Birthdays

Yesterday was my brother, George's, birthday. He would have been 55 years old. I have talked about him before on my blog but some of you may not remember. He died when he was only 13. I was only 7 when George died and so I don't remember a lot about him. He was the only one of us 4 children who had blue eyes and red hair like our father.
I love this picture of him and his dog!

This was the last school picture taken of him before he died. My parents did not get the pictures back till after George died and his eyes were half closed in them. The pictures were black and white. They took them to this photography studio in town and the man there made this picture from it with George's eyes open. His hair was more auburn then it looks in this picture.
My cousin tells me that George was a cut up. That he liked to make jokes and act silly. I do remember that he was very talented with his hands and one time made me a little wooden table and a chair for my doll and he made her some clothes! Now how many 13 year old brothers would do that? I thought a lot about George yesterday. Wondering what he would be like if he were alive today. Thinking that on that last birthday he had when he turned 13 he must have been so happy to finally be a teenager. For those wondering George was accidentally shot by our cousin in a hunting accident. George wasn't going hunting but our cousin and oldest brother were. It was a very sad tragedy.
Today is my Aunt Rachel's birthday. Below is a picture of her and my Mama. Weren't they both beautiful? Aunt Rachel was always like a second mama to us. We stayed at her house a lot. When my bother George died we stayed there for a week. She is one special lady! I don't get to see her very often now. She and my uncle divorced when I was young and she moved back to her hometown where her family were. But I think about her a lot and miss her. Her health is not good at all now. I hope to go see her again soon. When my Mama died Aunt Rachel came and made her famous Banana Pudding. I thought my male cousins were gonna get in a fight over it! It was all so funny. My Uncle Goat (real name Jerry) who is my Aunt Rachel's ex-husband and my dad's younger brother got him a bowl of banana pudding before he even got his lunch! He and my aunt are still very close even though he is remarried. This has made it good for their kids and grand kids and great grand kids! I just love Aunt Rachel so much and wish her a great Birthday!!!
I told you about the trouble I was having getting my great uncle's military records in my last post. Well, I have since talked to a lady with the National Archives in Maryland. In Maryland they have the deck logs and muster rolls of the naval ships. She could not believe that the Archives in St. Louis wanted so much for a copy of his military records. In fact she thought I must have gotten ahold of an independent company who charges to get the records for you. But I gave her the web address and she agreed that it was the right address. So she told me to fill out a new request form and just request his DD214 which is his discharge paper and that it should list the ship he was on that sunk. She said it should not cost anything for just this one piece of paper. So I filled it out and faxed it in. I am now waiting to hear back from them. You just really have to keep on pushing to find out information you want!