My Life - Chapter 1 - Grandparents

Everett and Louise Schempp with me.
circa 1980

 For Christmas, our youngest son gave us a year-long homework assignment.  Each Monday we get a question he picked for us to answer.  This week's question is "What were your grandparents like?"

 My mom's parents, Everett and Louise, were farming in northwest Minnesota when she was born.  It was a tough life scratching out a living from the ground.  Post World War II, Grandpa decided to sell the farm and move to central Illinois where he took a job working as a maintenance man at one of the many Caterpillar Tractor plants near Peoria.

 My dad's folks, Ralph and Clara, also lived near Peoria where Grandpa worked at Caterpillar.  He played baseball at Concordia College and the first couple years they were married he was a circuit-riding preacher in Montana, Idaho, and parts of Canada.  They had their first son during that time.  He retired from the ministry when his wife told him he had to return home.

Both couples were members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Peoria.  It was a large church downtown with a lot of members whose ancestry could be traced back to Germany.   In those days churches were often a social hub for their community which is why Trinity featured a fellowship hall with a bar and a bowling alley.

While it's not part of this story, my parents met when dad, who was attending the University of Illinois at the time, attended a church youth event and met a young lady who was a senior in high school.  They were married in 1961.

The three of us moved to Janesville when I was six months old (not that I had any choice).  I remember making regular trips from Janesville to Peoria to see both sets of grandparents.  

I loved all four grandparents, but Grandpa and Grandma Mossner were fun while the other grandparents were not so much.  

Left to right: Bill and Alice Sawyer; the happy
couple; Louise Schempp; Clara & Ralph
Mossner.  Grandpa Schempp was still living
when we married, but didn't make the trip.
1/26/1985 wedding photo

Around age 10 - 13 (maybe earlier) one thing I enjoyed about going to see Grandpa and Grandma Mossner was the first question I was likely to hear when we arrived, "Are you ready for a Pepsi?"

They had a fridge in the basement stocked with Pepsi.  If mom wasn't around or busy, sometimes I got a 16 ounce glass bottle instead of having to share.  Replacement bottles appeared out of thin air.

Before I turned 10 I usually spent a week or two with Grandpa and Grandma Mossner.  Grandpa had a retirement job at Tazewell Publishing Company delivering finished work to customers and shopper-type newspapers for home delivery.  We'd climb in his van after breakfast and head to work.  I tagged along, helping load the van and picking out donuts when we invariably stopped at a donut shop each morning.

We had long conversations and sang together.  

One year I was there around July 4th and Grandpa had some Bottle Rockets (he found them).  Late one evening Grandpa, Grandma, and I went out in their backyard to set them off.  After a couple blasts, we noticed a police car coming down their road (bottle rockets were illegal) and we scrambled back in the house before we were caught.

Grandpa and Grandma Schempp weren't as much fun.  The only time their TV turned on was Saturday night to watch the "Lawrence Welk Show." I always had a book with me if I stayed at their home for a night or two.

Grandpa was retired and spent a lot of time in his woodshop which didn't interest me.  He was quiet and a little intimidating.  I don't recall him as mean, but I knew he wasn't someone to get angry.  Grandma was quiet.  She did a lot sewing and cooking (her food was great - I especially loved the cinnamon rolls she made for the holidays.  My dad, maternal uncle, and I usually got our own pans of the sweet treats).  

 Years later, when I was working in South Dakota, I understood that my mom's parents were similar to other farming people.  They had to work hard to put food on the table and pay their bills.  There wasn't time for fun and games.  My mom told me as a small child she was reprimanded for making mud pies.  

Ralph and Clara Mossner with me.
circa 1980

Grandpa and Grandma Mossner took me fishing when I visited.  For a number of years, they used to rent a cabin near Chetek, Wisconsin and my parents and I would stay in their cabin for a long weekend.

 Both sets of grandparents were strong Christians.  On those trips from Janesville to Peoria to see them, Sunday morning found all of us in the pews at Trinity.  

Frequently we'd go out for lunch.  Both sets of grandparents lived near Peoria so we saw both.  Mom and Dad each had a brother in the area, so frequently we'd see Uncle Lyle (Mom's brother) and his family or Uncle Gene (Dad's brother) and his family.

During college a couple friends of mine went with me to see my grandparents.  Grandpa and Grandma Mossner were always great hosts and welcomed my friends with open arms and bottles of Pepsi.

One enduring memory of Grandpa Schempp was that he would frequently speak of his own death.  My Dad told me he even talked like that before he and mom were married.  

As it turned out Grandpa Schempp was the longest-lived grandparent, dying at 92.  Grandpa Mossner was 87 when he died after Christmas in 1985.  Both grandmothers had dementia, so they were lost to us before they died, Louise was 85 while Clara was 88.

My grandparents were wonderful people who raised the people who became my parents - the older I get the more I recognize their characteristics I inherited.