THE REST OF THE STORY

THE REST OF THE STORY: I called Aunt Wanda a couple of days ago. I asked her if she had any out of state visitors. Yes, Jim came one day and Ellen the next. She and the cousins , husbands, a few kids and Aunt Wanda went out to breakfast at Big Bear. Then I asked if she wanted to hear another story about barrow. She chose the Ricky The Red Headed Hitchhiker. Then I asked her if she had ever heard the story of when Dad went AWOL and how got away with it. No, I rattled that off for her. She laughed and exclaimed that dad was a scoundrel. Yup. I asked her if she knew the story of when he ran away from home at thirteen. Yes, she knew a few more details than I had ever heard. Apparently Dad ran away without a word to his parents. He peddled his bike to Ontario, sold it for enough to purchase a railroad ride to Minnesotta. The other grandfather called Grandpa Berglund to let them know that Shorty was in Minnesotta. Grandpa B asked that they buy a train ticket and send him home. No, he spent the summer there working the harvest and probably used the railroad ticket to ride to New Orleans. He was picked up there for vagrancy. The judge decided to keep him at his house for a couple of weeks. I did not ask Dad how he got home. Aunt Wanda told me that he became a stow-a-way on a freighter which went through the Panama Canal. Pretty sure he was discovered and worked his way to San Francisco or where ever the freighter came discharge the cargo. That could have gone horribly wrong at any step along the way. But Dad was very charming and could talk himself into and out of the darndest situations. We also discussed gambling. Dad liked to play poker and lose then play craps and won, which allowed him to play all night long. Aunt Wanda told me that one time Dad gambled away his whole pay check. Mom had written checks which then bounced. She was completely humiliated. Aunt Wanda told me in her own words that mom humbled herself and came to them to borrow money to cover the bounced checks. Not a good situation. I then told her that the smartest thing Dad ever did was to leave home for about six weeks. This was in the early 80's. I was visiting at the house. Dad decided to get into a poker game in a room in the back of the Cherry Blossom Cafe. Unfortunately they didn't have a craps table and Dad lost one thousand dollars. He took out a loan and told Mom. I remember Mom telling that he was taking food out of the mouths of their children. He packed up the fifth wheel to a silver something. I am sure my siblings will remind me of the year, make and model of that car. He went to work in Redmond, Oregon for six weeks. That was just long enough for Mom to cool down and decide against ripping up the sheets. I kept my mouth shut.