Page 161 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

GRAND PARENTS

That the shades were pulled, summer and winter. In back they
had an ally with garages for each townhouse and a little garden.
All socializing was in the backyard.

My Uncle Paul loved fishing and was an award winning fly
fisherman. He could cast a fly into a ring 50 feet away, time
after time. I still have several of his bamboo rods, fishing
basket and flies. Crippled, he and his wife had separated.

My aunt Lavina, his wife, also lived in a town house. We
would visit her infrequently. She wasn’t that friendly, and as
the years went by she stole everything my Uncle owned.

Allentown was never a fun place to visit. It seemed as if we,
Joe and I never fit into their adult world. They didn’t know
what to do with us. I suppose their family relationship was a
problem that as they grew older became worst.
I developed some pretty bad habits during our visits. Grandpa
Zimmerman, as you could see in the photo smoked. He kept a
box full of pipes. I had found them by the time I was 8 and it
wasn’t far to the corner store for pipe tobacco. That was the
beginning. A couple of houses down was a spinster who liked
me. She didn’t mind having company, and I could smoke
there. So I visited often.

When my Grandfather got ill Mom would go to Allentown
and take care of him. After he died Lavina took the house,
and Grandma Zimmerman came to live with us in
Fairlington,Va. They were all buried in the Zimmerman
cemetery plot in Allentown.

161