Mom with Dad's relatives

Back: Mike Foltz, Pearle's daughters.
Adel Foltz Howard, Pearle Peterson, Mom.

Pearle, Mike and Adele are Dad's cousins. Pearle's father was George Miller. He had 8 girls and 4 boys and she is last one at age 94. Mom has been going to lunch's with "The Girls" since the 1980's. Another of Dad's cousins, Leona Foltz Sass,  worked with Mom at General Foods and was part of this group and she brought Pearle in. Eventually the group ended up as just Mom and Pearle and then I started going and then Marilyn Rose. Pearle has an excellent memory and has a ton of family lore in her mind. I could listen to her talk all day long. Her daughters are also interesting people. Ardis lives in the old Peterson Place that her uncles, Bill and John, lived in at one time. They farmed together with Aunt Nelda for years. I remember going to their house as a youngster. Their mother was a short German housefrau always busy working. I can still remember the smell of cabbage cooking filling the house with the unique aroma but I never did eat the stuff to this day. Pearle's brothers dug many of the graves  at the Limestone Cemetery and they did it by hand. In the winter they used charcoal to thaw the ground. One of them had a knack for remembering birthdates and would rattle off us Miller kid's dates off correctly anytime. Several of then lived together unmarried (on the river on Route 113) and farmed using big draft horses still in the 1960's. Dad, at 6'2 1/2" always referred to them as "The short Millers on the river." Pearle  lives with Pat and her husband in Chicago Heights. Mike lives in Bonfield, IL and Adele in Lowell. IN.