The Frau and I normally don't use the blog to reminisce, saving that kind of stuff for evenings in front of the TV but today we thought it would be nice to share some pics.
The first few photos are some oooold photos of my Dad - Ed Sr. Ed, or 'Stoney' (his nickname since childhood because of his proclivity for throwing stones) was born in 1900. As a matter of fact his birthday was just last week. WOW! He would have been 113 years old had he lived. He certainly saw a lot of history and these photos are a witness to the old days. In 1918 he was actually drafted for WWI, went by troop train to Texas somewhere (he never could remember where exactly) and while there apparently the Armistice was signed and many were released. He hooked up with a buddy and rode the rails for a couple of years - becoming in essence, a hobo - and had several interesting tales. One of them involved rolling into an Old West cow town (back when the West was still quite wild) on a Friday night. Now understand my dad was a city slicker, born and raised in Milwaukee and this was the Wild West, and on this Friday night (according to him) the cowboys came riding into town shootin' their pistols and making a helluva racket. My Dad and his buddy were so scared they hi-tailed it back to the train and hid underneath all night! hahahahahaha - what a hoot!
Another tale which always fascinated me but I simply never pursued it or asked more questions had something to do with a horse stampede somewhere in South Dakota. According to Dad, he was in a little town in South Dakota when he heard a racket, he looked to see a bunch of horses stampeding and somehow or another grabbed a hold of one towards the front and manged to get them all stopped, thereby saving potential damage or injury to folks. According to him the action landed him in the town's newspaper. He never said what year it was but probably 1919-1920 I'm guessing because by 1921 (as shown by the photos below) he was back home in Milwaukee, his life as a hobo over with. His memory of the incident - like so many other things that happened, simply wasn't as clear when he told the stories in the '60s and '70s. If only I had the presence of mind to ask more......
Anyway, here's a few shots of Ed Sr.
In 1929 with girlfriend Alice Grody
Ed Sr (bottom row, third from left) at the Firemen's Tournament, Grafton WI, 1922
In an undated photo (ca1921/22) sitting in the cab of an Oneida dump truck posing for Kramp Construction Co., of New Berlin, WI
Ed Jr & Sr, Oct 1954. I was 11 months old, he was 54 years old.
A photo from the Milwaukee Journal showing Dad in front of our house in 1974
Next up are some photos of the Bettina's Dad, Vater Arthur Vohl, who sadly passed away in 1973 when she was still quite young.
Arthur is on the right
In Berlin
Arthur, the town of Maxsain, house he built for the family, and hunting photos. Arthur was not only a Jäger (Jaeger or hunter) but also a Meister Zimmermann (Master Carpenter) who built his own fabrik - 'Sägewerk Vohl' in the '50s. Sadly it too suffered from a downturn of business during the Great Recession and was sold to another interest just a few years ago.
