1 June 2011
It was on this day
that I started keeping dated notes when I talked to Mom on the phone. We talked
almost every day for a while there. Wish I’d dated all the notes prior to that but am happy to have what
I do.
On this day Mom
wanted to talk about WWII and the boys who served. There were a lot of them too, and ours
wasn’t the only family who sent their boys off. Mom’s brother Camey Williams joined the Army and went
to California for training. His best friend was Lonnie Kyle and he’s
related by marriage on Mom’s side, somehow. Have just spent the better part of an hour trying to figure it out
and can’t work it out. Ever get a stray person such as Lonnie Kyle? You know that there’s
a connection but you just can’t make the pieces fit.
Mom’s maternal
grandmother Mam Whetstone is pictured with Nan Kyle in this photo above. Just don’t know who Nan is to Mam. This picture is
dated 1939 and Nan appears to be pregnant. With Lonnie’s younger brother? Finding out who the Kyles
were to our family is going to drive me crazy.
While Camey was in
California, so far away from little Frostburg, their hometown, he sees Lonnie! Lonnie
yelled out, “Last time I saw you, you had pneumonia!” Which is strange thing to say, I first
thought.
But it was the truth! Camey and
Lonnie and a bunch of the boys were playing down by the creek in January. It was frozen over,
solid. Except for that spot Camey found when he cracked the ice and fell in. And he
got pneumonia. He did however get an ambulance ride to the hospital. His first one. He was
excited, very ill but excited.
Lonnie also said that the last time he saw
Camey he was a skinny little kid. Now, he said that Camey had turned into a man.
That’s Uncle Camey on
the right. I think this photo might have been taken in Frostburg at some point. And I have no idea where that top one was taken, but it's not Frostburg.
The notation on this picture says that he was in Switzerland.
Mom’s sister Dot had
a childhood sweetheart named Harold. They grew up, fell or stayed in love
and married. Uncle Harold Conrad also served but in the Navy. Cousin Steve knows his
Naval history and stories of his service and someday I’ll have to get more
information from him. Meanwhile, here he is in uniform.
With his new bride, Aunt Dot.
Here he's on board a ship in the Pacific. Cousin Steve will know all of the details.
Thank goodness for cousins!
On Dad’s side of the
family, his brother Bernie Kelly, was off to the European Theatre of war. When
he got there, he spotted his
brother-in-law Pete Fraley, his sister Christiana’s husband. Once they met again, Pete
and
Bernie started kidding around and Pete told him he was not regulation anything and was one of
those “undesirables” they talk about. They had a good laugh!
Kidding around was a
brother thing in our family and it pops up in many family stories. Bernie was, I thought,
the funniest of the uncles. Dad was funniest when he was with Bernie and they got into
some close scrapes too, but all in fun. I don’t think anyone got arrested
for any of their pranks, but I’m not totally certain.
It’s said that Bernie
stole watches from POWs, but maybe that’s just a made-up story told by the two
other brothers. One day Bernie was walking around camp and saw this officer looking
particularly pompous and thought, “Who does he think he is.” Then he realized that it was
his brother Delbert!
As I heard the story,
the day the war was over in Europe Bernie grabbed a jeep and drove off to find
Delbert
to celebrate. Against odds, they found each other!
Delbert John Kelly on
the top and on the bottom, Bernie Kelly.
