"New" Maloons
There was a death in the family this past week. Papa's older brother, Uncle John, was sick and passed away on May 1st. Seeing as how families tend to separate as they age, I don't really remember Uncle John, and I was just sad for Papa and the rest of the family that did.
On Thursday, May 7th, I went with Dad to the funeral that was held in Lafayette. My brother came with the two youngest girls, as did Uncle Steve, Uncle Denny, and Grandma and Papa. The rest of the family consisted of Maloons I've heard about, but haven't seen since the last wedding a good 15-20 yrs ago. Johnny, Uncle John's oldest son, says he last saw me at my high school graduation party. He was in town, visiting, and he came by. hmmm.
It was fun to meet and re-meet these people. After the funeral, I loved to hearing the stories and good memories of Uncle John. He sounded like a good man. He was active, loved his family, and loved the outdoors. He hunted and took the family camping way before it was fashionable. One of his daughters, Karen, set up a slide show on one of those digital frames at the "reception" after the funeral. The family resemblance is pretty strong. My brother could have been the blonde-haired kid in some of those pictures. Another thing I found humorous about the pictures was that the ones with Grandma Barbara tended to be at her house, with her old dog, a scottie dog named Muffin, and the avocado-green furniture that's long gone. Why was she always there? I dunno. It was nice to be reminded of Muffin, too. She and I were the bestest of buds when I was growing up. Grandma Barbara babysat me a lot, and Muffin and I were the same age. She died when I was about 11 or 12....
A couple other things that I learned about my family:
1) The Maloons are/were Baptist. Who knew? Not I. I was raised Catholic. Maybe this is why my parents were so open about religion and let me experience the different religions of my childhood friends? Appearently, Papa's dad helped to start a Baptist church in Lafayette, and it's near the cemetaries where Uncle John, Uncle Harold, and their wives are burried. Both Uncle Harold and Papa converted to Catholicism when they married their wives.
2) The Maloon family was centered in Oakland, Lafayette, and Moraga until dad's generation grew up and started to move away.
On Thursday, May 7th, I went with Dad to the funeral that was held in Lafayette. My brother came with the two youngest girls, as did Uncle Steve, Uncle Denny, and Grandma and Papa. The rest of the family consisted of Maloons I've heard about, but haven't seen since the last wedding a good 15-20 yrs ago. Johnny, Uncle John's oldest son, says he last saw me at my high school graduation party. He was in town, visiting, and he came by. hmmm.
It was fun to meet and re-meet these people. After the funeral, I loved to hearing the stories and good memories of Uncle John. He sounded like a good man. He was active, loved his family, and loved the outdoors. He hunted and took the family camping way before it was fashionable. One of his daughters, Karen, set up a slide show on one of those digital frames at the "reception" after the funeral. The family resemblance is pretty strong. My brother could have been the blonde-haired kid in some of those pictures. Another thing I found humorous about the pictures was that the ones with Grandma Barbara tended to be at her house, with her old dog, a scottie dog named Muffin, and the avocado-green furniture that's long gone. Why was she always there? I dunno. It was nice to be reminded of Muffin, too. She and I were the bestest of buds when I was growing up. Grandma Barbara babysat me a lot, and Muffin and I were the same age. She died when I was about 11 or 12....
A couple other things that I learned about my family:
1) The Maloons are/were Baptist. Who knew? Not I. I was raised Catholic. Maybe this is why my parents were so open about religion and let me experience the different religions of my childhood friends? Appearently, Papa's dad helped to start a Baptist church in Lafayette, and it's near the cemetaries where Uncle John, Uncle Harold, and their wives are burried. Both Uncle Harold and Papa converted to Catholicism when they married their wives.
2) The Maloon family was centered in Oakland, Lafayette, and Moraga until dad's generation grew up and started to move away.
1 Comments:
always interesting to learn new bits about your family history.
By
carolyn, At
5/11/2009 08:06:00 AM
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