they lived on a small farm across from, what is now, O'Hare Airport. I don't know if he was
strange when he was young, but by the time we knew him, he was. For instance, they lived in
a smallish house but they had large storage areas: garages, barns, sheds. That wasn't very
strange, but what he kept in them was another story.
Uncle George never bought one of anything, small or large. He bought two lawn mowers,
two washers, two dryers, two refrigerators, two tractors and two electric ranges. Grandma
Hilda said it came from having gone through the depression. That seems to be a reasonable
explanation. It was hard enough for us to pay for even one item of a kind. I think Grandma
Hilda said he had owned picture shows in St. Louis and then, after they were married for awhile, they moved to Chicago. But, if he made enough to "buy the farm" in 40's, the depression hadn't been too hard on him.
When we were visiting them one summer. I had an asmtha attack and we had forgotten to bring my medicine. The medicine, Tedrel, must have had a touch of adrenaline in it because it was the only thing that would work, and it worked really fast. My mom was able to locate a pharmacy who called a local doctor. My mother spoke with the doctor and he gave the prescription to the pharmacist. (Try to do that today!)
I took it on the spot and by the time we got back to Aunt Gert's I was doing fairly well.
Uncle George thought I was still having trouble breathing and showed me what he thought
was a jar of Vick's he kept on a TV tray next to he chair. He said, "Here, this will help you."
He demonstrated by putting his finger in the jar. He took out a huge amount of the stuff and put it in his mouth. Gert tried to explain to him that I was doing okay, because I had my medicine. I had heard of putting Vick's on your tongue; however, the jar in Uncle George's
hand was a jar of Vaseline.
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