Merlin's Camper Visit and a Familiar Gesture

In 1996, Captain Merlin Ringering came to Normal for an overnight visit. He had just been to Moline to see Dee. Merlin, a retired steamship pilot on the Columbia River, is Daddy’s nephew. He arrived with a companion named Dorothy, in a completely outfitted camper. His wife, Marilyn had died two years previously. He told several stories. I’ll try to relate them here. Merlin spoke of Daddy as a kind of family hero. For years, it seems Dad would go back to Brainerd, Minnesota for the Fourth of July. All the family in that area would gather for a reunion. (Merlin’s mother was our Aunt Bessie.) Daddy was Merlin’s favorite uncle and he would anxiously look forward to these Fourth of July visits. Merlin also loved to spend time with Aunt Gertie (one of Dad’s stepsisters) at these gatherings. He said Gertie was foulmouthed and lots of fun. The relatives thought Daddy was rich because he would always come in some new car. Sometime after Bernie and Bob were twelve or thirteen, Dad stopped going to these gatherings, to everyone’s disappointment. Merlin spoke of a relationship Dad had to a family that lived close to his own in Minnesota. As a child, every summer, Daddy would spend most of his time with this family. The grandfather of this family, Gus Falk, lived and worked in Moline at John Deere and visited there often to hunt and fish. He took a special liking to Daddy and told him that when he was old enough he’d take Dad to Moline to work at Deere. Finally, when Dad was sixteen years old, he quit school and came to Moline with this man. Back in Minnesota, the rest of the family, from then on, called Daddy the rich relative. Merlin disliked his grandmother Guild. (Olive Wooster Guild) He said that many times she was mean and had a long tongue. It seems she took delight in sticking it out at Merlin. She would get Merlin’s mother to switch him often. Olive had five other children before she met Dan Guild: Florence, Ralph, Mertle, Gertie and Pearl. She moved in with Dan Guild and his roommate when her husband, Clarence Vosberg, died. Dan and she were quickly married because a child (Bessie) was on the way. This was told to Merlin at a late date and he still seemed disturbed by the revelation. Dan Guild was characterized as quiet, very mechanical and a poor dirt farmer. Altogether, Grandmother Olive Wooster Guild had 8 children by 3 husbands. Daddy had five half and three full brothers and sisters. Another story was about Clarence, who was Dad’s favorite (and a full brother.) It seems that when Clarence was fourteen, he was helping the family take pigs to market. Going up a hill, Clarence jumped out and ran alongside the truck. Something happened, and Clarence fell under the truck. The tire rolled over his lower abdomen. Instead of taking him to the doctor or hospital, they took him home and set him up in a small stone shed behind the house. He lay there recuperating for nine months. It was lucky he lived without any medical care. Dee told me to watch for a habit of Merlin’s that reminded her of Daddy. Merlin didn’t disappoint me. He would lay his finger up by his nose, exactly like Daddy use to.