Christmas Eve

 Happy Christmas Eve!  

Stevie, Jay and Far Guy at his paternal grandparents home in the 1950's.  I will guess 1956 or 1957. The boys are cousins meeting up at their Grandparents home...were I am sure there was chicken and noodles and lots of homemade treats.  The photo was most likely taken Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. 

Far Side

Ancestry Connection

Far Guy took an Ancestry DNA test a year ago.   Good thing too as it was the beginning of a much larger story.

On Sunday January 5  Far Guy received an email from someone on Ancestry " Hello. I am now in a more comfortable position to start messaging those connected to me on this site.  You and I are related.  I know for sure you are not one of the siblings, so you must be a cousin to my father.  I would love to know more about his side.  Would you mind helping me?  Thanks"

Far Guy said "I think I got a spam email on Ancestry?"  I replied "Spam is very unlikely on Ancestry."  I talked him into answering the email... "Fathers name, where does he live now...what year were you born?"

In the meantime Far Guy emailed his cousin who said "Is this a joke?"  Nope... a few minutes later the phone rang and more conversation continued between the cousins.  A bit of research was done, a few questions asked.  I point blanked asked "Did  you have unprotected sex sometime in the early 1980's in one particular part of the United States?"  The answer was yes... possibly.  I found a photo of his daughter on the Internet ...no doubt in my mind that he was a daddy.

He could not believe it...he had many questions...should he have a DNA test to prove paternity?  Should he email her or just call her???  He was just stunned and repeated over and over I just cannot believe this is happening....then he would say of course if I have a daughter I want to meet her and be involved in her life.

We were sworn to secrecy!  He asked me not to write about it on the blog until his daughter had time to contact all her relatives to tell them the news.  She has recently acknowledged her Dad on Facebook...so now I can share this story with you!  They have met and spent several days together, he is not only a father but a grandfather.  He has no other children so this new found daughter is an absolute blessing to him. We are just thrilled for him and for his daughter and we hope to meet her when she comes to Minnesota.

 She is a teacher.

She was persistent.  Last summer she contacted a sibling, that said they would "get back to her"  but never did. Can you imagine a sibling not saying anything to another sibling?

She then figured that her father may not want to be in contact with her....I guess you always consider the worst case scenario.

Anyway she wanted to try one last time and Far Guy was the connection she pursued...one last try to see if she could find out something about her Dad.

I love that TV Show Long Lost Family and watch it all the time.  Never thinking that we would be involved in our own drama!

For the record.  Far Guy's cousin did not know about a pregnancy or a child.  Finding out you are a Dad and a Grandpa at age 70 is quite a shock...they both feel many years have been wasted so they hope to make up for it now.

Far Side

The Unbelievable Uglies

We ran across an old pin.

The first real date that I had with Far Guy was Thanksgiving weekend 1967.  We went to the Detroit Lakes Armory to a dance that would be the first of several Uglies dances we would attend.   Rock and Roll at it’s finest.  Winston Fink with his rubber chicken was a real showman. One of the best parts of the dance was watching the band. They caused a rock and roll riot in Fargo North Dakota that same year and were banned from playing their music in town for a while. (quite shocking for Fargo)

Back at the dance in DL as it is known by the locals, Far Guy had a former girl friend in town his cousins Rod and Tom would dance by and say “Nickel for your thoughts..and got a nickel?”  His former girlfriends name was Penny.  He had more old girlfriends than any other guy I dated.

The Uglies made a few records, they didn’t get famous.  I always thought they would be discovered.  Winston Fink (Dave) died on New Years Day in 2008.  So when the band does a reunion tour it would never be quite the same.

A long time ago Far Guy met one of the replacement drummers when he joined the Happy Hooligans. His name might be Gary Breyer…Far Guy cannot quite remember.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. The Uglies made a video that showed a house that Far Guy recognized.  He was on the Fire Department back then and the house burned down.  The people who lived there were more concerned about the welfare of the fireman than their home. It turned out to be one of the Unbelievable Uglies homes.

I am a music snob.  I don’t listen to music unless it is old Rock and Roll preferably from the 1960’s. 

These cold winter nights bring on old memories of good music with a great date 

Wistful Wednesday: Christmas 1957

We believe that this photograph was taken in 1957, the little boys would have been 9, 6 and 7.  That is Far Guy on the right. The other little boys are his cousins..Stevie and Jay. We had a discussion about this photograph..you see the Christmas Tree is on the wall where the piano always sat. Far Guy does not remember that chair.  We believe this photo was taken at Grandma and Grandpa H's... Another thing that puzzles us is the Military Hat hanging on the wall..did it belong to Uncle Jimmy or was it Uncle Archies..and was it common to hang them on a wall? Lots of unknowns in this photo..and I do hope that relatives will help to answer some of these questions.

Grandmas plants had been moved in from the front porch..and she perched some Christmas cards in the upper window ledge..I can recall her doing that in the dining room..but I suppose she did it in the living room also. We were hardly ever in the living room, unless there were lots of people in the house..we were usually in the dining room or the kitchen, that seemed to be the hub of this old farmhouse.

Those fancy dolies on the chair..lots of women had them on the good furniture. I have several old sets that I purchased at garage sales..I don't suppose they will ever come back in fashion again..but you never know!

I can almost smell the chicken and noodles cooking on the stove, and I can imagine that these three little boys could put away a bunch of Christmas Cookies:)