Prompted Monday – Six Things You Don’t Know

Today’s random prompt is “Six Things You May Not Know About My Family.”

I had to think about this one for a bit. Do I write about my parents and siblings or do I write about my current extended family or maybe just my kids? I decided to write about my father’s side of the family.

My father was the oldest of three – two brothers and one much younger sister (change of life baby). Left to right: Howard Blanchard, Lloyd Blanchard, Ann Blanchard, Edward Blanchard. Lloyd ended up with the nickname of Opie (my father was tongue-tied and couldn’t say Lloyd until he had his tongue (frenulum) clipped. The nickname stuck. My father ended up with the nickname Kay for his middle name. Howard ended up as Howie. Aunt Ann was only six years older then me and we were best friends for many years growing up. She introduced me to rock music and movie stars when I was a tween, thus my love of all music from the 50s.

His father was on disability from World War One, his mother was a caregiver (LPN level, I think) for an elderly woman in town. My grandfather was called Bumpa (and my brothers have continued that with their grandchildren) and my grandmother was Nana. Bumpa had a workshop at the back end of their garage where he did a lot of woodworking. One thing I remember about them – they had separate bedrooms and he had race horse photos on his wall and her room always smelled nice.

All three boys were enlisted during World War Two and Korea. All three rode motorcycles when they returned.

They came by their love of motorcycles naturally – in the 1920’s, my grandfather arrived home with two Harley-Davidson motorcycles in tow – one with a sidecar.

In the early 1960s, my Uncle Opie (Lloyd) brought a motor home for Bumpa to put on his bicycle that he used to ride around town. It wasn’t long before he moved up to an early Honda for his trips.

Somewhere in here I am sure there are six things you didn’t know. I hope you enjoyed this little prompt.