What's A Lock?

I've told you about my Cousin Brother, and a little about my Aunt Mom, so you should know a little about my relationship with my double cousins.

This is just a short bit of information about my Aunt Hazel, and how life should be.

When I was growing up, in the tiny town of Wann, Oklahoma, very few people locked their doors.  Aunt Hazle and Uncle Elmer, and my eleven double cousins lived adjacent to a county road, and about a half mile from Oklahoma Highway 10, so they weren't totally off of the beaten path. 

I asked my Aunt Hazel why she didn't lock her's.  Her reply has stuck with me for more than 50 years.  She said "You never know when someone will run out of gas, or break down."  "They might need to use the phone, or borrow a gallon of gas, or some tools to fix their car."  In hindsight, this is a little strange coming from a lady that never learned to drive.  Most people in this day and time would never consider leaving their home unsecured.  I have a monitored security system on my own house. It's just another reminder of the "good ol' days", when people either trusted others to do the right thing, or maybe they just thought more of others than themselves.  You just have to love the attitude, even if we can't have one like it in this day and time. 

Only Two Things Fall From The Sky!!

When I was in the Army, the Non-Commissioned Officers always said "Only two things fall from the sky, birdsh@#, and fools."  I guess I didn't listen, because I always wanted to jump out of perfectly good airplanes.

I made several jumps and really enjoyed it and continued with civilian jumps at a drop zone, in Cushing, Oklahoma.  Getting married put an end to my skydiving.  For some crazy reason, Peggy didn't want to see skydiving put an end to me.

One of my best skydiving memories took place at the Cushing, Oklahoma drop zone.  I took my son, Jerod with me and he was probably 8 or 9 years old.  

I took him out into the drop zone and told him to stay there.  I told him I would try to land close to him.  We jumped at about 4,000 feet, and when I had descended enough to see Jerod, I started pulling the toggles, which turns the parachute, and the fool hanging under it.  

I would bank left, and then bank right.  Jerod was on the ground, running frantically back and forth, trying to stay under me.  After two or three trips across the drop zone, Jerod shouted "Would you make up your mind where you're going to land?"  

That got me started laughing, and I forgot to brake.  I finally pulled both toggles to brake, but it was a little too late.  I was coming in pretty hot, and my forward momentum sent me skidding along the ground like a duck on a frozen pond.  

Not one of my better landings, but Jerod and I both rolled on the ground laughing.

My Cousin Brother

What in the world is a Cousin Brother?  I'm glad you asked, but you may not be so glad in a bit.   The actual name for it is "Double Cousins", just in case you want to look it up.

I suppose a good place to start is at our parents, or possibly our grandparents.  We share two sets of grandparents.  Lewis and Maudie (Swimm) Ryan, and Uriah and Melvina (Kelly) Hadley.  Joe, my Cousin Brother, was born to Elmer and Hazel (Hadley) Ryan.  My parents are Earl and Dorothy (Hadley) Ryan.

Our maternal and paternal grandparents lived about a mile and half apart.  Our grandma Hadley used to tell her kids not to play too close to the county road, because those crazy Ryan boys drive like they live.  So, instead of being killed by one of the crazy Ryan boys, two of the girls decided to marry them.  I guess they thought it would be better than being run over by one.

Joe's father, Elmer Ryan was the eldest son of Lewis and Maudie Ryan.  My father, Earl Ryan, was the second youngest son of Lewis and Maudie Ryan.  My father was about 20 years younger than his older brother Elmer.  My Dad and his older brother were tighter than bark on a tree.  I think my Dad was convinced that Elmer hung the moon, and possibly kept it shining each night.  My Uncle Elmer was an awesome guy, I must admit.  I always thought the world of him, and would always listen intently to anything he had to say, since there was always a gem of wisdom built into his conversations.  He and Aunt Hazel went through some really tough times, and they did their dead level best to make sure we didn't have to.  Now back to my Cousin Brother.

Joe's mother, Hazel (Hadley) Ryan, was the oldest daughter of Uriah and Melvina Hadley.  My mother, Dorothy (Hadley) Ryan, was the youngest daughter of Uriah and Melvina Hadley.  My mother was about 20 years younger than her older sister Hazel.

Joe's mother and father were married and had three children before my mother was born, so Joe has three siblings that are older than my mother, but Joe and I are the same age.  My mother has one nephew and two nieces that are older than she is.  Since there was such an age difference, I used to call Arthur, my oldest double cousin, Uncle Arthur, and he never corrected me.  After all, he was a few years older than my Mom.  I was probably 10-12 years old before I finally managed to drop the Uncle and just call him Art.

Are you confused yet?  That's okay, so am I and I've lived with this knowledge for 61 years.

When Joe and I were in school, in the very small town of Wann, everyone assumed we were twins.  In many ways, we probably were.  We both enjoyed fishing, hunting, and playing at whatever was in season until it was too dark to play outside.  When it got dark, we would play Monopoly until Joe decided to call it quits and go to bed at around 8:30 or 9:00.  Joe always got up in time to do his chores before school, so he didn't stay up late for anyone.  You could have told Joe that the Worlds Fair was coming to town, and he would say that's great, as long as he didn't have to stay up past 8:30 to see it.  I guess waking up around 4:30 or 5:00 to milk a couple of cows, feed the pigs and chickens would do that to you.  Joe was always a hard working guy, but that's just the way he wanted it.

Joe and I were inseparable until my family moved from Wann to Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1968.  I was 14 years old, and I must say that was one of the toughest times in my life.  I just imagine twins have the same separation issues when they finally have to go their separate ways.

Having a Cousin Brother is a unique experience.  One that I wouldn't trade for a million dollars.  I was lucky enough to have five Cousin Brothers and six Cousin Sisters, and so very fortunate to have an Aunt Mom, but that might be another story.  My Aunt Hazel always treated me and my siblings (my Mom too, for that matter) like we were her own children.  Even though she had eleven children of her own, she always had time for a few more. 

In the photo, our grandparents, from left to right.

 Uriah Hadley, Melvina (Kelly) Hadley, Maudie (Swim) Ryan, Lewis Ryan

 

R2 Deep Freeze aka (R2D2 on Ice)

My daughter, Jennifer, was my best friend, and is still at the top of my list.  Jennifer would ride on my shoulders while I tilled the garden and while I used a push mower on our lawn.  I was raking the leaves on Fall, and buried her in the pile.  I called her Mom, and when she came out onto the back porch, I signaled Jennifer to pop up out of the leaves.  Jennifer laughed until she cried.

When she was around 5 years old, we got a pretty good snow in Pawnee. She loved to play in the snow in our yard, so I pulled her on the sled, had snowball fights (which she won, of course) and built a couple of snowmen (or women. I don't know how to tell which is which).  We built one, and then I decided to shovel the snow off of the sidewalk.  While I had the snow shovel, I shaved the snowman and made him square.  Star Wars was pretty popular at the time, so we named the square snowman, R2 DeepFreeze.