This blog has caused me to think about things that I had not thought about in years--I would have thought they were forgotten, but as I start to write about one thing, half a dozen others come to mind. One of the memories is of the old popcorn and fresh-roasted peanut vendors who lined Puyallup Avenue in Tacoma when I was growing up. The taste of those peanuts has been "haunting" me for the last several days. I've never had them any place else. I mentioned that to Stan today and he has a horrible memory of those vendors. A large airplane had crashed into several houses north of Boeing field and he remembers the vendors there while the gruesome mess was being cleaned up. Awful memory, but I still wish I knew where to find peanuts like those.

I'm getting so "21st century," it's almost scary. Within the past couple of weeks I've joined Facebook, started this blog and am working on a PowerPoint presentation. Fortunately Nicole will be stopping by tomorrow morning to help me with that. I have to have it ready for a breakfast meeting next Wednesday, so hope she's a good teacher--

I think I'm not the fastest learner.

My dad had 2 older sisters, Vivian & Aurel and 2 brothers, one older, Beryl, and one younger, Halford, than him. They grew up in Dixie, WA, a little "spot on the road" east of Walla Walla. His dad was a wheat farmer--I wonder if they leased the land up Dry Creek or if the Kellys owned it. 

Many of his aunts, uncles and cousins also lived in Dixie. My "somehow removed" cousin Pat has done a very extensive genealogy of the Kelly family. His dad, Glenn Kelly, was my dad's first cousin.

Pat has been all over the U.S. researching in libraries, cemeteries, colleges and any place else he could think of that he might dig up a little information on the Kelly family. Thanks to Pat we have all of that information on disc. Now if I just knew someone who had researched Pop's family and Grandma (Warren) Kelly's family, I could put it all together. Kyle & I were going to start learning how to do genealogy, but then they moved to Sandpoint & I've never done much more than "I wish..."

Grandpa Kelly had a mustache most of his life. One time when Daddy was a young teenager, they went to town together and were to meet at a certain place at a certain time. Daddy was there on time, but couldn't figure out why his dad wasn't. Finally the man sitting next to him at the counter spoke to him and Daddy recognized his father's voice--Grandpa had been to the barber & had his mustache shaved off!

Daddy & his brother were playing hide and seek one time when they were kids & Daddy went into another room to hide. He decided to peek through the keyhole to see if Halford was coming after him, just at the same time that Halford stuck a rod through the same keyhole, poking my dad in the eye & causing him to lose almost all of his sight in that eye. They all remained friends, though, until separated by death. 

I only remember seeing Grandpa once when I was about 5 and he died of a heart attack shortly after that. Grandma Kelly died of breast cancer in June of 1959. I was unable to go to her funeral, however, as I was busy having a baby, Timm.

Stan & I were recently over that way to watch Jessica and her fellow basketball team members win the Oregon State AA basketball championship and while driving from Walla Walla to Pendleton, we remembered how much Daddy liked to go for drives up there. Even though we didn't go through Dixie, it still reminded us very much of him.

As you can see, I still am not totally in the 21st tech century! I still can't figure out how to get my pix where I want them w/wraparound text.I had them at the side of the blog, instead of at the top, but couldn't get things straightened out so I'll try to let you know who's who. Was going to load in some more pix, but that would cause this post to be at least 3 1/2' long! so they'll wait for another time

The wedding picture is Grandpa & Grandma Kelly; both pictures w/kids were taken before Halford was born, so in one Grandma is holding Aurel, Vivian is standing between her & Grandpa Kelly, holding Daddy (Archie Wilber), with Beryl standing. The other picture of kids is the same group: Aurel, /Wilber, Beryl & Vivian. There's a picture of Grandma Kelly holding Vic in 1958 and Daddy & his siblings at his & Mother's 50th anniversary party--Halford, Aurel, Daddy & Beryl. Vivian died from cancer in 1948 so she's only shown in early pictures. 

 Grandpa Kelly's name was Arch, so Daddy was called Wilber by his family; Mother & her family and most of their friends called him Kelly, and he usually went by Archie at work--I don't believe he had a split personality, however.