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 Post subject: Classic Family Stories.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:00 am
  

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Arlo Fanatic

Joined: Jun 09, 2004
Posts: 1931
Location: Brisbane OZ
OK not sure if I've told this one before.
My Dad grew up in Silverton Ore. His Dad (who was still with he and his Mom) and some of his Uncles worked in the Sawmill. My Dad had a good friend whose Mom owned a boarding house where lots of the Sawmill workers lived.

He use to go there after school and throw a ball around out in the yard with his friend. One day a stranger wandered to town to take up a job at the mill. He moved into the boarding house and the tall, handsome young man used to play ball with my Dad and his friend in the evening.

Dad said he was real friendly and polite and thay thought it was great that he played with them cos they were just little kids.
Anyway as time went on this youg man eventually made his way to LA and became Clarke Gable.

Now Dad only told me this a couple of years ago when I was looking thru a copy of a list of people who worked in the Mill. He keeps eveything as did his Mother so he's go all her stuff too!

I noticed he had wriitten little notes in red next to peoples names and I noticed one that said BECAME CLARKE GABLE.

So my Dad is nearly ninety and tho his short term memory is getting a little rusty he still remembers all the stories and tho he's passed on MANY I continue to pick his brain for more as I do my Mom about our OZ family.

See what YOU can find out I'd love to hear YOUR stories~


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:18 am
  

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Joined: Jun 30, 2008
Posts: 393
Location: Austin
What a wonderful story!!!

Please...continue to pick!!!
I lost my Dad when he was only 56 and I was 16. The stories I missed out on!

My Mom did tell me a while back that they saw Louis Armstrong. Not really a story, but I was impressed by that! :D Well, they were more the Lawrence Welk type. Picturing them getting down to St. James Infirmary, really blew me away! That song came on TV not too long ago and Hubby and his bandmates were watching. Hubby pops up and says "Gee, that sounds like funeral music" I told them "It kind of is"...and proceeded to tell them about the song and the lyrics and when I was done, they were all looking at me like I had a frog on my head! :D They just couldn't believe that I knew that....or why I knew that. 8) (and they are ten years my senior)

I know this wasn't what Louise had in mind, but it was all I had at the moment. :wink:

I would love to hear everyone's stories as well!


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:20 am
  

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Joined: Dec 23, 2005
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Nice stories. I got nothin' that compares to these. Just picnics in the summer, a few camping vacations with jelly fish on the beach. Oh! one time my dad found an injured owl in the woods and brought it back to the cabin we were staying in. Very cool, I'd never seen a bird turn it head around like this one did. :)


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:45 am
  

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Joined: Sep 12, 2000
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Location: New Jersey
Yeah, it's a nice story. But frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. :wink: :D


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:57 am
  

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Joined: Dec 23, 2005
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oh well :)


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:23 pm
  

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Joined: Sep 05, 1999
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Location: Mystic, CT
My Grandpa was born and raised in New York City. When he was a teenager, he worked at the local YMCA, teaching younger kids how to play basketball. One of those younger kids was Fred Astaire. I wonder if Fred Astaire learned any of his moves from my Grandpa?!


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:03 pm
  

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Joined: Jun 09, 2004
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Location: Brisbane OZ
OK here's one from my Mom's side of the family, the OZ side.

My Mom's maternal Grandpa was a ner do well. He liked horses, the ones that run around a track..get my drift. He was not really a settle down commitment type. They lived in Sydney but when my Nana was about 13 she and her Mum moved up here to Brisbane and her Dad was not spoken of much ever again.

But we have heard a few stories. During WW1 he was a kind of horse trader who aquired horses to be shipped to the Middle East to be used for the Australian Light Horse Brigade.

The best story so far is about how he dressed up as a Sheik booked into a VERY expensive hotel in Sydney then and ran up all kinds of expenses. Well he was found out of course and his family (birth family)had to foot the bill. When it came time to get an inheritance from above his share was ONE SHILLING!

He was a rogue alright. One time when the family were still together in Sydney, he wanted to go down to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup (OZ version of the Kentucky Derby) My Great Nana said NO we can't afford it. So he sent himself a telegram in which he pretended to be his mother, who lived in Melbourne, saying she was seriously ill and he must come at once!

Do you have any rogues in your family? You know like my Great Grampa, someone that someone might have fallin in love with but had to get rid of or was left by. Not someone really bad or evil but who should never have tried marriage or parenthood.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:08 pm
  

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:lol: great comeback Lar, guess that will always be Gable's most famous line.

Hey Lar since you and I both have Norwegian blood do you have any stories from that side of your family. You've probably, like me, had relatives who were lost at sea, that happened alot.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:58 pm
  

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Joined: Jan 29, 2002
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Location: Hewitt, NJ USA
My mother was a jewelry designer. She worked in the Empire State building for Cohen & Rosenberger (Now CORO) and kept a play pen there for me and my cousin, so she could work and have a kid(s) at the same time. (Which I thought was way ahead of her time and quite cool in retrospect) Anyway, during the war (& before me /kids in general), she (a huge NY Rangers fan) always had row A seats right behind the NY Rangers - bench (dugout???) She got to know the guys and ended up designing jewelry and beaded purses for all the players wives. She had a fabulous autograph book of all the players of that time, (thanking her for her work) that occasionally she would bring out and share.

My bio father Jack - the man knew more about baseball than any other person I ever knew or heard on TV. I mean - things like who was pitching to who in what game of what series...it didnt even have to be NY. I was quite grown up (I mean age wise, before anyone objects otherwise) when I found out he had actually be scouted for a major league team. That was kind of thrilling for me. Although I dont know how far into it he was, evidently the draft and WWII got in the way.

When I was 16, and already quite restless and arbitrary, Jack tried to set me up with his best friends - sons - best friend; a freshman at LSU, while they were visiting NYC from LA. Because it was would have been a big favor for Jack - I naturally refused to do it. That boy was "Pistol" Pete Marovich. Oh well, too tall anyway. :roll:

Anyway - I dont have many stories (actually that's probably about it) - but I LOVE ready all yours. Please Keep them coming!!!!


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:26 pm
  

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Pistil Pete once played for the Celtics, while he was alive. I had always loved those outside shooters, since around the time of Bird. Even if Danny Angie was better in Collage, I still think he was great.


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:20 am
  

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Joined: Jan 12, 2007
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Location: france
My grandfather was born in a popular area in Paris (Belleville) and when he was young he often saw, in a caf’conc’ in Ménilmontant, a very young man ( born in the same "famous" district) who sang and imitated some artists.
He didn’t know then, that this boy, who was Maurice Chevalier , would become a well-known artist (…….at least in France…….but I think also in Hollywood in the 30s ) :)


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:31 am
  

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Location: Brisbane OZ
ah yes, and Maurice's comeback in the 50's, GiGi. From a Colette story, no?


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:59 pm
  

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louise wrote:
:lol: great comeback Lar, guess that will always be Gable's most famous line.

Hey Lar since you and I both have Norwegian blood do you have any stories from that side of your family. You've probably, like me, had relatives who were lost at sea, that happened alot.


Well, my grandmother's sister, my Great Aunt Ruth came over from Norway back sometime in the 1920's as my grandmother did. She was a nurse, and worked as a nursemaid/nanny for Charles Lindburgh. This was after the famous kidnapping with another child. My mother has a letter from the Lindburghs to my "Tante Ruth".


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:25 pm
  

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Louise wrote:
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ah yes, and Maurice's comeback in the 50's, GiGi. From a Colette story, no?

Yes, you’re quite right Louise.


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:42 pm
  

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Location: Brisbane OZ
Gosh Lar.................you know maybe one day we could all contribute stories to a book "Blunderites' Families Brushes with the Famous and Notorious"
I think there might be a very experienced editor living among us? :wink:


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