Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Alphabet Soup
This may be the most self-indulgent post I have ever done. This week's Alphabet Soup -- in the "J's" takes us to Janesville, Minnesota. There is absolutely nothing outstanding about Janesville, a tiny town of less than 2500 nestled roughly half way between Waseca and Mankato (of "Little House On The Prarie" fame) it's mostly a stoplight on US 14. So why and I posting on it? -- It is the home of the paternal side of my family.
This is the homestead of the Rux clan, which is my grandmother's family. They had the money. Snicker, snicker, they were dirt farmers like everybody else, they just happened to own a little land. The Schroeder's never quite made it to land ownership suffering a number of serious setbacks upon immigration. Between my grandmother and grandfather, I had over 30 aunts and uncles, some of them no blood relation whatsoever. One spouse died, the remaining remarried, then the other, again remarriage, and so it goes. Then there was my step-grandmother, my grandmother having dies when my dad was 12. There was a time when I could walk down the one block on Main Street in Janesville, stop a stranger and figure out how I was related to them.
This is the grave marker for my grandfather, my blood grandmother, and my father's oldest brother, who like my grandmother died before I was born. My father was one of 4, 5 actually but we don't count the one that died as an infant, and is the only one that got past the 8th grade. It is a testament to God. One her deathbed, my grandmother called in my father and the local Lutheran pastor. Dad's brothers had already dropped out by this time, looked that pastor in the eye, and said, "This one finishes schoool." That pastor was known to physically drag my father to school.Speaking of Minnesota graves -- they can't bury people in winter, the ground is frozen too hard. They store them until spring, then do it all at once. Which is why we will conclude this post with pictures that just scream "Minnesota" -- frozen lakes and fields.
