Old  friend and classmate, Sharon White Pyke, died unexpectedly Saturday AM.  No history of illness or even of feeling badly, according to friends and family.  Coming so close on heels of Dad's death, it has set me back a bit on my road to recovery.  Teary and depressed, to say the least.  Mary Karen Miltenberger Hall called me last evening to make sure I knew about it.  She can't make it to viewing, but will be a funeral.  I can't take a funeral so I had to go to the viewing.  Did not recognized a single person there even tho' there were lots of folks.  Considering that Sharon and her husband fostered 80 kids, it was not surprising. 

Rest in peace, Sharon.  You did a fantastic job as a mom and foster mom, which says a lot about the woman you were.

Reenacting Shenanigans

My husband and I are re-enactors (or reenactors, if you prefer).  And if it were not for bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all. Oh, the curse or what ever you call it doesn't rear its ugly head at each and every event, and sometimes it might even skip a year or so , but there is a long line of bad luck for us.  Broken ridge poles with no way to replace until after the event.  Missing canopy poles.  Flat tires.  An RV which changed an 11 hour trip in to a 17 hour trip.  The 2002 border incident we were involved in.  The list does go on and on.  Lost cats.  Ill cats.  Bunny rabbit and cats.  Not all incidents actually happended at an event.  Some were enroute, some were heading home, some were both enroute and heading home.   Most were not funny when they happended, and our tolerance and tempers were stretched beyond endudrance and exhaustion, but afterwards, we were able to find the humor in them, and they have become a part of our reenacting history.  In the midst of minor disasters there have been some funny things happen, as happens all the time.  All of these incidents are tied up with our reenacting memories and will find their way in to these blogs.

It is actually hard to choose which one to write about here.  I don't know that I want to do these in chronological order, but I don't know that I don't want to do them in chronological order, either...  I'll just have to wait and see what strikes me as the best for a first entry, and go from there.

I Am Related To Myself 3 Ways!

Holy cow!  I just discovered that not only is the Starbuck in me  directly related to the Worth in me, but that the Starbuck is doubly related to me.  One man's grandson married the granddaughter of his own sibling. 

Of course,  back in those days it was important to keep family property in the family, so first cousins were more likely to wed in order to do this.  

There is no doubt that this is a close proximity marriage; the names and dates have been corroborated several different ways, and the marriage is real (recorded in state records).

And on top of this , I discovered that, also on the Starbuck side, I have Algonquin blood in me!  Seems an ancestor wed this Algonquin princess...  I'd always noticed that Aunt Anna and her kids had a darker complexion than Mom and we Eaton kids, and I thought maybe it came from Lloyd, but he was a fair Irishman, so it didn't come from there.  Besides, Onda has these lovely high cheekbones that often denote Native American lineage.  I can see them in our maternal grandfather's pictures (Lewis Garrett Starbuck) as well.  Who'd'a thunk?!

Now it all makes sense.  The cheekbones and skin coloration reemerged in Anna but even more strongly in Onda.  Haven't told Onda of my discovery yet, because it might not be welcome news.  She might even be sensitive about the skin coloration issue, but I would doubt it.  Looking at Darrell and I, you would never think that we had Indian blood in us....blue eyed blondes and all....Mom's hair was dark, but not black.  Mom's complexion was definitely light. 

The relationship is too far back to be of any status to me; a few years ago I wouldn't even think about exploiting it if it were usable, but after the way my government has treated me and my fellow retirees, I'd not hesitate to use it!  Shame on me for feeling that way, but shame on my government for discriminating against us!