Daddy

It’s funny I talk about my Dad quite a bit with my kids. Megan really doesn’t remember him only what we’ve told her. Cory remembers and he really does humor me. It really is a shame Michelle never got to meet him.

It will be 15 years this year that he is gone. It seems like only yesterday. My memories of my Dad are just that mine. I may remember something completely different from my sister or brother. My uncles and aunts have completely different memories than we do. If you called him Bob, Dad, Grandpa or Uncle Bob some things about him were the same. Family always came first, when he laughed his ears turned red and he knew more useless trivia than any one person should ever know.  He should have been one of the guys behind the scenes on a sports show. You know the statistician. Anyone who has EVER watched a basketball, baseball or football game with him knows what I’m talking about.

It’s really weird to write about him and call him Dad. In my entire life I always called him Daddy. So did my sister and brother. It was just who he was. 

He loved his Grandpa Willie. How many times can one man tell the story of “last bite”- and not have his children recite it back to him word for word? Hundreds maybe thousands. He made sure Cory knew the story, told it to him the last week-end before he died.

I used to think I would never see my Dad again. But it’s funny how wrong you can be. Noah has his eyebrows. Megan has his love for the written word. Cory has his gift of making people feel at ease when he’s around, and the ability to make them laugh. Michelle has his determination and  intelligence. Billy has his smile. Tony has his fearlessness. Bobby has his love of sports.

I will talk about my Dad in future stories I’m sure. I promised him his grandchildren would know about him like we knew about Grandpa Willie. They shall….

Gram Eichstaedt

It’s unfortunate that my kids didn’t know my Gram Eichstaedt. She passed away just after Cory was born. She was an amazing woman and I miss her like crazy some days.

Gram was everything you could want in a grandmother. I had the extra benefit of living with her all the time when I was a kid. She embodied unconditional love and had the patience of a saint. Of course you would have to with 9 kids and 3 grandkids living with you all the time.

How many kids can say their grandmother taught them to read with flash cards? Were best friends with your second grade nun? Loved the song Tura, Lura, Lura (It’s an Irish lullaby)? Convinced your Dad to let you go all the way to Oak Street beach with your friends on a BUS when you were 11? On a hot day let you drink cold water in a silver cup? Got you out of more trouble when you were in high school and never made you tell your Dad?

I have so many memories of Gram, so many stories…so I guess I’ll start with my first memory of her. Gram had a desk in the corner of the dining room on Long Ave. she sat there and taught me how to read. Flash cards-red with pictures on one side, words on the other side. I was 4. I have no idea but I’m sure she did this with all of her kids and us. I know she did it with my Dad he told me about it when I was older.  I LOVED it. I waited everyday for her to tell me I could do flash cards. It was great. My Gram gave me the best gift ever when she taught me to read. She told me that reading was a wonderful gift that God gave us. I could read a book and it could take me to a far away land or another book that could tell me how things happened in another time. She told me that unlike movies books let me imagine how things looked or what color hair a character had. I could go anywhere and learn anything I wanted.  My Gram gave me the gift of the written word and I gave that gift to my kids. My daughter to this day falls asleep reading a book.

The World’s Fair-1933

As Gram Cooper tells it the worlds fair in Chicago was quite the event. Back in the day a young lady could not go into the big city unescorted. So she and her brother set off on a train from Lowell, Indiana to Chicago.  They got off the train somewhere on the south side of Chicago…every time she tells the story it’s a little different. From there she WALKED about 7 or 9 miles to the fair.  Just for a little visual this is what the fashions’ of the day looked like.

Look at those shoes! Tell me you could walk 5 minutes in an outfit like that. We Gram did. I wish I could figure out how to put the picture she has of that day on my post…oh well.  She loved the expo and talks about the events as if they happened yesterday.  She got separated from her brother that day and needless to say got in a lot of trouble on the train ride home for being without a chaperone. Geez like I said before I would have NEVER made it back in Gram’s day.  Just think when Gram went to the fair she was 22 years old. She talks about seeing all the cars and buildings and people. To  think that’s why she left the farm and came to Chicago, because everything was so different and the farm just wasn’t what she wanted for herself.

Gram Cooper

So this is my first attempt at writing something in a blog. My daughter is worried I’m going to write way too much about her. Little does she know very little is going to be about her….this is going to be more about the people who shaped her life. I promised my Dad before he died 15 years ago I would make sure my kids knew him. For the most part I have kept my promise. But there are times when my kids don’t listen. So I am going to write stuff about all the OP’s in their lives. My son coined that phrase awhile ago. It stands for Old People. So for those of you who are over 28 you are an Old Person in my son and daughters world. Go figure.

Well I guess I should start with the oldest of my kids OP’s. Their Great Gram Cooper. She will be 99 years old on April 1st. She told me once that she keeps fooling everybody by celebrating a birthday each April Fools Day. Gram is a feisty women. She like everyone from her generation understands the value of a dollar. She has told many stories over the years of her life. Each time I hear them I think to myself I would have never made it in her day. She grew up on a farm- went to college to be a teacher. Her parents wanted her to do what she wanted. My Gram to my knowledge has had three great loves in her life. My grandfather, her second husband Ray and her friend Harry. All have passed away, which makes me sad because she deserves a gentleman of her age to make a fuss over her. But until recently she didn’t need anybody to make a fuss over her. She did it all by herself and the way she wanted.

Generation 1 (Gram) and Generation 5 (Noah)

She has taught me a lot about so many different things its hard to know where to start. So I think I start at the beginning. She grew up on a farm in Indiana. She was the oldest girl and one of 7 children. Lewis, Paul, Al (Web) Mabel (Gram), Lucille, Zora and Richard. Her youngest brother Richard was 14 years younger than she was so she was given the responsibility of taking care of him. She always said she was like her son more than her brother.

She went away to college to become a teacher. She met my grandfather, got married and moved to Chicago. (There are plenty of stories in between but I will take care of those in later posts). They had two daughters Joan and Sharon.  They bought a house on Rice Street in Chicago. They had a good life. Then in March of 1958 my grandfather died. Gram worked at Sear’s for a whole lotta years. She retired in 1972. Gram sold the house on Rice Street and lived in Roselle when we moved there back in 1974. She married Ray during that time and was very happy. Unfortunately Ray got sick and passed away. But, as always Gram got through it with the help of her daughters and her grandkids. After a while she moved to Bensenville and rented apartments where she lived. She did that until she was over 80. She met Harry there. He was a great guy and she had a lot of good times with him. He moved to be closer to his kids and Gram moved in with my Mom and John.  Now that was interesting. Gram stopped driving when my Megan turned 16. That would have made Gram 94 years old. Now don’t get all crazy, she only drove about 2 blocks to the store to get her prescriptions filled. But every year we thought she wouldn’t pass the drivers test. She passed the year she stopped driving, but gave it up on her own. Did I mention that she didn’t start driving until 1969, when she was 58 years old. She was getting ready to retire and move to the suburbs so she needed to learn.

My Gram says the hardest thing about getting older is that so many of your friends aren’t around anymore.  I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Gram but I know one thing for sure. She has touched more lives and made more memories with each of us then we could have ever hoped for.