Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – U

U is for Uncles

    A few days ago I wrote about my memories of my aunts, now it is the uncles turn. My Dad did not have any brothers, so the uncles on that side of the family were married to my Aunts. Each of them had two husbands, but I really only remember their second husbands. Aunt Vida's husband was Uncle Fred. He was a plumber and also enjoyed taking pictures. He had good camera equipment and even won a prize for one of his photos. Aunt Buena's husband was Uncle Walt. I enjoyed being around both of these uncles at Christmas time.

    My Mom had one brother that I knew. Uncle Jerry, his legal name was Gerald, was the baby in the family. He was 15 years younger than my mother and lived the longest of the siblings. My Mom had an older brother, Howard, who died as a baby, so he is usually forgotten. I did know some of the husbands of Mom's sisters. Aunt Lois was divorced before I can remember, so didn't know Uncle Ben other than his name. I'm afraid I didn't like him very much since he had taken my cousin away. Aunt Erma's husband was Uncle Adolph. He also was not a favorite of mine because one time at a family gathering, he yelled at my Dad. Aunt Violet had two husbands that I knew. They were both fun to be around: Uncle Art and Uncle Mel.

    Grandma Albertson had two brothers that lived in Oregon: Uncle Marvin and Uncle Spike (real name Lauren) Uncle Marvin had two sons that were just a few years older than me. Uncle Spike liked to tease and he had a daughter the same age as my brother. We did go to visit them a few times and they would often be at family gatherings. One of Grandma's brothers-in-law lived in Brownsville, Uncle Joe. He was funny and I thought it was really special that he could blow smoke rings. Another brother-in-law lived in Kansas, Uncle Roy. They did come to visit us in Oregon and he also was fun to be around. He had two daughters that were a little older than me.

    Grandpa Albertson had two brothers who lived in Oregon: Uncle Arthur and Uncle Ernest. Uncle Arthur lived out on a farm, within a couple of miles from where we lived. His wife had died before I was born. His grandson was in my class at school. Uncle Ernest had served in World War I and had problems from that service so he was mostly an invalid when I could remember. His wife died within a few days of my grandfather's death.

    I probably saw my Grandma Falk's brothers, Uncle Roy and Uncle Perry, at one of the Bond family reunions, but I don't remember them. However as I mentioned about Aunt Grace that Christmas package from Uncle Roy and Aunt Grace was a special treat.

    Grandpa Falk was the youngest of his family and all of his brothers had died before I could really remember them, although I might have seen one or two at the annual Falk Reunion.

                                                     U is for United States

    I can remember reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America each day at school. The words we used were:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I read about the pledge on Wikipedia and discovered that it had officially been recognized by Congress in 1942, which was just 3 years before I started school. I knew that later the words "under God" had been added, so found on Wikipedia that this phrase was added between one Nation and indivisible in 1954. This was a year after I had graduated from the 8th grade, so all during my grade school years I would have used the above pledge. When I started school in 1945 the flag had only 48 stars. It was not until after I graduated from high school that Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959 and the flag had 50 stars.