Uncle Alonzo Ted Arthur at Log Cabin

 Mom's uncle standing next to his fathers log cabin, he has his sixgun stapped on his waist. His wife cut the woman in the picture off the photo! Later on they built a larger home around the cabin and then used it as the kitchen. Mom and I saw it in 1971 but didn't take a picture. They had torn down the house and kept the cabin and used it as a ear corn crib. Aunt Lola was with us and said we could have a few pieces of scrap metal that was piled in the corner. She would talk to her brother Lincoln about it. I gave the old coffee pot to our son Dennis and he has it and a picture of John "Paw" Arthur on display. Lincoln's daughter Christine still lives in the house that was built to replace the cabin. It is a gathering place for the Arthur Clan to this day. Someone told Mom that the cabin was moved to a Kentucky park and put on display but Christine said she thought it had been sold for wood.

John Arthur was Mom's grandpa, Lincoln, Ted, Lola and Grandma Maryetta were four of his kids.

At Moms house Nov 1978

 We stopped in to see Mom before we moved to Germany.

Dad and His Car 1930's

 

I posted this picture of Dad and his car but I don't know for sure if this is the same one from the "Bonfield Roadblock" story but Mom thought it was.

 

 Dad’s 95^th birthday was Friday, 20 July 2012. I was back to make my monthly visit to Mom and went to the Herscher Historical Society Museum. While there I met a lady from the newly formed Bonfield Historical Society (which I joined) and I talked some about our roots in Bonfield. The first home they lived in was in Bonfield. I told one story from 1937 (one of many that Mom passed on while driving in and around Kankakee together over the years). The Arnold family was living on the Taylor farm just NE of Bonfield. When Mom and Dad were dating (she was 17 and he 19 or 20) he would roar through Bonfield, drop her off and then go SE a few miles home to the Miller farm. This night the town cops waited for him just south of town near Stone Creek by blocking off the road with their cars. He usually dropped her off about the same time every Saturday night. Dad always drove a big GM car to go along with his heavy right foot! He saw the roadblock, went down into the east side ditch and waved at them as he went by. He swung up and got back on the road to roar through town, stopped at Arnolds, said goodnight, and spun his tires headed towards home! With the cops in pursuit! The three cars made a lot of noise approaching the Miller house with a very long lane and his Dad came out with his shotgun loaded. When his son told him what was going on Grandpa fired off two rounds into the air! The cops turned around and went back to Bonfield. I still remember how Mom told this story in great detail many years ago. So I went back to the spot and took this picture. Happy Birthday Dad!

Gramma Cuzz and the boys in Tooele

 Doug, Mom in back. Rich, Darian, Denny, and Devin in front. This was our house at 546 S 380 W. The Mormon method for numbering was simple: the Mormon Temple was at the center of town and as we were five point four six blocks south and three point eight miles blocks of it that was our address. You could never get lost under this system! The inflation of the time (1977-78) saw our house almost double in value when we moved to Germany in '78. We had done some upgrades and  Toolele was growing at the time but the run-a-way inflation after Nixon was most of it.

Mom, Dorothy and the boys in Tooele, Utah

 Mom, Rich, Dorothy in the back row, Denny, Darian, Devin, Punkin, and Doug, June 1977. Mom enjoyed travel to see her family anytime, anywhere. Her sister Dorothy came with her this time,and saw Elvis on the street in Salt Lake City. It was all desert but still had a lot of local greenery.

Desirae note to Great Gramma Cuzz

 A sweet little girl wrote a note to her Great Gramma back in 1993. That little girl has a baby of her own now and it's time to return the note to Desirae Nichole Watson because Gramma said so! It went out in todays mail.

Drawing of Dawnetta

This is a charcoal drawing of Dawnetta Watson, one of Mom's many grandkids. It hung in Mom's home for years. Mom wanted me to give this to Dawnetta so it's going in the mail today. Dawnetta asked me to mail it to her daughter Desirae instead as she just had her first baby, a boy named Rylan!  A belated congratulation to all!