The above pictures of Opa and Oma are from quite a few years ago. They are both 90 now, and Oma has been in rehab with a broken femur while various family members have been staying with Opa. I am with him this week, and I have been asking him some questions. I do not doubt that most of the older Hardings know these stories, but I wanted to get them down as best I could. He struggled a little in telling them, so forgive me (you who know the stories best) if I have told them wrong.
I asked Opa about what Christmas was like when he was growing up. He said that his dad, Papa, would go out Christmas Eve to get the tree and then DeeDee and Papa would decorate it. If Papa did not come home with a really nice tree, DeeDee was not happy. Sometimes some of the gifts would be tied to the tree as part of the decorations.
There are two gifts that really stick out in Opa's memory. One was an electric car that he could ride in. The other is part of a sad memory for him. His dad gave him a really nice, rather expensive watch, and that was the only gift he received that year. The girls though (Opa's 3 sisters), received several gifts each...toys, clothes, and various other things. Opa feels bad because he hurt his dad's feelings over not appreciating his watch. He was upset that he only received one gift. He came to understand, though, the value of that gift in later days.
Opa's mom had a temper, but his dad was usually pretty easy going. There is one time, though, that Opa remembers Papa being very angry with him. When Opa was 17, the family moved off of Humphry Street where they had rented for years to a house that was outside of the city. It took a ride on two different buses for Opa to get to his old friends. One Saturday, Opa rode back into the city to hang out with his friends at The Pool, a pool hall they frequented. Because it was a Saturday, when Opa headed home, there weren't as many buses running as there were during the week. This meant he had to wait extra long times to catch the two buses he needed to get home, and the outcome was that he arrived at the house past his curfew. To top it off, he had forgotten his keys. So, he knocked on the door. Usually, when one of the kids was late, it was DeeDee who would answer the door and give the miscreant a piece of her mind. This time, though, Papa answered the door. He was so angry at having to get up in the middle of the night to let Opa in that he just hauled off and hit him in the face. Opa said that was the only time that Papa ever struck him.
But, then Opa turned his mind to one of his favorite memories. He was leaving for the army during the Korean War. Oma was going to stay with Papa and DeeDee, and Papa drove Opa to the place where he was meeting all the other recruits to ship out. Papa put his hand on Opa's shoulder and asked him if he was really sure this was what he wanted to do. He told Opa that if he was not sure, he knew some people that would be able to work towards getting him out of leaving. It was a very tender moment for Opa, and it made him feel very loved by Papa. Opa, of course, chose to stay enlisted. He felt that Papa was sensitive about the military because he hadn't served in WWII since he had a family. Instead, his war effort was put in here in the States producing food.
And...just so they don't get lost somewhere, here are a few tidbits I learned today.
Papa and DeeDee met at work. They both worked for a place that made car parts. The business is no longer there, but the building is. Opa said that DeeDee would come in late so often that she was fired.
His favorite cousin was Ardell Jr. He could walk to Ardell's house from Humphry Street.
DeeDee really spent a lot of time and effort to make sure the girls were dressed nicely.
Then, a bit of a zag here, Oma has been talking with her half-sister, Bobbie, a lot since being in rehab. Oma was an only child (we thought), and her dad, Addison, left her mother (Honey) and her when Oma was a baby. She never saw him after that. (He did come to Honey once and ask to see Oma. Honey let him look at her across a school playground. Then Addison left and was never heard of by the two of them again.) Just recently, through some research on Ancestry, Bill connected with a half-sister of Oma's that we knew nothing about. That is Bobbie. They haven't met, but they do talk, and recently quite a bit. Bobbie told her that some years ago, Addison's wife (who was from Ohio) and Addison were driving in Colorado when he had a heart attack and died in the car. She drove him to a funeral home there in Colorado and left him.
Nothing big or exciting or earth-shattering...just some family lore I would like to save for future generations.
