Ah.  The Old Family Photo.

Have you ever found one, and thought…. Holy Crap. Holy Cow. Holy Heck.  Holy Genetics … …. these people look like the parents of The Children of the Corn.

I only knew a couple of these folks.   Really.  My Grandma and my Grandpa.

And they look scary enough.

But the rest of them?  Holy Smokes.

Now… the guy on the far left.  I think…quite possibly… he looks to be the most menacing of all.  His name was Bernard.  He turned out to be a pretty decent farmer.  He made good money at it and ended up owning a lot of land. And dairy cows.   He was born on a Friday, June 18th.  Way back in 1858.

Now… that would make him a Gemini.  And we all know about Geminis.  Imaginative, creative, flighty, superficial, spontaneous, wishy-washy.

Yes.  Although Bernard looks very stern and serious on the outside…. on the INSIDE he was charming, witty, funny, clever, talkative and creative.  At family parties… and such… he would be the one with the lamp shade on is head… doing a jig on the kitchen table.

He loved limburger and bleu cheeses.  He’d make an assortment of cheese sandwiches, homemade pickle relish, and lemon tarts… and take them around on a party tray. Old Bernie Boy sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star… all the time.  What a happy-go-lucky-guy.

Then.. in 1935… his appendix burst. Maybe from too much cheese and relish. He died that night, at the hospital in Celina.

And that is what I know about the guy on the far left.

I also can tell you…..  that I am here because of him… partially.  He is my Great Grandfather.

And now… I know where I get my love limburger and bleu cheeses.  And all my dang facial hair.

Now…. the lady third from the right.  They called her The Black Widow of Auglaize County.  But that is an ENTIRELY different story.

“I don’t think anyone has a normal family.” – Edward Furlong