Some lesser-talked about family Vets

-Since Nate and I both have Mayflower ancestors, we probably have some Revolutionary War soldiers in our families, but neither of us know about that. One more thing to look into!

-My Grandpa Stricklan's grandpa William and his brother fought on opposite sides of the Civil War. William was in Indiana by then, so he fought for the Union.

-My Grandpa Stricklan's uncle Frank was in the Air Force in WWI.

-My Grandpa Paul Stricklan was requested to stay in Idaho and keep his sheep and milk route during WWII to help with the food shortage.

-Nate's grandpa fought in WWII and Korea. His brother Gene also fought in WWII.

-My mom was born on Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma but I can't be sure why. (For someone interested in family history I sure know next to nothing, right?)

-Nate's cousin Ryan was a Marine in the early 2000's. He served at least two tours in the Middle East.

And here are some rather random soldier photos that my Grandma Stricklan kept in her family albums:

Paul's cousin Lester Miller born 1918

Virginia and Bill Palmer

"When you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading does."

Kathleen Kelly from the movie You've Got Mail has about twenty boatloads of one-liners, and that one about reading is one of her truest. I don't presume that Toby and Sue will grow to have enormous significance in my kids' lives, but these books are some of Calvin's favorites lately. I am grateful to have them, and to know that Calvin's great-grandma Patti read them and probably laughed at Sue's funny lopsided dress hems and the children's idea that their mother would rather have wild baby bunnies for her birthday than a bouquet of flowers.

I have tried to collect several of the really significant books from my early childhood and youth, such as Hop on Pop (a classic!), Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I don't yet have any Babysitters Club, but I've got about a truckload of Nancy Drew, and by the time my dad's done gathering them, I'm sure we'll have them all. This is not to say that my kids will be interested in reading any of these obviously superior books, however; I know of my mom's distinct appreciation for the "girl and her horse" genre, absolutely zero of which ever interested me. (That seems a shame to me now, because it is such a charming genre, but at the time they would have been age-appropriate for me I couldn't be persuaded to even go near them.)

I would really love to know the significant books in my predecessors' lives, the further distant the more so. What were yours?

O Pioneer: Shurtliff and Atkinson

As I mentioned, Familysearch.org compiled a list of "my" "ancestral" "pioneers." But, well, I couldn't find all of them in my actual family tree. I'm working on that, but I did find that a certain Luman Shurtliff (on my mom's maternal side) crossed the plains with his family, including a son named Noah Luman Surtliff (who is next in the line to me) in 1851 with the Easton Kelsey Company. One lead to follow!

*Later*

Make that two leads: Noah L Shurtliff, who I mentioned above, is my great-grandma Epperson's grandpa, and her other grandpa named William Atkinson* also crossed the plains with the Mormon pioneers. In fact, he led his own company in 1853, the William Atkinson Company. Good one, Will! Along the way, according to his memory, he met lots of friendly Indians and buffalo, or at least the Indians were friendly.

He also "traveled with the mail" from Salt Lake to San Bernadino and back in 1856 with the John McDonald Company. Just him and three buddies, hanging out with the mail? Probably not but I don't know the details. I, of all people, could understand this, considering how much I love mail, but I think there must be more to the story than that. He is also listed as traveling with two other wagon companies, and also the Rescue Companies who were sent to bring in the Martin and Willie Handcart companies in the fall of 1856, as well as two wagon companies at the same time. It isn't clear which company he was sent to help, but the story of the stranded companies breaks my heart every time I hear or think of it.

I'm so glad to know about Mr. Atkinson. My kids are for sure going to hear about this one.

*Also, just to make more connections, this William Atkinson had a son, Thomas, who married into my path to the Mayflower ancestors of Elizabeth Tilley and John Howland. His wife's name was Ruth Simmons. Ruth's mom was a Chipman, which is the line that connects to the common ancestor Nate and I have (Amos Chipman).

thanks grandpa, for writing all that code or whatever

Jack Gale Webb, Jr. was a big ol' funny, friendly, smart, happy guy. That is no secret. It's also no secret that he loved baseball and vintage cars. Like, really loved them. Everyone knows that! But he had one big mystery: What did he do?

Jack worked "in computers" in LA his entire career. He graduated from Central State University in Oklahoma with a BS in Math and Physics, focusing on computers. Computers, folks, in 1958 were...slightly different than those we use today. I think.

Here he is with some components in 1962. Just kidding--that's not him (image from here). Below is a computer from 1967, which looks surprisingly a lot like an actual computer, considering that most computers during his early years were rather big, and not just big like "My old Macbook is so BIG compared to my new Macbook Air." One was the size of the basement of his office building. He once had to fix it on payday so the paychecks could be printed, according to a reliable source.

He was, I guess, a programmer, but what did that mean back then? Computer lingo wasn't very universally understood in those days, so he couldn't really explain to regular folk like us what he did, although now it's easy enough to comprehend what programmers do, like "Oh, I'm building a new website for a bank." Then we'd be like, ok, cool. It seems very vague and sort of magical in context of the 60s and 70s, though. I do know that my grandparents had home-use desktop computers beginning really early, which I know because we played Jeopardy and Concentration (the game show) games on big old floppy disks on a green-screen computer when we went to visit.

When he retired, I have the idea that it wasn't entirely voluntary, but that his "field" of "expertise" was somehow suddenly obsolete. Who knows, maybe it was game-show video game programming?