Happy Birthday Uncle Eric!

Today is my only Uncle's birthday. I remember as a kid, we would always have one of our big family parties at the beginning of April for all of the birthdays that hit at this time. It seems to be the most popular time of year for birthdays in our family.

The above photo is of Uncle Eric with what I believe was his Oldsmobile, taken in June 1956. I don't know the year or the make for sure but maybe he can fill us in. A few facts about the man...Uncle Eric is the only person whom I have known that has actually gone dove hunting with a 410. I have a hard enough time with a 12 so I can't even imagine doing this! He is an automotive genius and I know of no time that there wasn't an automotive issue in our family that he couldn't solve! I asked my mother for an interesting, little known fact about him and she started telling stories of how the two of them used to practice tumbling together in their yard back in the day. One thing about Uncle Eric and Mom, they are the closest thing that we have from Grandma and Grandpa and one of the things I enjoy most when they get together is the memories and stories that always come out. Even after 38 years of listening, I always seem to hear something new and learn something interesting about our family and grandparents.

Some of my favorite memories with Uncle Eric were when we would go out on the lake to check his trot lines. I remember doing this several times and always thinking how cool it was but also how it was kind of eery, just before dark to be out on the water in some cove, pulling up this rope and having no idea what was going to come up out of the water next. As a young kid, it was exciting and a lot of fun. Certainly, it furthered my great interest in fishing and boating. I also remember one specific time that we were out on the lake and there were these young folk in a speed boat jetting all over the place so Uncle Eric chased them around and got their attention, telling them that they needed to cut out the jacking around because he had kids in the boat and they were scaring us. That was the end of that. Years later, in my teens, we were at a family gathering at his house and kept hearing the roar of engines coming from the lake. I asked Uncle Eric what it was and he loaded us all in his truck and drove us down to the boat ramp to watch the drag boat races....that was AWESOME and left an indelible mark on me! Every time we went up there after that, I remember hoping that we would hear them again and get to go! There are a lot of memories that I have from parties and gatherings, working on cars, telling stories, etc...etc....but the best thing I can share is that our Grandparents instilled a strong sense of family and love in their kids and their kids, our parents, really worked throughout our childhood to keep the family together and give all of us that same sense of belonging and deepest care. I think we will always be indebted to them for that and I could not begin to thank them enough for the upbringing and values that we received as a result.

My Mom and Uncle's birthdays are a few weeks apart and so, usually we wound up celebrating together. Apparently, that tradition goes way back, as can be seen in this photo taken in April of 1955 with a separate birthday cake for each of them.

Uncle Eric, here's hoping you have a wonderful birthday and many, more. Thanks for all of the memories that you share and the good times that we have all had together!