Things I remember about Grandpa Alex
* He walked fast.
* When ever I wrote him letters, he would send me a dollar bill. He always started his letters with:
"Dear Granddaughter Susan". I wrote a lot.
* His house still had a water pump on the porch and out door toilets, about 1953.
* When I was about 9 or 10, he took me shopping a brought me a dress that I picked out.
* He played the accordion, and brought it with him to California, he told me he’d give it to me.
* When I graduated from high school, he bought me a complete set of white Samsonite luggage.
* He called my brother Jimmy, "Zimmy". Couldn‘t pronounce Jimmy.
* The Badger kids and the LaFond kids broke some windows in is barn, throwing apples at each other.
* He spoke several languages, Estonia, Russian, English, Finish, Swedish.
* I used to walk to the liquor store with him, he would buy some kind of liquor.
* He and I walked to the neighborhood bowling alley, and he told the waitress that I was 21, so that I could order a drink, I was 18. We sat in the bar.
* When I was 18, I worked at a doctors office in El Segundo, he arrived for a visit from Michigan, and came directly to Dr. Lowes office to see me, and he walked behind the desk and gave a nurse named Connie a big hug, thinking it was me. Was she ever shocked! It was so funny!
* He kept the lemon I gave him for over 10 years, and gave it back to me, It’s my most special possession.
* He put a cement topping on one of our porches, and a few months later, it all bubbled up and my Dad have to chiseled it all off.
* He always wore a dress shirt and tie.
* He was a Lutheran.
* He had bad edema in his lower legs. His hands were also puffy.
* He had a full head of hair and a mustache, salt and pepper.
* He smoked a lot. We were gone for the evening, and was smoking this smelly cigar in the house, he must have heard us come home, and he tried to hide it by putting it under his bed pillow.
* Taught me how to play a solitaire game, that has 4 on top and a stack of 10 below.
* Taught me to eat white bread torn up with sugar and milk for breakfast…it was really good!
* When he was older, I think about age 86, his hands shook a lot, he would drink some beer, and say, "see no more shaking."
