Posts about family life.
After my mother married my stepfather, Ernest Diaz, in 1981, he was looking for a way for us to spend time together. I was camping with the Boy Scouts, so Dad decided that camping would be an effective way for us to get to know each other. A friend of Dad’s owned property and a cabin in Greenville, MO. We […]
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Great Grandma Caroline Ellis illustrates the difficulty of tracing family history. I do not know whether she did not trust the government or liked to mess with the census taker but here are all her aliases in the census records from 1910 to 1940. The family all called her “Lee.” In 1910, she is living with her parents on 4244 […]
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My stepfather, Ernest C. Diaz, was born in St. Louis, MO on Saturday, May 21, 1932. It was the same day Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. Dad was the youngest of five children born to Joseph (Josef) Diaz and Marie Moellenberg Diaz. Dad said the family did not have a lot […]
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On April 27, 2013, on what would have been his grandfather and namesake’s 71st birthday, Ken “Trey” Zimmerman III became the first black belt in the Zimmerman Self-Defense System under his father Ken Zimmerman Jr. “Trey” began studying martial arts shortly before his fifth birthday. “Trey” has trained in Taekwondo, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Gojo Shroei Weapons System. His goals […]
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When Grandma and Grandpa moved back to St. Louis, they originally moved to Shaw Avenue. Dorothy Elliot, a family friend, and widowed mother asked them if they would move into a two-family flat if she could find one to buy. She looked at several and found one she liked on Kingsland Court. Grandma and Grandpa agreed. They lived on the […]
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When Grandpa became the manager of the Forest City plant, he built a house in Mascoutah. Grandma, Mom, and Aunt Maureen lived in St. Louis at first, but they all moved into the basement until the upstairs was finished. Grandpa and friends finished the inside of the house after he helped the men put up the exterior framing. Grandma slipped […]
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In April 1997, I took my daughter Caitlin, who was three years old, to the St. Louis Zoo. I subtitled the trip, “How to Leave the House with $25.00 and Come Home with $0.75.” In the late 1990s, the St. Louis Zoo had a travelling exhibit of the albino alligator. Caity really wanted to see it, so I took her […]
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My Grandpa used to tell me that Mom and Great Grandma were close. Great Grandma could be very stubborn, so Grandpa used to send Mom to talk to her about going to the doctor, etc. I will let Mom tell you about her grandmother in her own words. Caroline better known as Lee was a woman before her time. In […]
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