I've been emailing a man who I think might be my grandfather's second cousin, but I'm not sure. We're still trying to work out all the relations. I know he's related somehow. He remembers a lot of old family stuff, but like most of the older people I've talked to about family history, he doesn't really remember unless you ask the right way. He's got lots of interesting stories about growing up in Brooklyn in the twenties, though.
My favorite of those sorts of stories is from my grandfather. He was born in 1918 and lived on Coney Island. In the summer when he was a little kid, he'd wander around the beach and pretend to be lost so that people would feel sorry for him and give him food. He wasn't starving or anything -- his father owned a shoe store and could feed him perfectly well -- but he just liked the hot dogs and fries and candy that people on the beach would have better than the soup or sandwich or whatever that he'd get if he ate lunch at home.
What's the difference between the cool-sounding thingie and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
As near as I can tell, the cool-sounding thingie is in a different location. Also, Carpal Tunnel *can* be caused by something other than the myelin sheath getting inflamed and squooshing the nerve that passes through the carpal tunnel.
The Jose Cuervo (or whatever it is that I have; I'm too lazy to scroll back), is apparently always caused by an inflamed myelin sheath.
It's not a huge difference, but there it is.
Very few family stories, but my parents went back to the village church they went to in Portugal (Feteiras on the island of San Miguel) to look up family marriages/births/deaths. They were able to go back easily on both sides to 1750-1800, and the oldest set of records they could find dated to mid 16th century or around then...
Most of my people had the good taste to be religious malcontents and fortune hunters and came over in the late 1600s and 1700s, so they show up in lots of books. The other ones plopped themselves down in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and didn't move for several generations.
I have one relative (my great-grandfather's first cousin) who was the first person in New Jersey convicted under Prohibition. The conviction was later overturned because the prosecution hadn't shown that he actually intended to sell the liquor -- they'd just shown that he accepted a huge shipment, and happened to own a tavern. He also testified in a case related to the Lindberg baby case (and as far as I can tell, his testimony was most likely entirely false.)
That's some good lawyering!
I have reasonable doubt that, while the liquor was never sold, it sure didn't go to waste.
Yeah. Pretty much all the lawyers and police officers involved in that case were accused of taking bribes at some point.
flops into thread exhausted
I can't really catch up. I've been stuck at a trade show the last couple days. Blah. That was non-fun enough but I was late getting there today because my son was suspended for 10 days from school. This with 13 days left. Then when I got to the show I decided to check my voice messages and I had a message from the other son's teacher about his failing grade.
Son is appealing the suspension. I get his points, but I keep trying to make him understand that The Teacher Is Always Right. He'll get it at some point. He wrote a long email to his other teachers explaining the situation and asking their support in the form of a statement that he is not an insubordinate kinda guy. Also soliciting statements from a large number of other students in this class. MySpace and email make this possible.
He is supposed to be able to come and take his exams in the office, but there are all the end of year group projects and so forth to coordinate.
Who knows how it will all end, but I do know it will be some type of learning experience.
Silver lining - I don't have to get up at 6am!
Love the new name PixChick. And smooches to Sail for being helpful chick.
So tired.