. My boss was a woman. One night she came over to my desk, grabbed my arm and pulled me along out to the warehouse, knowing all the machine operators in the area were watching. Turns out, she knew of my barroom exploits and just wanted to stir up a bit of gossip. She did but nothing else happened. And, I guess my temper comes from gramps through mom. Gramps didn't have the words to express himself like the Joe college types. When he got quiet in the middle of an argument and stopped swearing, expect a fist any second. In his prime, he won a number of arguments, I'm told. LOL <3 Bethanne
Sounds like Angel knew exactly what to do to stop that old pervert! Thanks for sharing Bethanne. I miss your dad too.
There will always be an empty spot here in the heart of this forum. He always put a smile on everyone's face, even when he didn't feel good himself. I miss him too.
I agree, Lara, I still have my keepsake copy of the Iowa "Noospaper", from when Dennis left us! I miss him a lot!
Ever Influenced by Movies As A Child? Was anyone else as influenced by movies as I was, as a child? I suffered much because of movies. Movies were my passion. Still are. One Sunday afternoon Ike took me into town to see a movie while he payed his current gal pal Charlene, a visit. A war movie was playing. Westerns were my usual fare but as long as there was lots of action, it would do. Well, it was a movie about fighter planes. Since I knew Dad was in the airforce in WW2, I ate up the action. In fact, I sat through it twice. After the second showing was over, I walked over to Charlene's house to get Ike. He was sort of smashed by then. Charlene had to drive us home. I drove her nuts describing all the action scenes. She kept telling me to shut up, she had to drive. Thus began my model airplane building phase. My first model plane was a glider. It was a kit. I had to cut out balsawood strips, glue them together to form the fuselage and wings, then cover them with some kind of tissue paper. My first attempt looked sloppy but it flew fairly well. Not satisfied with that, I pestered Ike until he gave me a few of his left over firecrackers. Big ones. Lengthing the fuse on one, I fastened it under the fuselage of the plane, climbed into the loft of the big barn, opened the loft door, lit the fuse and gave the plane a hard throw. My glider flew straight a bit then banked left over the garage and over the back yard it blew to shreds. It literally scared the pee out of Daryl who was sitting in the grass doing whatever 4 year olds do. WOW ! Awesome. My second plane was another glider much like the first one. After it was finished, I test flew it several times. It flew even better than the first. Looked better too. Well, this plane too, was taken up into the hay loft only on this plane I had glued a wad of tissue paper under the fuselage. This I lit on fire, then flung the plane out the loft door. The plane soared straight ahead, banked sharply to the left, then flew straight back toward the barn in a dive. Why do they always turn. An it was flaming so nicely too. WAAH ! TOWARD THE BARN ! I was down the loft ladder in record time, only to see that the blazing plane had flown into the open door below and the straw around the stalls was afire. Working frantically with a hay fork, I tossed all the burning straw out the door. As soon as I was sure every spark inside the barn was extinguished, I went outside and stomped out any smoldering straw. That's when dear old dad showed up. Well, I got a few swats on the butt for that, Ike was ordered not to take me to any more movies for a while, then only cartoons or something harmless. I didn't complain though. To a farmer, the loss of a barn was serious. So, things quieted down around the old farmstead for a while as I exited my model airplane phase. Bethanne
@Ike Willis You have carved a place in my heart with your stories and your personality that made me know you even though I never got to meet you in person. Thank you. And I look forward to the day we do meet face to face.
Hi All....So sorry it's been a while...crazy summer & even crazier start of the school year !! Here's the next long awaited story ! Favorite Christmas Anybody have a favorite Christmas or holiday? For me it was Christmas-1945 Christmas of 1945 was one I'll never forget. I was near 6 years old then but I have no memory of my Dad or uncles before the summer of 1945. My memory didn't kick in until I was about 4, it seems. That summer Dad, a stranger to me, came to live with us and a whole lot of strange men were coming by to visit. Dad left to fight in WW2 sometime after the Pearl Harbor attack. So did Dad's 3 brothers and 2 brother-in-laws. Dad and one brother were in the army air corps, as the air force was called then. They were both stationed at a base in Mendlesham England. A B-17 bomber base. Dad's other 2 brothers were navy, seeing action in the Pacific. A brother-in-law was also navy and the other was infantry. He saw much action. D day, battle of the bulge to name a few. And he helped liberate the death camps. He never quite got over that. Anyway, the day before Christmas we were all getting the old farmhouse ready for Dad's first Christmas at home since the war ended. Something was needed from town. Gramps still drove then, so he volunteered to drive in and get whatever item was needed. Preparations continued and gramps was forgotten until supper time. It was dark by then, and cold with lots of snow on the ground from a previous snowfall. Just as the adults were getting up a good worry, our old wooden cased crank wall phone rang our ring. It was the sheriff. He had gramps, would someone come and get him. So, Dad and big brother Ike took the car and went in after gramps. It seems that gramps stopped at a house that he thought looked like ours, staggered into their kitchen, sat at their table and passed out. Sheriff Hagan was an old friend. Since no damage was done, the sheriff was able to talk the offended family out of any charges. Christmas day was one of food, drink, laughter and gifts. I got acquainted with all the "new"uncles, their wives or girlfriends, and they gave me lots of neat stuff. Things like sailor hats, medals, a deactivated hand grenade, aircraft ID books, a canvas cartridge belt, nazi pennant, canteen and more. I was sure I died and went to heaven. A lot of Christmas's have passed since those days. Have a great evening, Bethanne
HI Everyone....I want to wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR !! I apologize for the long delay of writing !! It's been a rough several months & I don't think the next few will be much better. I really wanted to keep up on Dad's stories but finding it hard to get back to it. Dealing with a lot of issues, which keeps me away from other things. But I just wanted to send out a message to you all...that I didn't forget you. I have had you all on my mind A LOT !! But on a bright note....I believe Dad has made his presents know at Christmas...I had a cardinal out in my backyard ALL day Christmas, in the same spot every time I looked out....so I'm going to say that was him visiting !!! Anyway, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas & I wish you all the BEST this New Year !!! Love from Dennis Salek's family Bethanne
Oooh Hi Bethanne, lovely to hear from you. I can imagine it's been a very difficult year for you...and I love your story of the cardinal and I believe you that it was Ike, coming to visit, and I bet he knows you would tell a story about it to us here... I hope things get better for you and your family, and just come and visit when you can... we all wish you and Ike's beloved family... ( you did know he spoke of you so often don't you?)...a very Happy New Year...
Hope it will be a better New Year for you and yours Bethanne. Stop by whenever you can as you are always welcome here and we will always enjoy hearing another of your dad's stories. God bless you and yours during 2018 and always. I think your dad made a stop here today too as we had a male Cardinal visiting us for most of the day today.
Can we even believe it's been a year since our lovely Ike Willis left this earth... sometimes in life whether it's real or virtual friendship we meet people who are just special, and bring a richness to our lives, and Ike Willis was one of those people. we miss him here, we miss his tall tales and his real stories...we miss his lovely nature, and most of all we miss his presence. I hope if there's a heaven...( although Ike would probably rather be where the fun was happening wherever that is )... but wherever Ike's soul is, I hope he's having a great time, on a rocking chair on a porch , whittling and telling all his stories... Friends never die, they live always in our memories.. bless you Ike Willis wherever you are ....and Bethanne and family, on this sad first Anniversary..of your dad, and grandfathers' passing, we are thinking of you.