Unicyling Uncles
I’ve been taken over by an alien from Planet SoccerMom. Help! January and February are completely insane, schedule-wise. I’m still taking pics but I have no time to get them uploaded & posted lately. So how about we take a little journey into the past?
In October of last year, my Grandma Stark died. The four younger kids and I piled into the (fuel-efficient) little car and headed off to her memorial in southeastern Kansas. It was the best memorial ever — we had a blast! Isn’t that the way it should be? I think so. Lots of pics were taken (some of which I’ll get around to putting up after I have time to finish sorting through them) but I’m especially fond of the following ones.
Meet my Uncle David.
He’s a teacher and it shows.
My grandma was a teacher, too. She had a voice that always seemed to me like velvet and, when she laughed, it was the sound of that velvet being juggled and tossed. Corny, yeah, but that’s what I always thought.
My Uncle David, my dad, and my brother David all have her voice.
She had this way of talking, a teacher’s way, that could make you understand anything.
Again, the gene pool lottery blessed my Uncle David, my dad, and my brother David with that same way of talking.
I wish I had those gifts.
And, as if having one unicycling uncle is not enough, I have two! This is my Uncle Mark, the preacher man.
I want my memorial to be exactly like Grandma’s — including my kids having two uncles riding unicycles there! You hear that, David & John??
Thanks, Diane, for the future gift idea for Dave & John.
Anytime, Miranda. I’m full of all sorts of ideas for those two!
I went to school with a boy whose last name was Stark! I wonder if he’s related to you.
Those unicycles were about the only thing Duke was talking about while y’all were here, so your uncles really left an impression!
Memorial services are so cool. None of that crying and acting miserable. I don’t know of anyone who’d want to go out with their loved ones acting that way.
So you didn’t get the velvet voice. I bet you got a lot of other great qualities handed down. Hugs to you and yours…
Oh, we’ll have to compare Stark notes. Might have been related to my Grandpa Don Stark (born… in the early 20s or maybe even late teens?). My “bio” grandfather died before I was born — he’s the McCuistion (born 1896). Then my grandma remarried and took Stark’s name. He’s the grandpa I knew and grew up with. Never thought of him as a step-grandpa, just plain ol’ Grandpa. Sometimes, thinking up the family tree, I tend to forget that.