The Book of Me prompt for week 7 is Grandparents.
What were their names?
Where were they from?
Were they related? – Cousins perhaps
Where were they born? Another County or state/area?
Photos
What did they do?
Did you know them?
I had a lot of interaction with my maternal grandparents as they lived about 10 miles from my family when they were alive.
My maternal grandfather was Richard Baldwin Haskins, the 2nd child of Charles Emery and Kittie (Parks) Haskins (15 years after the birth of their other child) was born in 1906.
Dick, as my grandfather was better known by, was born in Beverly, MA. He didn’t share much about his childhood, but there were tales that he had been given up as a child and sent to live on work farms in western parts of Massachusetts. We don’t know why he didn’t live with his parents and are unsure of what happened. About two years ago I learned that my grandfather’s mother died when he would have been 5, however, based on the 1910 census, he’s not listed as living with his mother as a 4 year old. I've yet to find records as to where his father was at that time. (Dick's much older brother was listed on the 1910 census living with the mother, but father was not.)
Dick’s married his first wife, Dora in 1931, and their child, Richard Anthony was born a year later. Dora died in 1937. In 1938 Dick married Elizabeth Barnes Kneeland.
Dick lived in Massachusetts his entire life, most of it in the central part of the state, primarily in the city of Worcester. According to the 1930 U.S. Census records, Dick worked as a chauffeur for the state. My memories of Grandpa and his occupation was him working for Norton Industries in Worcester, Massachusetts on their assembly lines.
He was a car buff and spoke of close friends who owned an auto dealership: after he retired from Norton’s, Dick would drive for his friend, delivering vehicles between dealerships. Dick also loved CB radios; his handle was “Red Ball” and he had a red styrofoam ball hooked to car’s antenna.
Dick loved a good joke and his favorite was about “the spark plug that flew”. Unfortunately I never understood the joke nor picked up the entire tale, but Grandpa loved to at least use the punch line once when ever we gathered for family meals.
Other hobbies Dick had and shared with his grandchildren were fishing (especially using corn hooks) and photography. Dick would develop and print his own b&w photos and did that for many years. Another sibling and I have acquired Grandpa’s love of photography, but we now have digital images and don’t have to do any developing. As I’ve been most interested in family ancestry, it was decided that I was to inherit all of his photographs, boxes and boxes of pictures from when my mom was a young girl, right up to images he took the day before he died.
Grandpa was sick for several weeks in Spring of 1979, but was feeling well in late May. In fact, he spent May 25, 1979 visiting with hunting buddies and the gang at the car dealership. That night he attended my high school graduation. The family went out to dinner to celebrate and Grandpa bragged to the waitress that he was a “big boy” and could un-skewer his own shish kabob. For dessert he ordered his all time favorite dessert, Vanilla Ice Cream.
These details stand out for me for 2 reasons; first because it was my graduation night and second, because Grandpa died in his sleep that night.
Elizabeth Barnes Kneeland was born in June 1917 in Connecticut, the first of two children to Andrew Henry and Pearl Belle (Carpenter) Kneeland. When she was a young girl, Elizabeth “Betty” and her father moved to Leicester, Massachusetts and lived with an Aunt and her family. While there, Betty was told her mother died and she spent the next 20 years wondering what happened to her younger brother. According to Betty, the Aunt was very strict both in discipline and in religious belief and Betty was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, taking Frances as her confirmation name.
Betty met her husband Dick when they both worked for the State, he as a chauffeur and she as a secretary. She became an instant mother on marrying as Dick was widowed with a son. The same year they married, Betty gave birth to their child, my mother, Janice.
When my mother was very young, Betty decided to find out what had happened to her brother and the family returned to the town in CT where she had been born. They stopped at the post office to see if someone there could be of assistance. The woman on the desk knew Betty’s brother AND Betty’s mother and grandmother. For some reason, Betty’s father had lied about her mother’s death. Betty and her maternal family reconnected and continued to visit each other for another for the rest of their lives. One favorite family image I have, taken by Grandpa, is of 5 generations with Betty holding the middle position.
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| 5 generations |
Grammy, as we children called her, adored her grandchildren. She took great delight in spoiling us with baked treats and attention. After my Grandfather died, because I going to be commuting to college and hadn’t figured out transportation from my home to school, I moved in with Grammy who only lived a mile from the college (and it was on a bus line). I stayed with Grammy for 4 years, assisting her while she recovered from a broken hip, a stroke and cancer surgery.
Within a 3 month period in 1979, Betty's husband and her mother died. She never was one to show emotions and even though I was living with her starting the week after Grandpa died, don't recall her crying either in public, nor at home. She was rather outspoken and harsh in her critique and criticism.
Grammy passed away in 1993. In accordance with her wishes, we did not have calling hours, but the family had a private viewing. Because she was being cremated, instead of the traditional casket, the funeral home placed her in what looked to be a cardboard box - sounds tacky I know, but they used sheets and padding and it was Grammy’s style.
While reminiscing at the family viewing, my older brother made all of us laugh because “Grammy finally had her turn in the box”. When each of my siblings reached a certain age, Grammy and Grandpa would take us on a trip during a school vacation break. The night before we’d head out, we’d spend the night at Grammy & Grandpa’s. They didn’t have a spare bed in their apartment, so our bunk for the night was an old refrigerator box that they put pillows and blankets in.
There’s so much more I could write about my grandparents. I know I will add more to these blogs from time to time. They were all special people and as are my memories of them.
