Aunt Bess & Uncle Albert Porter

Grandma Blanche & Grandpa Walter celebrated their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary in 1953 and Aunt Bess & Uncle Albert Porter arrived from sunny California to attend the fete. By 1953 they were both quite old, especially through my 13 year old eyes, but oh how they could laugh! Especially Aunt Bess.

One day we were driving them around Detroit. Grandpa Walter was in the front seat and Uncle Albert in the rear.  Walter would say something and Albert would reply: “What?”  Then Walter would say:  “Albert can’t hear very well,” and would repeat what he had previously said, but in a much louder voice.  A while later, Albert would say something and Walter would reply. “What?”  Albert would say, “Walter is as deaf as a doorknob,” and repeat his previous statement in a roar.  That went on throughout the drive, again and again. The rest of us would chuckle while their banter continued.

The next time I saw  Aunt Bess was in the 1960’s, when I visited her in Sacramento.  She lived with her daughter and son-in law Jerry & Ruth Anderson.  By that time Albert had died.  Aunt Bess was frail and using a walking stick. In the morning, she would arrive in the living room, plunk herself in a chair, stomp down hard with her walking stick and bellow: “Well, David, what do you want to know about Manistee?”

She never was at a loss for words and I never knew just what she would say.  She was neither shy nor “Victorian.”  I must have asked her many questions, however the one that is most vivid in my memory concerns her as a young mother.  “You know, David,” she said.  “I was only 18 years old when I had Ruth and I didn’t know anything about being a mother.”  “One day, shortly after Ruth was born, I was lying on the couch breast feeding her when the postman arrived at the door.  I got so excited, I rushed to the door and forgot to put my beast back into my dress.  I squirted the postman with my milk, his face became red as a beet, he turned on his heals and was gone without even leaving the mail he was delivering!”

Uncle Rudy Kowalske drove from East Jordan to Detroit.