Rosella Krieser Newcomb, Carl Senior’s younger sister, is shown in this 1964 photo with her little black Scottie dog, Duffy.  She was living in Racine, Wisconsin at this time.  Rose had been through a number of rough years before this.  Her sister, Belva, died in 1957 and she was married later that year to Orville Newcomb.  Orville died in 1958, her mother, Emma, died in 1959, her uncle by marriage, George Aiken, died in 1960, and her Aunt Hattie Leverenz Aiken, died in 1961.  Rose was very close to George and Hattie, and when Hattie died, Rose was her heir.  Hattie had told Rose to share some of the estate with Carl and Esther, too.  She did this by passing her old cars to them at a reduced price instead of trading them in as well as in other ways.  She bought a new car about every year or two so the old ones were just like new cars.  The bottom photo is of Carl and Esther with their beloved Fritzie.

The upper left photo shows Rose and her little dog Duffy, looking out her car window.  He was named after the little Scottie they had years earlier.  The upper right shows Dad Krieser with his grandson, Kurt and Ed Murdo at Paulding Pond, Michigan, where they were fishing.  The middle two were taken at their home in Green Bay.  Left shows the two Carls, Eric and Kurt.  Mother Krieser is in the right photo also.  Kurt was six years old and Eric three on these.  Those vacations were always such a welcome relief for us.  Not only did we get to see grandparents and other relatives on both sides of the family, but it was also (usually) a wonderful break from Kansas City’s oppressive heat.  At 85 degrees they’d all be dying of the heat.  We’d wonder what they were complaining about.  For us, it was beautiful weather.  Funny!

The lower right photo was taken the next year when Mother and Dad Krieser came to visit us.  I had stayed in Wisconsin and the children and I rode back with them.  In the photo, their Olds is parked behind them and Carl’s Austin Healey is right.  It was a Sunday and Eric has a little star on his forehead because he was so good in Sunday School Class.  He’s also holding something that he made that day.  Those are all just happy memories now.

Grandma and Grandpa Krieser With Their Grandsons at Paulding, Michigan

This was a vacation that we took together at Paulding with Grandma and Grandpa Krieser in 1969.  Kurt and Karl Eric had their new “Paulding, Michigan” sweatshirts on.  It was probably toward the end of the summer season and sometimes it got quite cold up there, even in August -- and we might have been camping.  Often Grandma and Grandpa would take a cabin and we would put up a tent and camp out.  Anything to save a dollar, you know!  In the lower photo, Eric is watching me through his new binoculars while I took his photo.  Kurt would have been 8 years old on these photos and Eric was 5.  We always had fun on those yearly trips to Paulding.  One year we saw the mysterious Paulding Spook Lights.  Some people say it’s the ghost of a railroad brakeman who was killed there many years before.  He waves his lantern back and forth.  Others say they’re car lights.  Some say they debunked that one.  There’s nothing in that area during the day to cause them.  There’s even a Michigan State Historical Marker to show the best place that they can be viewed from.  Go online and read about Paulding Spooky Lights for yourself.  It’s a real mystery.  Do you think you can solve it?

Grandpa Krieser’s Semi-Pet Squirrel

His name was Peanuts.  Grandpa would go out onto their driveway and call him, “Hey, Peanuts!” and the squirrel would come running to him to be fed.  Then Grandpa would feed him his peanuts.  He sure had a soft heart for animals.