Just had one brother. Mom and dad are gone and my only brother (5-years older) was recently diagnosed with cancer. Not sure yet what treatments will be proposed. Grandparents are all gone as well.

Never really knew my grandparents on my dad's side.

On my mom's side ... my real grandfather died before I was born from TB. Grandma remarried and so I think of my step grandfather as being Grandpa. Lived up in central Minnesota in a small town called Little Falls. While I was born in Omaha, I left there as a baby and kind of adopted Little Falls as my home town.

Grandfather built the dam across the Mississippi River at Little Falls, the court house, the (now torn down) high school and several other public buildings. Had a lot of aunts and uncles and the family was very close back then.

Little Falls, by the way, was Charles Lindberg's boyhood home and his house is preserved as a museum. Even little towns (7-8K) can have their claim to fame.

My step grandfather (who I knew and thought of as grandpa) used to have an old Ford van and we kids used to play in it all the time. It wasn't much to look at, but we pretended it was everything from a cop car to a tank or something.

Grandparents home had a big screened in front porch that we used to love sitting out on in the summer watching the cars and people go by. Real near a "Maid Rite" diner and we kids, when we could afford it, would go over there and have a soda and Maid Rite. Loved it there.

Grandma and Grandpa had a dog. Nappy. A water spaniel who hated water. He'd walk around the block to avoid a puddle. But, he was a great wagon puller! We used to hitch him up and ride all over the neighborhood. He followed my aunt up town one time and she couldn't get rid of him. Finally had a cab take him home. Can you believe seeing a cab pull up and this dog getting out. Funny.

Grandma used to use Friday's as baking day. Seemed like whenever you walked into her kitchen, there was a fresh loaf of bread or some carmel rolls coming out of the oven with a big dish of butter on the table. Fortunately, that was in the days before they invented cholesterol . Wonderful.

Amazing how the whole family came to grandpa and grandma's house on Fridays!

Boy, it's been a while since I thought about a lot of this. Excuse me, I think I'll take some time and just remember those wonderful days.