Grandma and Grandpa Allen

Grandma and Grandpa Allen in Ravenna, Ohio. This is a cool picture.
 I am amazed Griff still has a tie on. Come on, what little kid actually keeps a tie on the whole grandparents visit. MAYBE the first fifteen minutes. Even worse than Griffo is Judy. She couldn't keep her blouse tucked in for 5 minutes. So this must have been as soon as we walked in the front door of Grandma's house. I can't tell if Jeanie and Jerry had wet diapers, cause they were soaked all the time. There were no pampers back then, cloth with rubber pants to keep wetness in. And look... they were so close in age, who could keep up with these babies? I was five, John I think three, Jeanie one and a half, Jerry, 9mos. Yikes! I almost forgot, Jeanie had braceson her shoes.You can see her shoes have some kind of steel on them. Those things were killers.You'd pick her up and she'd slam your shins with this big steel bar. We all had bruises.
You can tell Grandma is in her glory, she had more energy than any adult I can remember. She always made big spreads of food. She had old timey toys that were in a treasure chest. Toys that we would never care about, but at Grandma's house they were fun. The older kids have lots more memories of these times than I do. And there were lots of cousins.
The second half of the family that I refer to myself, John, Jean and Jerry, had a very different experience with Grandparents and cousins. That's fine, I enjoy listening to their stories and they remember more about Aunts and Uncles and family history.