Minnesota Visits, Grandma's Sandwiches, and Northern Lights

In Minnesota, while we were visiting Grandpa Dan Guild’s grave and pulling weeds on what was to become our last trip there, one of Dad’s crazy sisters, our aunt Myrtle, said, “Let’s dig him up, Floyd, and see what he looks like.” Not a joke, she meant it. If she’d had a shovel, she would have. Creeps! Daddy adored all his relatives in Minnesota. He was very close to his mother and father. Our grandfather Dan was a quite dignified man. I finally realized he was my grandfather in our 1947 trip to his funeral, when I was eleven. Grandma Olive Guild was sweet and adored Bob and me. I remember eating a lunch with her one day. We had fried egg sandwiches and she asked me to cut hers. She said I did it perfectly, although Daddy then scoffed at me because I had cut it directly in half instead of from corner to corner. I thought she was beautiful and tall with pretty hair. Daddy had about seven brothers and sisters and many cousins around Brainerd. I don’t remember them very specifically except Gertie and Myrtle and one of the aunt’s husband whose back was covered in long black hair, which amazed me. I know they were always surprised to see us. I’m sure we just went there unannounced and stayed with them and slept in the attic and ate their food. I remember eating cereal with warm milk right from the cow at Uncle Clarence’s farm and seeing the bright greenish-blue glowing swamp gas and the brilliant swirling Northern Lights that were so bright in 1947, and getting a million mosquito bites and going fishing a lot. But I had no idea all the people we saw were Daddy’s grown brothers and sisters. DADDY’S GIRLS

I think Daddy couldn’t bear to think of his sons-in-law taking away his precious daughters. He was always extremely protective of them. Maybe he knew some men couldn’t be trusted. It seems to me he just hated to see them get married because, then, he wouldn’t be the center of their lives anymore. He never forgave Bill for marrying Iris so young. But as they grew to be old men together, they came to like each other, I thought. He was very grateful to Iris and Bill for all they did for the family in hard times and with special problems Daddy could not solve himself. This was hard for him to admit, but he told me Bill was a good man more than once. In many almost funny ways, Dad made each of his sons-in-law prove their worthiness of each daughter’s hand, but I leave those stories for my sisters to tell. Only Don Bonney ever passed the manhood test (by being a Marine hero, I’ll guess) without having to prove it on the spot. Lucky him! Neither Dad nor Mom ever spoke about marriage or sex with us kids that I can remember. Didn’t matter to me. I doubt they could have added that much. In the country you get that stuff in the backyard pretty early, anyway.