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"Quite a few of my brothers and sisters had moved out to
the San Francisco Bay area by the time we came back to St. Paul but we socialized with my
sister Martha and her husband John over
the years.
"We had family picnics with Sis
and John and went to Mineral Springs in Owatonna every Memorial Day. Our
folks are buried there. Sis and I always got along well. We have similar ideas on a lot of things.
"John was a very stable fellow.
He always was concerned about the kids. He took good care of them and was almost more of a mother to them
than a father. I remember one funny story he used to tell about himself, which shows a little bit about
the kind of guy he was. He said he always rode the 28th Avenue streetcar to work which he caught right
outside his back door. Every morning, before work, he always wrapped the garbage in a neat package and tied it
with a string because he was a meticulous person. Then he would put it in the garbage on his way out the door.
One day, he had his lunch in the same kind of package. He dumped the lunch and took the garbage on the streetcar.
When he realized what he had done, he tried to leave it there, but somebody called him back and said, 'Hey, Mister,
you left your package.' That was the kind of guy he was, so conscientious and meticulous that he wrapped up the
garbage very neatly. He was also a tremendous worker. He was an electrician and always made top money. Everyone
admired and liked John. Martha worked for
Minnesota Bearing Company for years. They got along fine.
"Their children are Janet and
Jack. Jack turned out to be a
computer whiz. I think he recently retired from the computer company he was with in Minneapolis. He had an
important position with them and was very successful. Janet has been quite successful in business, too. She
had her own company that did consulting work with businesses, and has recently started a new company.
"My other brothers and sisters had children about the same age
and they got together a lot. We saw more of Sis and John because they were here in the area."
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