In one of my presentations, I talk about how we have to understand how a word is being used and I use "brother" as an example. Is it being used to indicate the male child of your parents? Or just one of your parents? Or of a step-parent? Or how about a brother in the church? How about in a fraternal organization, union, or military unit? Have fun with this week's theme—there are a lot of ways you can interpret it!
Look at the size of those ears. It's a good thing I grew into those!! Those glasses surely didn't help at all, either! At least those shoes were cutting edge "Stride Ride" fashion! Yes, I'm on the right and that's my brother on the left. Let's play a game for the coveted "All Roads Lead to Haverhill" No-Prize, shall we? Can you guess what year this picture was taken? Obviously it was taken at Christmas time. But, what year? I'll give you a hint. The answer lies with the Transformer my brother and I are sitting with. If you can guess the name of the Transformer, too, then umm....you definitely win! And quite possibly get some nerd cred in there. =)
Brothers in my family seem to come in twos. It's the strangest thing. There's usually two brothers in each family and a whole bunch of sisters. Sometimes there's more than that. It's a little complicated. Let's work backwards through time on my mother's side because my father does not have any brothers.
My mother is the oldest of six children and she has two younger brothers. I maintain that dealing with them better equipped her for dealing with my brother, Jim and I all those years later. Look at that pic above again. See those grins? The grins hide the truth! We were energetic and much like Jim's own kids are now. My mother calls it "karma". So do I, actually!
Back to my uncles. They are good guys. But, they often gave my mom a run for her money when she was told to watch over them. I think she held her own. Just remember that it's often the job of a younger brother to be as annoying as possible.
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| Alfred Francis Hamel Jr |
My grandfather, Robert, had one brother named Alfred who also served in World War II. They didn't serve
together in the war. But, he did live an interesting life. He was born in 1919 in Newburyport, Massachusetts and his time in the Marines gave him the honor of being buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. That is very cool. He sadly passed away a few years before I was born. So, I never had a chance to meet him. It's a shame because I'm sure he'd have had as many great stories as my grandfather did. It's just as well. He and his family lived in the Boston area for many years and we'd see the family every once in a while.
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| Austin Felker Jr |
Austin was born in 1917 and Norman was born 1922. I can't really say much about Norman because I don't remember him. Or my other great-uncles. It's a shame because they had interesting pasts and I'm sure they'd have had interesting stories to tell like my great-aunts did. More on them next week! Got some good ones there!
It's interesting to note that at least one of my grandparents' brothers were named after their fathers. It makes sense because naming a child after the father was a common thing back when those two were born.
Other branches of the tree have had two brothers and a bunch of sisters, too. It's just interesting because that's how it played out today with my brother and his two sons. Having two brothers around can often lead to chaos. Usually a sibling helps to keep the toy boys in line. If not then it falls on the parent to keep 'em in check. If not, then the boys will tend to run wild as they are want to do. I won't get into the details about the stuff my brother and I did right now. Let's just say it was a good thing our mother kept us in line.
See you next time when we discuss sisters. I have some great stories about my great-aunts to share! Stay tuned!
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