Special places to Grandma and Grandad White in Ohio

 Here is a list of places important to Grandma Kathleen and Granddad Jerry in Ohio, in their own words:

Amelia.  Population was 550 when we were growing up.  No traffic signals, Rte 125 was a two lane road until 1951.  HS basketball games were the major social event.  Places of interest:

• Wallace Music Shop.  Grandma's home.  Where her dad sold and repaired musical instruments.  Later run by your great aunt Janet.
• Little green house next door to the West.  Owned by the Wallaces, where Janet lived, after her marriage,until she moved into the Music Shop.
• White Acres.  156 acres.  I think it is now all homes, it's called Quail Creek, except for a small commercial area on Main St.  Big house with really high ceilings, a grand staircase.  Other buildings.  Two barns, one for horses, one for cows.  Groom's House.  Combined 3 car garage, tobacco stripping shed and hired hand's two tiny rooms, and a two-hole outhouse.  Tenant house next door (It once caught on fire) and another tenant house about 3/4 of a mile back from the road.  A long walk to a highway.  The tenant house was later moved to front on 125.

White Acres House

 

• Amelia Elementary School.  This was the HS in our time, our elementary school building was torn down.  You might be interested in how small the school was.  Also the gym where Granddad was the hero in two straight basketball games where we won by three and one points to keep our home streak winning alive at 46 and 47 games.  He scored the winning points in the last 30 and 5 seconds respectively.  He was carried around on shoulders after the last game.  Ex girl friend cheer leader kissed him and professed her love while Grandma looked on.  NOTE: Both Grandma and Granddad walked to school.  See how close they lived to each other.
• Wallace Restaurant.  About a block in distance to the west of the Wallace Music shop (where the old CG&P railroad crossed 125).  Was next to a gas station, while the lumber yards were across the street.  NOTE:  CG&P stood for Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth.  But the railroad never got past Georgetown.  Ran through White Acres.  Granddad remembers seeing the cars.  Abandoned circa 1940.  When the road was abandoned the ties and rails were removed.  The railroad fill was used by White Acres to get across a small stream.  Prior to that we had to go through the stream.  There were times our truck got stuck and had to be pulled out by our horses.  NOTE: Granddad was driving the tractor across the fill when he lost his steering.  The tractor went over the side and started to tip over when the front wheel got to the bottom of the fill and the tractor righted itself.  He was really scared.
• Granddad's best friend, Jack Francis, lived on Cleveland Lane.  Granda and his brother Jock occasionally rode work horses to get there.  We took the back route through our farm.  Usually Jack picked us up on his bike.  I rode on the crossbar, Jock on the carrier on the rear.
  
• Coffey's store.  A few homes east of grandma's house.  Doug and Peg went there for candy when we stopped at Granny and Gramp's house on Main Street after they moved from White Acres.
• New Richmond, Ohio.  Granny and Gramp lived on Front St. before moving to White Acres.  The last we knew the big homes were still there.  It was a great view of the Ohio River.  Granddad had relatives there when he was growing up.  Great view of the river and towboats moving along.  There was a ferry that White Acres horse truck used to get across to fairs at Germantown and Alexandria.  Later the ferry closed at 6PM.  Once our family was going to Clermont County from Frankfort and we tore along the roads to get there in time.  However we were just a little late getting there.  We raced down the drive blowing our horn.  Thankfully the pilot was a nice guy and came back and picked us up.  Otherwise we would have had an extra two hours drive.  NOTE:  The Ohio used to flood enough every few years that the homes on Front St were flooded.  Granny said the secret to the clean up was to sweep out the water and mud as the water level dropped below the level of the floor.
• Ohio River.  That was our primary place to water ski.  Initially we were at Varnholdt's marina on Front St.  There was about twice the difference in elevation compared to our Lake Anna home.  It was all steps.  Granny Jo and her boys used to camp in pup tents on a deserted beach at Point Pleasant.  We tubed, especially when a big stern wheeler went by.  There used to be a Dam just below New Richmond.  However it was eliminated and the water level is now higher eliminating almost all the beaches we used to visit.
• Coney Island.  Entrance at Kellogg Ave and Three Mile Road.  Really clean.  It was the big amusement park in southwestern Ohio.  Where your Great Uncle Cecil played in Clyde Trask's band at Moonlight Gardens.  He made a lot of money as a teenager.  Coney had at the time the largest swimming pool in the world with circulating water.  There were three coasters plus a very steep descent in a boat on Lost River.  There were a lot of other rides.  Than Coney developed King's Island and closed just about everything but the pool.  Since then they reopened some rides; how many we do not know.
• FYI.  The Island Queen used to transport passengers from the foot of Broadway to Coney.  It also made trips to places like New Orleans and Pittsburg.  There was a huge dance floor and Trask's band played on the Queen.  While tied up in Pittsburg, Cecil was watching a welder when he decide to go uptown.  The Queen blew up just a little after he left the boat.  Probably caused by the welder .  Coney opened up for orphans once a year before opening to the public.  They would board at Broadway and ride the Queen both ways.  Rides were free.  Granddad's Aunt Marie worked with the orphans.  So Jerry joined in with the orphans for their ride on the Queen and Coney's rides.  Granddad and his friends spent a fair amount of time at Sunlight Pool.  Coney is on US 52, just up from the Circle Freeway.
• TP White Funeral home.  TP White originally had funeral homes in New Richmond and Mt. Washington.  AS TP passed the homes on to his sons, the ultimate result is the MT. Washington home was owned and operated by the Croxtons and the New Richmond one by Sumner Powers.  He later opened a 2nd funeral home in Amelia.
• Clermont County Fairgrounds in Owensville.  The County Fair ran almost a whole week.  Granddad Cliff was on the Fair Board until he moved away and he was replaced by Granny Jo.  Granny Jo was always the Secretary of the Horse Show.  Granddad used to be at the fair every day it was open.  He got to sit in the Judges stand by the announcer.  While White Acres showed Registered Saddle Horses, he always liked the Hunter and Jumper classes best.
• We have no knowledge of the house Frank Gruppenhoff built, nor where Granddad Cecil studied music.

Granddad Jerry on being smaller than most of his friends

Here's an excerpt from story time with Granddad Jerry:

What would you do to hold your own against bigger kids?

Well in the first place, we were at White Acres. We had the barn, the yards, we could play football in the front yard, baseball in the side yard, we had the barn we could play basketball in, we could play Catcher in the Mow and whatnot, and so that’s where all the neighborhood kids came. I mean, back in those days, Amelia had a real mixture of sort of elite, to right down to the very bottom, drunks and whatnot. And I’m afraid that the language of the lower classes took over for us. I mean, there was one point along the way where I remember thinking, “y’know, all this cursing isn’t right, I can do better’n this.” And I stopped pretty quickly. 

We were a bunch of hoodlums. They were all older. I mean nowadays, I think parents and everybody would go crazy to see how we were left alone. And these kids came up to play at our place, and they just showed up by themselves on their bike or whatever to join in the games. They came because we had the big yard.That’s where the kids always came. I guess when I was about 7 or 8 we were playing Kick the Can and Wolf and stuff like that. And our place was just the place where everybody came. But when you’re the smallest guy, you don’t want anyone taking advantage of you. So I was always playing with bigger kids. I never felt bullied by anybody.


I remember everybody else could climb up to the rafters and they could reach up to the top, and their feet would touch the bottom. But when I’d climb up on the rafter I couldn’t reach to the top, so if I was going to climb up on a rafter playing Catchers, I’d have to go to the second level or whatnot and go up to the top of the barn. But I was always the smallest. But like Kathleen said, I had the football. And 5th and 6th graders would play, and I was a 3rd grader when I started to play, but I had a helmet on, no one else had a helmet on. And I always played safety, and a guy’d come running down the field by himself, I’d go over and hit him in the legs, knock him down, other times, I’d be hanging on and he’d be dragging me along, then somebody else would come up and hit ‘em. I was the only kid who got to play up like that.


G’ma: Not only did you have the ball, you also had the barn and the whole farm to run on. You had a good place.

G’dad: I guess I thought most of the kids my age were kinda wimps or something.


I never thought about it [all the others being bigger]. They were the guys I played with and they were always older than me. When I was at school, I was always playing with the older kids. And I was sorta the leader of the younger kids. I say younger kids, I mean kids in my class. But I never played with them for a long time. My best friend was Jack Francis, he was center on the basketball team, but he was always like a foot taller’n me. I never thought of him as--I knew he was bigger’n me--but I never thought of him as tall. I’ve seen some movies, pictures later and thought, “he was that much taller than me?” But I never felt handicapped because I was short, except that I couldn’t reach, and I couldn’t jump and I couldn’t --wasn’t as fast or as big as the other people, but I never felt short. But the girls that I dated, the shortest was probably about 4’11, and the tallest was probably like 5’10 or 5’11. I was 5’5 ½. It never bothered me. If they didn’t want to go out with me because I was short, I figured that they would tell me.

Valentine's day in Cincinnati, circa 1953

For the longest time, I thought I had the stereotypical sweet grandmother, the kind who gave her grandchildren unlimited sweets and never yelled, and was perfectly sweet and kind in every way. To be fair, I never heard Grandma Kathleen yell (even when she was upset!) and my siblings and I were always delighted by the amount of sweets and other treats we got while we were at her house. Grandma made visiting her home truly magical for us kids.

When we would talk about it with her as adults, she would say, "Well, you don't know; I'm not actually all sugar and spice!" We didn't believe her, even after she told us about devious plans that she'd come up with in the past--that never came to pass.

Until ONE day, we found out that she sent mean Valentine's to Granddad and his roommates!

Grandma was living at the YWCA in Cincinnati, and Granddad was attending the University of Cincinnati. They were living close enough that they could see each other. Granddad says that Grandma even came over at one point and cooked a meal for everyone to share.

Jerry (1951), Kathleen (1952)

Grandma had a brilliant idea. Months in advance, she prepared cards to send to Granddad and each of his roommates, and sent them home with her roommates during Christmastime. Why, you may ask? To throw them off the scent! Each of Grandma's roommates sent the card from her own hometown.

So when mean Valentine's cards started arriving for Granddad and his roommates from seemingly unrelated places in Ohio and Indiana, Granddad and his roommates were perplexed. 

When retelling the story, Granddad said, "The cards started out with something that looked nice and then got right nasty when you opened them up."

Granddad received this one "signed" by his cousin and roommate, Dave Grupenhoff:

Me thinketh

Thee stinketh

Another one that came in, also "signed" by the roommate of the recipient:

I would climb the highest mountain

I would swim the deepest sea

just to get 

away from thee.

I can imagine Granddad and his roommates' confusion, and Grandma struggling to keep a straight face while he tells her the riddle of the mean Valentine's cards. "How could this be happening?" Granddad and his roommates must have wondered out loud.

Granddad reminisced, "When the culprit finally confessed, we all could imagine she and her friends just sitting around and laughing at our confusion." 

He and Grandma both get a good laugh out of it now.

White Family Stockings: Pattern and instructions

In the previous post, I shared some background on how the family stocking tradition began. This post tells how to make the stockings.

3 complete and 2 incomplete stockings

Printable Instructions

If you want a simple printable pattern, use this PDF for the instructions (Steps A-H) and this PDF for the image grid pattern (Steps A-B). 

Find the 2-page PDF for the image pattern grid here

Find the 1-page PDF of the instructions here

Sarah digitized the pattern based on the 1940s grid pattern and notes that Grandma had hand written, and the new PDF pattern is at least 10 times easier to follow than the original pattern. Sarah added numbers that make it easier to follow. You can either print it in color or shade it in after printing it in greyscale to help remember which color to use. Message me if you would like a copy of the editable spreadsheet.

The 1940s pattern with grandma's handwritten instructions

More detailed instructions

Skills required: 

• Knit stitch, purl stitch to make stockinette stitch
• Knit two together
• Mattress stitch
• Duplicate stitch 
• Crochet daisy chain for hanging loop

Materials:

-4 ply yarn (worsted weight = ordinary yarn)

I used Red Heart Super Saver. Get enough of each color to finish your stocking.

• 2 ½ oz. Red (boy)/ White (girl)
• ½ oz Green
• ½ oz. White
• ½ oz. Red 
• Beige (Santa face, hands)
• Black (belt- boots- face)

-Size #3 Needles

• I like 2 sets of aluminum circular needles. 29 inches long.
• If you like straight needles instead, you'll need 2 straight needles, 15 inches long, and 4-5 double pointed needles- 7 inches long

-Thread that matches to sew bias tape at top of stocking: Red (boy)/White (girl)

-Matching bias tape to keep the top from curling

• I got Wrights white Bias Tape Hem Facing (1.875" wide x 2.5 yd long) from JoAnn Fabrics and Wrights scarlet Double Fold Bias Tape Quilt Binding (0.875" wide x 3.0 yd long)

-Small crochet hook for repairs, darning needle, 2-3 stitch holders, stitch marker
-Print pattern and image, add name to pattern, Draw 3" and 8" marks on your paper for the heel flap length and foot length, respectively.

Instructions:

A. Body:

• Cast on 90 stitches (Gauge: 8 sts=1 inch from the pattern. I actually knit 6 sts = 1 inch). For this long-tail cast on I think I've been using about 5 feet of tail.

Instructions for long-tail cast on

A basic idea of what each step looks like on the stocking

• Follow image pattern until row 64. Each row in the pattern image is a double row: a knit row + a purl row.

Progress of the stocking body worked with straight needles. January 2017.

Notes on switching colors in the middle of rows:

• Leave at least a 6 inch tail, you can weave ends in later (optional). The Kitchener/ toe Stitch video at the end of this post has a good demonstration of weaving in at the end of the video.

There are lots of ways to manage the tails of the many colors on the stocking. The clothes pins in the photo above are one method, as well as yarn bobbins, for tails shorter than 3 feet, I recommend pulling them out ever couple of rows to keep them from tangling too much. I'm about to try yarn bobbins for longer strands though.
Note about how much yarn is needed for each section: for my gauge (about 6 stitches per inch), I use about a foot of yarn for every 10 stitches in the pattern (double rows). For example, to do the red for Santa's left shoulder, there are 25 stitches, so I would need a minimum of 2.5 feet of working yarn, plus a foot for 6 inches of tail on either side. I would need at least 3.5 feet of red yarn for that section. Another example: The black belt has less than 64 stitches, so I would need a minimum of 6.5 feet + 1 foot tail = 7.5 feet of yarn. I would want a bobbin for this since it is more than 3 feet.

Grandma Kathleen recommends only stranding (carrying a piece of yarn across the back of your work between colors) when you have 3 or fewer stitches in between. For example, most of the letters, there's less than a 3 stitch gap between colors, but on the middle of the belt, there's a 6-stitch gap. On two of my stockings, stranding between those colors caused the middle of the belt to be raised, not flat.

The video below shows examples of stranding and how you can carry more than 3 stitches across the back of the work without too many problems. Sometimes I have floats that are 10 stitches long, but they are twisted in, as the video shows from 10:40-the end.

This video below shows how to twist new colors together so that they don't leave gaping holes, especially when there's a straight up/down color change.

B. Instep: (start with 72 stitches total)

• 18 Stitches off each end to start the heel. You can place these on stitch holders or on a string of contrasting yarn, 36 stitches in the middle 
• Stop pattern with 36 center stitches on one needle (row 73). You can put this on a long stitch holder if you'd like.

C. Heel:

• Combine both 18 heel stitches on one needle for a total of 36 and K&P for 3” from bottom of tree
• On last row of the 3 inches, P back for 20 stitches, P2 together, P 1,  and turn
• K 6, K2 together, K 1, and turn
• P 7, P2 together, P 1, and turn
• K 8, K2 together, K 1, and turn
• Continue until all of the stitches are used, about 15-20 rows, and 15-20 stitches across(?).

D. Gusset:

• Pick up 23 - 30 stitches along the heel for the gusset on each side, depending on how much you want it to gather. More stitches will give more gathering. Fewer stitches will give a flatter appearance.
• Divide all Heel & Gusset stitches on 2 needles (either straight or circular needles)
• K&P, decreasing 1 stitch each side at next to last stitch of every row until even with front panel

E. Foot:

• Put onto 3 double ended needles (1 each back side, 1 for front panel) (or 2 sets of circular needles)
• Continue K around in a circle w/4th needle
• Dec 1 st on each side of the foot every row until 18 sts on each underside needle
• Then Knit stripe
• 4 White (boy) / Red (girl)
• 4 Green
• 4 White  (boy) / Red (girl)
• Continue to K red (or white for girl) until foot is 8” long from the back of the heel

F. Toe:

Dec4=K2tog at each end of front & sides of back

(1) Dec 4 st in row

(4-5) K 4 rows plain

(6) Dec 4 “”

(7-9) K3 rows

(10) Dec 4

(11-13) K3 rows

(14) Dec 4

COLOR CHANGE

Boy: *WHITE toe*
Girl: *RED toe*
(1-2) K2 rows plain

(3) Dec 4

(4-5) K2 rows plain

(6) Dec 4

(7) K1 plain

Lastly, Dec 4 every row at sides of toe until you have 16 stitches total (8 stitches/4 stitches/4 st’s)

G. Weave Toe: (using yarn needle. K&P indicate how to insert needle- Kitchener Stitch. Not normal K&P)

• Front (instep) K – slide off
• Front P – Keep on
• Back P – Slide off
• Back K – Keep on

Sometimes when I do this it looks fantastic. Other times it turns out like purl on the outside. Not sure what went wrong there.

• Continue until the last stitch is on the needle. Then thread onto a sewing needle and push inside of the stocking and tie off. 

Here's an example of this:

H. Finishing:

• Stitch eyes, nose, mouth onto Santa using the duplicate stitch, demonstrated in the video below

• Darn together back halves of top & gusset sides with mattress stitch. The video below has the best demonstration of the mattress stitch I've seen from 2:20-9:25

• Crochet the top loop
• Sew matching bias tape to top of stocking to keep top from curling

The end!!! Congratulations. That's all.

Complete stocking except for bias tape at top

White Family Stockings: Origins

Christmas 2018. 2 generations of stockings.

In the 1950s, Grandma Kathleen started knitting Christmas stockings for her three children. She had no idea that it would become such a beloved tradition.

She already knitted some of Granddad Jerry’s socks, so it wasn’t anything new for her to do this too. When Aunt Peggy was about 13, she learned to make them too, and made stockings for Granny Jo, Grandma Kathleen, and Granddad Jerry, making three generations with the stockings.

Grandma Kathleen and Granddad Jerry's
stockings, made by teenage Aunt Peggy

Next, Aunt Peggy made stockings for her own children, Roger, Russ, Chris, and Jan. Uncle Brent liked the tradition, and learned to knit too. He made stockings for his kids too. Sarah was the first of those of my generation to start making the stockings, followed by Jan. They made stockings for their children too, making 5 generations of family with the stockings.

While teaching high school science during the 2008-2009 school year, I learned how to knit while attending a knitting group that a friend started. While visiting Aunt Peggy and Uncle Brent at Christmas 2009, I got introduced to the stocking. Aunt Peggy gave me knitting needles and yarn. I got off to a great start. After a while, I forgot what I was doing, and had to watch a few YouTube videos to get started again.

The record for fastest of the stockings was Cyrus': done in 4 days!

I really got stuck on the heel, but Aunt Peggy came down to help me mid-December 2018, and got me back on track. Right before Christmas 2018, nine years after beginning, I finally finished my own stocking. I finished Paul’s stocking a month later (1/22/19), and Ada’s stocking three weeks after that (2/10/19). It’s amazing what experience and dedication can do for a stocking.

Isn't that a fantastic stocking hanger?!

Working on the stocking makes me feel closer to the White/ Wallace side of the family. Thanks to the dedication of Aunt Peggy and Uncle Brent, what began as a craft of love by Grandma has blossomed into a dear tradition for five generations.

Bryan has started his own on the left.
Jo's on the right is the last Gentry stocking.

This post shows the background of the stocking. To see the pattern and instructions on how to make the stockings, see the next post.

Young Cliff, Jo, and boys

Jerry, Jo, and Jock (Roger)

Cliff White - sometimes called "June" for Junior

Another of Cliff "June" White

Jerry and Jock

Jock and Jerry

Jerry and Jock

Jerry

Grupenhoff Christmas and entertainment

I asked Granddad Jerry if he recognized the picture of the house on Bouton Avenue that I found in Google Streetview and posted on this blog in the article on Josephine Plogsted. In reply, he told me that he remembered Frank living on Bouton Avenue, but that he'd never been there. I remembered him saying that his family "went to the Grupenhoff's" on Christmas afternoons, so I asked for clarification. I got this wonderful reply:

"To be correct, I should have said "We celebrated with the Grupenhoff family." Initially It rotated between us, Ed & Edna Grupenhoff, Bill & Clara Grupenhoff and Bill & Ceil Barlow. In the early 40's Ed & Family moved to Baltimore. Sometime later both Clara and Bill Barlow. The rotation between the three siblings continued long after your grandmother and I moved away. I remember my Grandfather Frank at some of these Christmases. He was a pinochle player who played most days after he was retired at the firehouse.

"My only cousins were Ed and Edna's children, Dave and the twins Lynn and Lyle. Dave went to the U of Cincinnati where he was one of my apartment roommates and my partner in Badminton in Intramurals. We lost either in the Finals or Semis.

"Dave, who died this year, was far and away my best and most frequent bridge partner. We had a good career with a Sectional Swiss Teams Championship where we defeated the current World Mixed Champions and a 3rd (of 430) at the National Swiss teams. Cousin Lynn was the partner with whom I won the second most Master Points. I also won master points with family Uncle Bill, Aunt Ceil, Mother, Father and your Grandmother (A Sectional Non-Masters Pairs).

"Which all leads up to what happened at the Grupenhoff Christmas. They were all good bridge players. We ate, exchanged presents and played cards. Initially we played Tripoli, than switched to Bridge when I learned to play.

"Last update on Grupenhoff family. Lynn and I are the only ones left from my generation. Lynn is a bridge star. She is annually in top 200-500 players in the US. She is the top woman in MD,DE,WV,VA Region."

·········

I think it's really neat that my ideal Christmas celebration is almost identical to how the Grupenhoffs celebrated. Eat, exchange presents, and play games (and/or visit) with family members. Perfect!

Life at White Acres (and more) with Grandfathers Cliff

A few months ago, I asked Granddad Jerry about his father, my great-grandfather Cliff. In the process of the interview, I also learned a lot about Granddad Jerry's youth and what his grandfather Cliff (my great-great-grandfather) was like. Here are the notes from the interview:

1. What did he look like? He was short--about 5’4”--with dark hair. He looked like Granddad Jerry. He was relatively trim until he reached his 50’s.

2. What did Clifford W White's father do for a living? Clifford L White (my great-great-grandfather) had a delivery business in Wyoming, OH and in Michigan. He was not a farmer. When Jerry lived with him, Clifford L was primarily a tombstone salesman.  Granddad Jerry would ride with him all through the county as he was making his sales. During WWII Clifford L acquired old buggies and rehabilitated them to beat gasoline rationing (smart!). They sold buggies and tombstones by roadside as well.

3. What did he do for a living? Clifford W White was mainly a businessman. He started out as a stock broker (you can see that on the censuses), then he was a manager at General Electric, and then later worked at furniture plant in Baton Rouge. Cliff started businesses – Chicken on Call (Louisville) -- it was like KFC but with delivery. The restaurant used Crosleys (miniature car, like a smart car) and 3-wheeled motorcycles to deliver. Unfortunately, the business didn't work out. Before the business failed, Jerry had the opportunity to deliver for the restaurant while he was visiting his father (with his friend Clem) while he was in his late teens (17 or 18). At different points during his life, Cliff also tried his hand at running a gas station, a car dealership, and a real estate business selling lots and homes in vacation places. Cliff also did some farming – he raised saddle horses, but it was more of a hobby than a business.

4. What kinds of things did you (Jerry) do with him?  Primarily sports; and of that, baseball. Formed the first little league team in Clairmont county. Some basketball, some soccer, some football. On a side note, there were 3 Jerry Whites in Amelia (a very small town!). Cliff liked to play bridge, but Jerry didn't play with him much.

5. How did he dress? He dressed well; selling the horses called for a lot of class. Later in life he dressed as a casual salesman.

6. Was he quiet or talkative? Somewhere in the middle.

7. Did he ever meet someone famous? When I asked this question, Granddad Jerry said that he was sure Cliff had met someone famous, but he didn't remember a specific instance or person.

8. What did your family do for Christmas? spoken from Jerry's perspective: We chopped a cedar tree from the farm for the Christmas tree. My parents had left side of house, and my grandparents had the right side. During winter to save on fuel, they’d close down the living room in the left side, but the Christmas tree was there for Christmas. We celebrated at our house in the morning and went to the Grupenhoff's in the afternoon and had Christmas dinner with them.

We had huge spreads for Thanksgiving on my dad’s side. We must’ve had more than 20—25 or 30 people there counting kids. They served pies, veggies, everything. My grandma was a good cook but she didn't like to cook. The kids there were my second cousins, and a lot of them went to the farm while their dads hunted quail on the farm (it was illegal!). I saw them about 5-6 tmes a year. They were a little bit more well-to-do. (side note: I'm assuming that these second cousins on Jerry's dad's side were children of the men who had inherited the funeral home established by Thomas Pinkham White, my g-g-g-grandfather and Jerry's great-grandfather).

Jerry only had 3 first cousins, and they were on Grupenhoff side. They moved to MD when Granddad Jerry was 11 or so. His cousin Dave went to the University of Cincinnati at the same time that Granddad Jerry did. The two played badminton together but Jerry never won. They were bridge partners and they won a LOT. They placed 3rd out of 434 in the Nationals. Jerry's Cousin Lynn Jones was also at the top of the Atlantic division of Bridge.

9. What did you do for Easter? They had an Easter egg hunt – the eggs were medium difficulty to find – some easy, some hard. Jerry assumes his dad hid them. He doesn't remember Easter dinner, but they did dress up a little better for church on Easter Sunday.

10. What did you do for the 4th of July? Fireworks: sparklers and ones that you shoot off. They'd also watch the big fireworks display in the town. You could see fireworks shot off from Coney Island in Cincinnati.

11. Did he go to church? Cliff didn’t really go to church much until about the 50’s. Jerry didn't remember Cliff going to church with his family. Jerry's paternal grandparents didn’t either. He didn't remember which denomination the Whites identified with, but said it was possibly the Methodists. He said they didn’t agree with the Catholic church, which is where he, Jock, and Granny Jo all attended.

12. How are you like Cliff? We both like sports, both play cards, and both sort of like the out-of-doors.

13. Summer vacations? The family used to vacation in Michigan when Granddad Jerry was really little. Granddad almost drowned during one of those vacations. The family also went on vacation to Miami river (it's near Cincinnati) one time for about three days or so.

Teenage Jerry with Cliff Junior

A few weeks before I interviewed Granddad Jerry about his childhood and about Great-Granddad Cliff, I had asked my dad what he remembered about Granddad Cliff. Most of the responses were about the same, but Dad remembered Cliff as talkative, while Jerry thought that Cliff was average when it came to talking.

Cliff (according to Dad):

Short, loved sports, especially baseball, which he excelled in. He was good at golfing (dad was 16 or 17 when he golfed with Cliff). Cliff liked to talk. He loved his family; he was proud of his son and grandchildren. Cliff had step kids with his wife Betty. He suffered from short man's syndrome (meaning he felt like he had to prove himself as a man, I think). Started and failed in business many times. He played lottery at end of life, hoping to leave a large inheritance for his son and grandchildren, but never succeeded.