Today was the big day. The guys and the cargo trailer showed up around 1:00 to collect all of the stuff for the auction on Wednesday. The dining room was full of boxes and misc. items. They took Mom's Lowery Jamboree organ, the freezer, two chairs, and Dad's desk from the basement, the lawn mower Dad bought for me when I lived at T Street, other misc. items from the shed, lawn chairs.

I was OK for about 5 minutes, then I had to call John because I got emotional. We have kept so much of their stuff--it wasn't like we emptied the house. But still, it was hard to see some of their things go. Especially Mom's organ. But I didn't know what else to do with it. I tried Ebay and even called a Lowery dealer and they just don't sell. We wont' get much for it and that is too bad. I think it cost around $10,000 or something. It was purchased in 1999, I think, so not all that old. Mom played it some but she never liked it as much as she liked her Hammond organ.
But, more so recently, I had seen her play it quite a lot. I left the settings just the way she had them the last time she played it.

I don't know how long Dad's desk has been in the family. At least as long as I've been alive. His initials were scratched on the front drawer, so I don't know if this was done when he was a student or what. The freezer leaked some and the carpet was a little wet. We are getting new carpet anyway. They had to take the door off to get it out.

Anyway, it was, as I said, the big day. The dining room is now empty except for the table and chairs, the china cabinet and the liquor cabinet. They filled up the whole truck. Not packed to the top, but still.

I feel sad and happy. Sad to see their stuff go, but happy to get this past us and ready to move in and start over.

Susie

This is from Uncle Tom:

Yes, Mother's maiden name was Aydt, and yes her Mother's maiden name was Paul, first name, Mary, (we called her "Big grandma" as opposed to "Little grandma" because she was much larger physically than Dad's mother, a very tiny little woman. Her maiden name was Schmidt, and her first name, Sophia. Full names of our grandfathers were "Solomon Aydt" and "John Breidenbach". I have no memory of Grandpa Breidenbach cause he died when I was a baby. A family story was told to me that he lived long enough to see me, but had tears in his eyes when he held me in his arms. Grandpa Aydt I remember very well cause we actually visited our Mother's family in Dahlgren on a number of occasions. The house did not have plumbing and we all hated to have to use the "out house." And the water you drank in the house came out of a cistern which stored rain water and always tasted "funny." Grandpa Aydt was a grand old man, the "patriarch" of the town you might say. At times when the priest from a nearby town couldn't make it to Dahlgren for Sunday Mass, Grandpa would read the bible for the congregation, not from the sanctuary but from the choir loft, and the parishioners would call that "Solomon's Mass."

Aunt Marie's married name was Bourne, and her husband was Uncle Carl. No, Aunt Cecelia never married. She lived with little grandma until her death and then moved in with Aunt Marie. Of course, we kids always called both of them "Tanta", the german name for Aunt.............namely, "Tanta Marie" and "Tanta Ceal," and since neither of them had any children of their own, they "adopted" us four boys as their own. Of course, our Dad, whom they both called "Boy", was the youngest child in the family and their favorite "little brother." There were three older brothers, John, Martin and Joe, who all continued to live in Belleville till their deaths.

Thanks, Uncle Tom! Great stuff.

Love,

Susie

I wanted to share this from Uncle Joe:

"I have a story to share with you. Last week, Mary and I were up at
our cabin in Pine and, while sitting outside one morning, I heard
this unusual bird call. My first thought was to call Betty and let
her listen to it over the phone and tell me what it was. I did this
a coupla' years ago and she immediately identified it . . . over the
phone!

We think of you often and will always miss your Mom and Dad . . .
great, great people."


Thanks, Uncle Joe.

Love,

Susie

I had not put out any hummingbird feeders this year. I didn't want to put one out in Oolitic because it was right outside the kitchen window and everytime I saw a hummer on it, I would call Mom. I'd come home for lunch and call her just to tell her I had hummers. I always had more than she did. I couldn't bear to see one out there this year and not be able to call her. It has been so hot, too, I didn't put one out at I St. yet, either. But I told Mom I would take care of her birds, so today I took my feeder over there and filled it up. I seriously didn't think I would get any since I was putting it up so late, but Mom didn't get them until August usually, so I thought, why not.

Tonight after church Susan and I were sitting on the patio enjoying the dogs and the nice breeze. I happened to look over to the feeder--and sure enough, there was a little female hummer! The feeder had only been out a few hours and she had found it already. It made me happy...and then, sad. Susan and I both started crying. And Susan said, "It's your mom". I know that sounds corny, but I'd like to think it WAS Mom and she was saying, "Thank you, Susie, for taking care of my birds." Mom would've been so happy to have a hummer. And this one stayed quite a while.

Love,

Susie

We've got these creepy little crickets in the basement over at I St. We called them "spider-crickets" but I found out they are called camel crickets or cave crickets. I wonder if they had them before over there? I never remember seeing them. They look like spiders but with big bodies. They are quite large--around 1 inch. They are everywhere in the basement, up the stairs...and now I saw one in the living room. Ick! If they continue to get out of the basement, we may have to take drastic action to get rid of them.

Another new development: the mailbox. We found a letter in the mailbox this week informing us that since we are "new" tenants and the house has been "vacant" (???), that we are required by the postal service to move our mailbox to the sidewalk. HUH? OK, this pissed me off. Breidenbachs have lived in that house since the late 40's--I basically lived there off and on until 1996...I grew up there...and they tell me I'm "new" and I have to relocate the mailbox and put it on a poll in the front yard? In town? On a walking route? One of the things I was looking forward to over there was having the mail on the front porch. Where I live now, we have the roadside mailboxes and stuff is always getting wet and when something is too big for the box, they just put it on the ground! It got so that I was having stuff sent to Mom so it would be in a mailbox on a covered porch or left on the chair by the door. Also, how stupid is this going to look when I'm the ONLY one on the street with a box in the yard? And what about security issues? A box sitting on the sidewalk will be fair game to passersby. The letter said they are doing this so mail carriers don't fall on stairs or get bitten by dogs, etc. I understand that...but apparently it wasn't too dangerous to leave this letter in the box, was it? So they are going to deliver mail on the porch to the houses on either side, but not mine? Another thing, the house has not been vacant. We have continued to pay utilities and we are over there almost every day. It wasn't just sitting there rotting. It went straight from the estate to me. I don't consider that "new" owners. I'm going to talk to the Postmaster and see if he will reconsider.

(*&^%$ Just another thing to worry about and stress over. It is the principle of the thing that bugs me. Mom and Dad lived there for 50 years and NOW we have to move the box? That's our government at work!!!

Susie

When I look in the mirror, I see Dad. My hair, my eyes, my mouth. Everybody always said I looked like him. People I never met would come up to me and say, "You must be Paul Breidenbach's daughter". I liked that. Let's start with the hair. Having Breidenbach hair is not the greatest thing in the world. First, you have cowlicks all over your head. Second, on the left side, your hair grows forward. (Try having flybacks in the 80's--mine would never do anything I wanted it to do!) Third, your hair is thick. Mom's hair was thick, too. So put them together--I've had barbers/stylists tell me that I have enough hair for two people. My hair is like Joe's. One time somebody came up to me and said "You must be Joe's sister. I can tell by your hair." Seriously. John's is more like Mom's. Hers was thick but fine. Dad's was thick and coarse. So put Drehobl hair and Breidenbach hair together...not a good combo. That's one reason I wear mine as short as possible. Jeff, my nephew, got the Breidenbach hair, too. Hence--he shaves his head. My cousin, Mike Drehbol, shaves his head, too (or pretty close). You get the idea. Thick, German hair that has a mind of its own. John has the "Drehobl head". We all have the "square German head" but John's is more the shape of Mom's.

Next are the eyes. Dad had small brown eyes. That's what I have and Joe and John and...the list goes on. Poor Mom. She had pretty blue eyes but none of us got them. None of us really looked like Mom, although I, of course got her height and John resembles the Drehobl side in many ways. I think my face might be shaped a bit like hers. Nobody got Mom's little tiny nose. It was very unique. She used to have trouble finding sunglasses that would stay on and fit her right because of it.

I have the loud Breidenbach voice, too. In school, I was always getting in trouble for talking. Well, hello, I'm not talking to myself--but mine was the voice they heard. Even in college--the RA would come down our floor and say, "Susie, your voice carries!" But when I was in Phoenix for Uncle Bill's funeral, Aunt Mary said I sound a lot like Mom. Maybe it is the way I speak and the southern Indiana "dialect". People would get us mixed up on the phone, too. So I guess I have traits from both. They said John sounded a lot like Uncle Tom and I can hear that.

One thing I got from Mom is the "Bratcher finger". This is the little finger on the right hand. It is double jointed or something, because when I lay my hand flat, it bends up in the middle. If I want the finger to lay flat, I have to force it. Mom had this; Granny (Mom's mom) and her sisters had it. (Granny's maiden name was Bratcher.) I think Joe may have it--not sure if it is just a female trait. But I always think of Mom when I see my finger doing that.

We always used to kid Mom about all the bad stuff she gave us--dry skin, bowel problems; basically anything we had that was bad we blamed on Mom. It was kind a joke with John and me and Mom. We didn't really mean anything bad, we were just giving her a hard time. She was fun to joke with, although sometimes I wonder if we went too far! We used to say all our problems were because we were preemies and I used to say she smoked 2 packs a day when pregnant (which she didn't!). She did smoke while pregnant (but that was in the 50's and 60's) and she had a hole in her heart that she didn't know about...so it is a wonder we are even here! Then she told me recently she was supposed so stay in bed with me but when John F. Kennedy was shot, she got up to watch TV. He was shot on Nov. 22nd and they had to take me on Nov. 24th because of problems...Hmmm. Oh, that was another thing I used to joke with Mom about. How, since we were both C-sections, the first thing we bonded with was a pair of forceps. We were awful to her sometimes. Just joking, but I hope she knew we didn't mean anything bad. She would laugh, too. I loved to make her laugh. Jeff could make her laugh, too. She would get so tickled and say she was going to "spot" and run to the bathroom.

I'm certainly not built like Mom except for my hands and feet. They are small. The rest of me, well, not so small! (They told me I was more like Dad's Mom in certain "areas"...) Mom was a tiny, petite person. I'm short, but I'm not petite. I know I need to lose weight, but even if I did, I could never get down to 100 lbs. which is what Mom weighed most of her life. My and Mom's hands were exactly the same size. Our feet were pretty close, although she wore a 5 and I now wear a 6.5. She used to insist I wear a 5 and at some point, after cramming my feet into these shoes, I suggested I might need a bigger size. :-) 6.5 works better for me now as I have custom arch supports. I could maybe wear a 6 in heels, but well, yeah. Haven't worn heels since....????

Miss you Mom and Dad.

Susie

Haven't written in a while. We've been busy over at the house--mostly in the basement because it is so HOT. Been in the 90's for several days with no end in sight. The basement was mostly Dad's stuff. Susan has been cleaning out the back room which is unfinished and dirty. I think Dad kept every cord from every appliance and/or lamp they ever had! (Never know when you might need one.) There were cords everywhere. Hanging from the ceiling, in bags and boxes, on shelves. Lots of old electrical stuff. Plugs, wires, switches. I bet some of this had not been touched for 20-30 years. Some of it was in moldy bags or boxes. Found more GM stuff from the 50's until '89 when Dad retired. More Purdue stuff. Knights of Columbus stuff. Religious stuff on being a Lay Minister. Credit card statements and utility statements back to I think 1999. Bank statements, investment info. House stuff--which we will keep. Looks like they got a new roof in 2004. That's great news! New water heater in 2001. Of course Dad kept every manual to anything electronic--usually with the credit card receipt stapled to it and the date written on the front. That's my dad. Very organized--in some ways. Then we'd find misc. stuff just in folders or drawers. I found a 1945 calendar he got in the army--this little tiny thing that looked like a little booklet. Found a neat protractor set in a blue leather/?? binding. Travel stuff from their trips--itineraries, etc. A folder for each trip. And lots of cans. Like vegetable cans and coffee cans--all with the labels off and filled with screws, nails, lamps, and anything else Dad saved. The cans are everywhere. In the basement, on the back porch and in the shed. More mechanical pencils, leads and erasers. Rulers of all types. Stencils used in engineering and drafting. Oh, and did I mention golf balls? Lots and lots of golf balls. Joe took some and Dave Dunnst--but we found more. All those years collecting balls from Otis. Dad also cut off detergent containers and used them as storage. I wrote more stuff down but it is at the house. Will have to get it and add more later.

We also boxed up Mom's Emmett Kelly figurines. We never could understand why she liked them so much. I never liked them. She'd say, "Those things will be worth something someday" and I'd say, "Are you kidding? They're the first things I'm getting rid of!" or something like that. We always gave her a hard time about them. Sadly, they are not worth much. Nobody is buying them on Ebay. So off to the auction they go. It was strange boxing them up, though. Thinking that the last time they'd been in the box, she had carefully taken them out and placed them in her curio cabinet in the living room. I was with her when she bought some of them. One didn't have a box and I remember her buying it for a reduced price because it didn't have a box or stand.

Then there are the bird plates. She had two collections, one by Lennox and the other Bradford Exchange. We decided to keep the Lennox ones and sell the Bradford Exchange ones. The Lennox set was in the living room and the BE set was in the dining room. We've taken them all down but actually put a couple of the Lennox ones up in the bathroom. Again, she was sure they were "collectibles" and would be worth something. Sadly, they are not. But she really enjoyed them and that is what mattered. She loved her bird plates and her Emmett Kellys. We boxed up the BE plates for the auction as well.

We kept a lot of dishes from the China cabinet in the dining room, but some things we will take to the auction. The sad part for me is that I don't remember the significance of some of these things. Did they mean something to Mom? She told me over the years, but I do not remember. I wish I could have asked her.

Some things are hard for me to let go of. I'll see something and it will just bring back memories or it will just be so familiar--something I grew up seeing all the time. John and I were talking about this one paring knife that is still in the kitchen drawer. The blade is so thin from being sharpened for so many years and the handle is all worn--but there it is, still in the drawer. Why were some old things kept and some not? They have bought plenty of knives over the years--but they hung on to that one.

We still have so much to do. I think we took 20-30 trash bags of stuff out of the basement. Sometimes I think we're almost there--then I realize we have such a long way to go. I'm still hoping that we can move by October.

Some days are good days and some are not so good. I'd been OK and now I'm having some bad days again. Crying and just feeling sad and lost. I miss them so much. I ate at Hobby's this week on Wed. night and got the special--broasted chicken. We would do that a lot when I was in growing up. Go to Hobby's for broasted chicken on Wed. nights. Then there was the PGA Tournament on the big screen TV. Dad would've been watching that. He ALWAYS watched golf. Even if he came out to visit he'd turn the tv on to watch golf. And then he'd get on the phone with Watson Pearson and talk about Tiger Woods.

I still think they would've lived long lives if this had not happened. I always pictured Dad in his 90's like Grandpa and Mom in her late 80's like Aunt Bee. Even Granny lived to be 83 and she was sick a lot. They didn't have any major medical problems (that we knew of). I just thought they would be around another 10 years at least. I wanted to take care of them. I didn't want them to be sick, but I wanted to take care of them when they needed it.

I miss them so very much.

Susie