I am Kathy's eldest sister Sandi. I though I would share some early memories of her that you may not know.
In our early childhood years, we lived in post-war housing. One half of a quonset hut to be precise. One of my fondest memories was of Kathy, bundled up in heavy wool clothing, carrying a half/gallon ice cream carton under her arm, walking in the snow with her chubby re cheeks peeking out of her babushka. She was probably 2 or 2 1/2 years old. I think mom had a picture of her.
Another time, when she was about three or four, we both had the chickenpox. I got it first, so I got well first. I remember her little face at the window of the quonset hut watching me play in the snow.
Dad bought us little rod and reels to fish with so that we didn't disturb his fishing. We caught a long string (about 40) of little perch and sunfish. We were so proud. I don't remember if we ate those very small fish. This was in Detroit Michigan. Once while Dad was fishing, we picked some beautiful water lilies. and were caught by a TV camera. We were featured on the news with the message "DO NOT PICK THE LILIES" it kills the bulbs. Whoops.
After we moved to Cincinnati, we still had fishing stories. I once caught a mud puppy, which fascinated everyone. And one time, dad caught a large fish "I think a bass" that stayed alive on his string. Kathy and I wouldn't let him kill it, so it lived in our bathtub for a week or so In those days there was only one bathroom. But one day we came back from school and it was gone. We played with the landlord's kids all the time. We played in the woods behind the apartment, swung on wild grape vines (which eventually killed them),caught snakes, bugs, butterflies, etc. Our after school snack in those days was sugar bread (a slice of white bread with butter then sugar on it). We were growing, and sometimes hungry. One time Mom went to a special bakery in Cheviot. She bought two loaves of cheese bread and she said we could have a slice each. It was sooo good that we both ate all the two loaves. Mother was very upset with us.
We had to walk a long way to catch the public bus to go to our school (a Lutheran school) at our church Grace Lutheran. Kathy hated the walk when I was ill and then she had to do it alone, At Grace Lutheran we were both Bluebirds, then campfire girls. After our meeting, while mom and dad did the grocery shopping. we would walk a block to go to the penny candy store. Mom would give us each a dime to spend on payday. Kathy always bought neopolitans and/or "mothballs" sugar coated filberts. She would suck on them and make them last longer than I did mine.
Later, when we moved into the house we built in Cincinnati, mom would take us to the library at North College Hill. We would drag home huge piles of books to escape into. Later mom would let us go to the movie theater in North College Hill. We watched Tarzan, Peter Pan, Davy Crockett, Shirley Temple etc. We were young together.
Later Annette came along, then there were three sisters. Growing up together, Enjoying trips to Montana, then later Europe, which totally changed our lives.
