Ontopic Post interesting stuff that's happened in your family.

MapleySyrup said:
The story of Dan's family is epic.

Alex was Dan's grandfather. He was born in a village in Poland or Russia depending upon where you draw the line. When he was 16 years old the Nazis came and burned his village to the ground killing most people including his family. He and his friend escaped. They didn't know what to do then so they lied about their ages and joined the Russian army. Alex could drive a tractor so they made him a tank driver. He fought in many battles in WWII and nearly starved to death. He told a story where they found a dead horse buried in the snow so they dug it up and ate it. Then they all got horrible diarrhea. He talked about how they would do things to entertain like taking turns riding up and down on (and now I'm going to sound like the girl I am) the big gun thingy on the front of the tanks. He was so mind controlled that even when I got to know him decades after the war he still considered all Germans to be animals that deserved to be shot on sight. He talked about all the killing he did like it was no big deal. It was creepy, but I respect that I cannot imagine what he had to face and I'm impressed that it didn't ruin him. He just dealt with it how he could.

After the war he was not allowed to leave the military so he defected. He wound up in a displaced persons camp and that's where he met Joanna. He told me she was still a virgin so he married her. Her story is less clear to me. I gather that much of her family was killed in the war but there was some kind of a rift formed between her and the ones that survived. I do not know why. Anyway, she agreed to marry Alex and they snuck out of East Berlin and traveled to Israel. They had a child (Dan's mom Eva) and Alex got a job as some kind of radio technician for the Israeli government. They then sent him and his family to Ethiopia to help with the infrastructure there. There was still an Emperor at that time. They lived well in Ethiopia. They had a house and servants. They enjoyed hiking and camping and hunting. We have a picture of Eva getting her high school diploma from Haile Selassie.

In the meantime in Yugoslavia, Dan's father John was born into a large and loving family. He had 10 brothers and sisters. He was one of the youngest. Then one day, while drunk I believe, John's father was trying to cross the street and was struck and killed by a car. Soon after, John's mother died of a "broken heart" leaving her children alone in the world. They were all taken by Christian Services to an orphanage in New York. Many were adopted but some were too old and lived at the orphanage until they were 18 and could make it on their own. John and one brother and two of his sisters were adopted by a family in Iowa that adopted children for the money. They didn't take very good care of the kids and when his sisters reached the age of 16 they were kicked out without a dime. When John reached 18 he was drafted and then he learned land surveying. After he left the army he continued to work for the government doing this. He was among the first to use GPS technology and has a lot of stories about the early stages of this technology that I will never understand.

He was sent all over the world doing surveying. He went to remote places that I'll never see like the middle of the Sahara. He went to places where there were so many homeless people that he had to climb over them on steps and streets to get to his room. They were just sleeping everywhere. He dined with kings and received expensive gifts they thought were just trinkets. He wound up in Ethiopia on business and met Eva. She was 10 years his junior, just barely 18. After 6 months she ran off with him and married him. They traveled around the world together a lot, driving through places where these days you'd probably be shot if you attempted. Eventually they settled back in the US even though they traveled around here a lot too. New Mexico, Hawaii, Maryland. Somewhere in there Dan was born and they eventually settled here. Eva's parents came to join her and they all bought a house together, the house that Dan, John, Sam and I now live in. We are what survives of this family. Brewer isn't even John's real last name. It's Gumbotz, but he's apparently embarrassed by that name as he is by his real first name, Emil. For whatever reason he thinks it's not a cool name. I think Emil Gumbotz is awesome, but whatever.
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Wow! Best WoT ever!
So amazingly sad how life was for them back then :(
We in our generation and kiko's or Sam's generation will never know such despair...wars, escaping countries and such...

Total gravy post
 
Fat Lola said:
Wow! Best WoT ever!
So amazingly sad how life was for them back then :(
We in our generation and kiko's or Sam's generation will never know such despair...wars, escaping countries and such...

Total gravy post
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I really hope you are right. I cannot imagine the things they had to face and I would hate it if Sam had to go through anything like that.
 
My brother stole a backpack full of liquor from my parent's wine cellar and tried to sell it at high school. He got arrested for B&E and possession of stolen property awhile later. And almost had an assault charge for someone girl who made a rude comment to him so he grabbed her by the neck and held her against a wall until someone broke it up. He locked my mom and myself out of the house one day after an argument. Had to call my dad (who was separated from my mom at the time) to come unlock the door. That was rather awkward.

Never a dull moment in this family.
 
I have an utterly boring family (that I know of) compared to many of you. Best thing I got was my dad was the first ever to go to and graduate college in his family. My mom never even really went. Managed to have all 3 of their kids go on to college and graduate. 2 of 3 got graduate degrees (such a slacker here but would love to be a GG).
 
when i was about 12 me and my family went on a road trip across the country from chicago to the LA. my dad planned it out in every detail. but on the way we get lost in st lous. my dad pulls over to ask this guy for directions and his crew ended up stealing our hub caps while we're talking to him. so then we stop off in coolidge to see some family and end up having to take my aunt and her dog to phoenix. anyway later we end up staying at this camp that has smelly tents. When we left on the next day, my dad accidentally dragged the dog to death behind the car. we get to the desert later on and narrowly escape death after crashing through a roadblock sign and messing up the car. dad walked through the desert to find a gas station and the car gets repaired by some mechanics who try to take all our money for repairs, which werent even done well. so we are out of money and dad steals money from a hotel where he tried to get a check cashed while the rest of us are looking at the Grand canyon thats right by the hotel. After we leave the hotel, my aunt dies in the car! so we keep going to Phoenix and leave her dead body at her sons house. anyway we end up in LA at our destination, but the park we traveled all that way for was closed! my dad goes crazy at this point and holds the security guard hostage, long story short we get arrested. my dad pleads with the owner of the park and he lets us go and even lets us in, we were the only ones there! best vacation ever.
 
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clamchowder said:
when i was about 12 me and my family went on a road trip across the country from chicago to the LA. my dad planned it out in every detail. but on the way we get lost in st lous. my dad pulls over to ask this guy for directions and his crew ended up stealing our hub caps while we're talking to him. so then we stop off in coolidge to see some family and end up having to take my aunt and her dog to phoenix. anyway later we end up staying at this camp that has smelly tents. When we left on the next day, my dad accidentally dragged the dog to death behind the car. we get to the desert later on and narrowly escape death after crashing through a roadblock sign and messing up the car. dad walked through the desert to find a gas station and the car gets repaired by some mechanics who try to take all our money for repairs, which werent even done well. so we are out of money and dad steals money from a hotel where he tried to get a check cashed while the rest of us are looking at the Grand canyon thats right by the hotel. After we leave the hotel, my aunt dies in the car! so we keep going to Phoenix and leave her dead body at her sons house. anyway we end up in LA at our destination, but the park we traveled all that way for was closed! my dad goes crazy at this point and holds the security guard hostage, long story short we get arrested. my dad pleads with the owner of the park and he lets us go and even lets us in, we were the only ones there! best vacation ever.
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It would have been funny if the grammar were better.
 
you're going really hard, you must have a strong emotional feeling about grammar. what happened to you as a child to make your experience on the internet so hard?
 
clamchowder said:
when i was about 12 me and my family went on a road trip across the country from chicago to the LA. my dad planned it out in every detail. but on the way we get lost in st lous. my dad pulls over to ask this guy for directions and his crew ended up stealing our hub caps while we're talking to him. so then we stop off in coolidge to see some family and end up having to take my aunt and her dog to phoenix. anyway later we end up staying at this camp that has smelly tents. When we left on the next day, my dad accidentally dragged the dog to death behind the car. we get to the desert later on and narrowly escape death after crashing through a roadblock sign and messing up the car. dad walked through the desert to find a gas station and the car gets repaired by some mechanics who try to take all our money for repairs, which werent even done well. so we are out of money and dad steals money from a hotel where he tried to get a check cashed while the rest of us are looking at the Grand canyon thats right by the hotel. After we leave the hotel, my aunt dies in the car! so we keep going to Phoenix and leave her dead body at her sons house. anyway we end up in LA at our destination, but the park we traveled all that way for was closed! my dad goes crazy at this point and holds the security guard hostage, long story short we get arrested. my dad pleads with the owner of the park and he lets us go and even lets us in, we were the only ones there! best vacation ever.
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Clark!!!!
 
My grandfather, born in 1895, was in "the great war" and never once called it World War 1. He had foot problems as a kid, family was very poor and never took him to a doctor. Went into the service (after marrying his hs sweetheart, my gma) and got a pair of boots that fit. All foot problems solved. They were the first new pair of shoes he got, and the first one's that were the right size.

After the war came home to PA, worked & got what half a century later would be diagnosed as Legionnaire's disease. At the time, the doctors said the only way to save him was to remove one lung and half of the other. They did, and told him this was only going to give him a couple more years because there was damage the couldn't remove and if he wanted to extend it a few more months he should move to the southern Appalachian mountains (smokey mountains area). they moved there when he was 27 and wanted a family so bad that they figured they had to get started right away. A tiny house and lots of blessings later they had their 3rd kid 6 years after the move. He opened a business, servicing the local area and worked there until he was 80. Retired (no party because he continually tinkered in the family business) he'd wander out to service calls once a month, and enjoy the air on his front porch for 15 more years. Died at 93 years old having known grandchildren and great grandchildren. Both he and my gma were always unbelievably humble and grateful.

When I asked him how he think he made it that long, he said in his slow southern draw, "well, they just didn't know me."
 
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