Talk of The Villages Florida - Who were the oldest people in your family and what was their nationality?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by gpirate (Post 694079)

My mother in law is 98 years old and still going strong. Her mother lived to 101. Proud Germans. Brewed their own beer and wines and ate all the German foods daily. I miss grandma because she was the cook.

The Germans in my family tree also enjoyed great longevity.

Home made sauerkraut is loaded with Vitamin C and nutrients; it got them through the winter in a healthy state.......

The home made beer which they brewed was also loaded with B vitamins, etc........and the alchohol content kept their blood flowing.........just as the Italian wine for the Italians...........they didn't need the pharmaceuticals in those days or the Centrum Silver.......

My favorite German dish is sauerbraten...........our son in law makes a good one.........which I also did when all the kids were at home....marinating it for days.........adding the gingersnaps to the gravy at the end..........German foods are delish.

My Papa -- the man who raised me and was technically my step-grandfather lived until he was 101. He died in 2010 - just after my divorce (a bad year - my music partner died from ALS that year, also).

Papa lived many lives. He was of Russian Jewish stock. He was kicked out of his home at 16 for shacking up with a 22 year old divorcee. He went to live with his uncle who was in the fish business. His uncle sent him to Sitka Alaska to work on a fishing boat. Papa came back and sold herring to Jewish businesses throughout Chicago.

During the war he was sent back to the Alaska where he was wounded by a Japanesse bomber.

After the war, he opened his own smokehouse and store. His best friend was Lenny Patrick - a Jewish member of the Outfit and a well known hit man (Jack Ruby worked for him).

He rescued me from my divorced parents (who kept kidnapping me back and forth) by saying he'd have Lenny kill them both if they continued to mess with me. Papa took me in and raised me as his son.

By the late 80's Papa sold his business. We toured Europe together. I remember us renting bicycles at Versaiilles and touring the grounds. He biked fast.

A year later he drove to LA and did what every retired fish guy does - he went to work for a movie special effects company. He became friends with Martin Scorsese. He travelled to Hawaii and Nola. He lived well.

When his body started to fail he raged. Death was a relief - it freed his soul. I miss Papa.

Quote:

Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 695338)

Wow is all I can say. Papa's story deserves a full length tribute , perhaps in book form. Did you ever think of writing his entire life story????

I'll bet you miss him. Death is nothing to fear. As you said, "It frees ones soul"........

Not a bad idea - I'll have to edit down some of Lenny. Lenny is dead - his kids and crew are not. It's nice to have their numbers. Lenny was by Jewish godfather and protector.

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Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 695318)

Important remembrances as well. My own mom , born 1911, always told me about the outhouses in her youth......no electricity, thus reading by gaslight....etc. They all walked everywhere.

I've told you before that Iowa is one of my favorite states. It is so pretty.
Love the covered bridges, which rival Vermont's own covered bridges.
Love the area where the Amana Colonies are.......nice rolling hills.

The men often died from harsh working conditions or contracting influenza, thus they were outlived by their wives........and children.

Both my Ukrainian grandfather, who died at age 38, a very handsome man and my Italian grandfather, who died at age 50, ditto.....had been ill with the Spanish Flu........an influenza that was very deadly.......but their wives outlived them by quite a long number of years........

My mom was seven years old when her father died. She came home from school and saw him "laid out in the parlor". Thinking he was just sleeping, she ran up to him to hug him and he was ice cold. She remembered that sensation till her dying day.

She always remembered how he would come home from work and pick her up and hug her and then swing her around.........she was his firstborn.

The women who were widowed young did NOT have an easy life thereafter. There was not all the help and assistance there is today and what "relief" there was, most were too proud to take it.......as my mom would always say that "Grandma would never take relief". She later remarried a good man...........whereas my Italian grandmother mourned her husband for 50 years, never remarrying. He must have been some Italian stud. My grandmother always said that I looked like him...in a female way of course....probably his mom.

The movie/book "The Bridges of Madison County" is set in Madison County, Iowa, which is about 3 hours west of where I grew up in eastern Iowa. Parts of northeast Iowa along the Mississippi were never touched by the glaciers which flattened most of Iowa, so parts of northeast Iowa are quite hilly. If you drive about 25-30 miles west of Dubuque, the land starts flattening out quite a bit. The baseball movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed about 25 miles west of Dubuque, and the cast and crew stayed in Dubuque during the filming.

When my mom's father passed away when she was a child, this would have been about 1936 or 1937, he was also "laid out" in the parlor for 2 days for his wake -- I guess there were no funeral homes in the 1930's? That always has kind of creeped me out thinking about having a wake in your home. After my grandfather died, my grandmother rented out a room in her house to single ladies to bring in extra money.

Fortunately my mom's two older sisters were old enough to work and bring in some money after their dad died. When WWII broke out, my mom's two older sisters went to work for the federal government in Washington DC where jobs were plentiful. My oldest aunt, Mildred, met her husband in Washington DC, and they married just before he was shipped to Europe during WWII. My mom's second sister, Alice, unfortunately developed kidney failure while living in Washington DC and died at the age of 23. In the early 1940's kidney dialysis was not developed yet, and Alice wasn't even sick for a month before she died of kidney failure. My mom and her mom got to Washington DC on the train from Iowa just 2 days before my Aunt Alice died. Unfortunately my mom also developed renal failure when she turned 64 in 1994, and she spent her last 3 years on kidney dialysis, so I am wondering if kidney disease runs on my mom's side of the family since both my mom and her sister had it. I have given some thought about being a living kidney donor to someone not related to me, but with both my mom and my aunt having kidney disease, I'm not sure if I should do that or not.

Both of my parents were born at home in 1930. I know that home births have caught on somewhat in recent years, but there is no way in he___ that I would choose to have a baby at home. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

It's a small world after all

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougB (Post 695317)

Village PL,
Thanks for playing along and sharing your touching remembrances with us. Very heartwarming!
:jester:

I don't do "heartwarming". :) I think it's best to leave that to others.

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Originally Posted by Villages PL (Post 695618)

I don't do "heartwarming". :) I think it's best to leave that to others.

:1rotfl:

Grandfather lived to 102 and Grandmother 94. He was born in 1868 and passed away in 1970. Owned a farm and was a Sheriff in 1900. Never sick and thought we worried too much. Was the kindest and most gentle person I ever knew. He was French and Grandmother English/Dutch. Just great persons. Never drank and did smoke a pipe with cigar clipping he ordered from a cigar store. We were all blessed to know them and have them as Grandparents. :pepper2:

My Russian great grandmother, great uncle, and grandmother all lived to about 90, give or take a year. Ironic that the next generation, that is, my parents' generation, living on this side of the Atlantic, didn't come close to 90�not one of them!

And the generation after that (mine), we've already lost two: One we can't really count, as she (age 51) was killed along with her husband and two other people in an auto accident, the husband being a lunatic of a driver; however, the other died (age 55) of a form of cancer that was presumed to be environmental.

Though not able to be substantiated statistically, it appears�at least in my family�that decades ago one was healthier (as measured by greater longevity) living in Russia than here....