My grandpa and grandma started this family having 10 children working and living on the farm for most of their early years. I was only around for grandma for 7 years and only have memories of her sitting in her rocking chair just like in the movies smiling at us grandchildren.
Grandpa I would see every Sunday for supper until he passed away in 1981 on Christmas day. I can remember him to doing a little dance for me when I was young to make me laugh. He bought a 45 record of a Christmas song called Tiny Tony which was my favourite Christmas song of all time. I can remember him playing it on the record player in the kitchen of their home on Madison Street in Winnipeg.
Grandpa told 4 or 5 stories repeatedly during those 15 years, all baseball stories from the early 1900's which is pretty cool to hear about. Baseball was his favourite sport. He used the same tag lines for each, Lefty Treleven the pitcher who threw a fastball that curved up. How he always let the bat hang, or how he would sneak a peek at the catcher, which he would make sure you knew that you weren't supposed to do it, to figure out where they were throwing to him and he hit the ball ever so high. By the time the ball came down and the fielders missed it he was on second base and the pitcher walked over to him and said, "I didn't think you could hit a high ball." He would say, "I didn't say anything, but what I should have said was I can hit anything." If you would tell grandpa, you told me this story, he would ignore you and keep telling it. I learned to just listen and for a while I could repeat the stories word for word.
He was an outfielder playing center field and could cover the balls the left fielder should have had and balls the right fielder should have had.
The summer 6 months before his passing, he came to one of my baseball games and came out onto the field during warm up and wanted the pitcher to throw one for him so he could bat. He hadn't swung a bat in probably 40 years. He stood there with the bat hanging like he always said he'd do and they threw a few pitches for him. I was in left field mortified but everyone thought it was priceless.
My dad would cut his hair once every few months for him and he loved the horse races. He would go to the horse races as much as he could. He drove a cab in Winnipeg for a few years. He rarely had anything to drink, maybe one drink and only two at the most.
I started to write this in 2014 and got sidetracked and decided to get this going again. I have had to go to too many funerals lately and thought we could share our memories for future generations to come with some stories of the Yerex family.
My childhood of going to family farms is over except for Bruce Fleger who is living on the farm he grew up on with Norma and Jim. The Burton's farm has been sold. Daune and Joan's farm was sold a few years ago. Max and Lorna's farm was sold a few years back. I'm glad my kids were old enough to visit every farm but unfortunately their kids won't get that chance.
So if anyone wants to contribute pictures you can email them to me and I'll post them on the picture page of the Yerex family. If you want to tell stories about your families please add them to the comment section for your family. For example if you want to talk about Carol, select her blog and add a comment. Anything in general you can add it to the pictures or wherever you want.
No comments:
Post a Comment