MISCELLANEOUS: For years many in the family did not know where Uncle Hank was buried. I would assume that siblings knew at one time. I mean the family had to have been told. But, in the past few years I would ask around and no one knew what happened to his body. The way my dad talked I kind of wonder if he did not know he was buried somewhere. My dad always said his plane was shot down over the English Channel. So, I grew up thinking he and his plane were in the bottom of the English Channel. I forget why I began to pursue a burial for him. I know I had several e-mail exchanges with Uncle Bob in the 1980s maybe it was even in the 1990s he may of said something about him being buried overseas. Uncle Bob told me he remembered the two servicemen coming to tell Grandpa and Grandma that Uncle Hank was dead. But, I began to search and I found where he was not shot down over the English Channel he was shot down over France. On an old envelope I have around here somewhere was Uncle Hanks Military Number and etc. I did google searches and it took me many searches and being persistent but there was a way to find day by day a log of the flights his group made on bombing runs. I found then that he is buried in a Military Cemetery in Dover, England. When I do the biographical post on him in a few days I will include all of the information. I have his Purple Heart Medal, which I am very lucky and pleased to have. Uncle Hank was a tail gunner. I have only come to realize what that was. We have an Air Museum here in Palm Springs I have been to a few times. They have a big collection of WW II planes here and I have seen what he sat in, and what he operated and etc. Amazing stuff. (2.) I been told that one of Grandma Morgans favorite things to do as she got older and had more time for herself to do things was to go to the Bingo Halls. Aunt Clara told me a time or two Grandma would be to one almost every night or day of the week if she could. Who has heard any of these stories? Please post. (3.) My dad and many of the siblings told me about them going on working vacations when children up to Fife Lake where Grandpas half brother Ernest lived! They would live in tents and etc. for several days and they would go berrying, fishing and etc. up there. They would can the berries and haul back home. I have a few photos taken of Grandma and the girls doing the canning of the berries outside with the tents in the background. Who has heard these stories? Please post your memories. (4.) Dad used to say the siblings lived in the River on the backside of the farm in the warm weather. They of course fished but they did what was called Claming. There were what was called Clam Camps along the river. People gathered the clams and sold them to companies that bought them. Clams were used in the making of buttons and other things back then. The Clams were opened and the meat or whatever was fed to the hogs mostly. Some of it was eaten by the family. Every once in awhile my mom would make dad Clam Chowder and other things. None of us kids ever acquired a taste for it. :) (5.) I been told the house caught fire several times from Chimney fires. Who has heard these stories? Please post ones you have heard. I know in the tape I did of Uncle Clarence and Dad n 1993, they talk of at least one Chimney fire. I think if I remember right; quit a bit of the top floor of the house burned. The near neighbors to the Morgans to the east were the Minakers and to the West were the Grummets. It is Jim Grummet that bough Grandpas farm in the Spring of 1958, just a few months before Grandpa died, 6 July 1958. I think it is Jim Grummet Uncle Clarence mentions threw a empty pail down from up on the roof and hit Uncle Clarence square on the head. They had formed a chain gang for getting the water up on the roof with buckets of water and in the haste to get them filled again Uncle Clarence got clobbered. Who has heard these stories? If you have would you comment please? (6.) Who realizes that Grandpa and Grandma had those 13 kids and had only a three bedroom house? There was two downstairs and one upstairs. My dad always claimed the girls all stayed in one room downstairs where Grandpa and Grandmas room was. The boys had the entire upstairs. It was set up dormitory style my dad used to call it. My dad used to talk about how cold it was up there in the winter time. He used to claim they used to have snow inside the house up there. Who has heard these stories? Please comment if you have. (7.) Aunt Clara and Aunt Helen have told me that the summer before Grandpa Morgan died he took them for a ride and they commented to me later that as they thought back on it they think he was saying good bye to all he had known. He drove them around from Sheridan where he was born, to Belding where he lived as a young child, to Portland, Lyons, Muir and places beyond. He took them to every grave, and pointed out places he had lived, worked and etc. At the cemeteries he had taken along flowers and planted on each grave he showed them. This is how Aunt Clara and Helen could tell me many of the things they did. Does anyone know anymore about this? If you do would you please post. (8.) I remember when I was a small child Highland Park Cemetery did not have perpetual care. It does now. I remember Grandpa being very faithful about taking water up to the graves that he carried in cans from his home. He also had a old fashioned lawn mower that he would load in his car and take up to the cemetery to cut the grass. I do not know if he had a special day he did this as a routine every week or not. But, it seemed like he went every week. I can even remember visiting at the farm and he would excuse himself for a bit and say he was going to the Cemetery. Who knows more about this? Please post your comments. (9.) My dad always claimed the family was able to do very little to celebrate Christmas. He claimed Christmas was just another day for them. (Quote) Said they were too poor to have the money for Christmas. They did not have a tree. They had very little in decorations. I think I remember something about a Nativity Set, (not sure) Who remembers? He would remember fondly that his Aunt Mable and her husband would come on Christmas Day. They would come later in the day, and they would have a Sock filled with Candies and special things for the kids. In the end of each sock was an orange. This was the extent of their Christmases. Dad talked like Aunt Mable and Uncle Herb did this every year for many years. He remembered them very fondly. I think because of this memory, we at our house always had a Christmas Stocking and it always had an orange in the toe part. (10.) I remember very fondly a few times my mom, dad and I going fishing in a boat on the River at Grandpas farm. I remember my mom packing pic nic lunch and us walking down the lane of the farm to the River. I remember there being a few boats laid up on the bank and my dad would just put one of them in the water and away we would go. Any memories I have of these has to be before Spring of 1958, as Grandpa sold the farm Spring of 1958, and bought the house at Turk Lake with Grandma Nancy. I remember neighbors cows on the other side of the River coming down to the shore to get water. I remember the fishing and bottles floating down the river other fishermen had thrown in the River. Funny the things a 5, 6 and 7 year old remembers. (11.) I remember stories of Grandpa Morgan having a bad heart for years before he died. I think he maybe even had a heart attack or more previously. I know my dad told stories that there was one time (I do not remember the year) that the sons in service were all called home because he supposedly was near death then he did not die. Who remembers stories of this? Please comment if you do! I know Uncle Hank was home only one time............I know Dad, Uncle Les and etc. were home. I have never sat down and tried to figure out if they were all home at the same time. I have never seen a photo of all of them together in Uniform. I have only seen photos of them in uniform separately with their parents. Who can help with this?
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 08:46:59 +0000
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