That was her name. Just Aunt Beck. If you walked past my house at 709 Strong Street and turned right at the dead end, went across the highway that ran to Sterling and followed the driveway up to a little white house, you would end up at Aunt Beck's house. I do not remember her at all, other than she was a short woman with her hair in a bun. Course all women looked alike to me in my memory. Occasionally momma would make something and dispatch me to "Take this to Aunt Beck and come straight back. Don't bother her."
And that was what I would do. Aunt Beck would open the door, take whatever I had, thank me and close the door. It was not until many years later that I actually knew who Aunt Beck was and what her function was in the Haas Family migration to Kansas. I knew I had a cousin named Ronnie Beck who lived in town and was in the same grade I was in while attending Nickerson Grade School. A side note here is that he had very red cheeks. Now those of you who know me know that I also have very red cheeks at times. That makes me think that it is a Haas family trait.
Years later I was to learn that when a member of the Haas Family in Germany migrated to the United States that Aunt Beck was the contact person in Kansas. The members the the Haas family would get in touch with Aunt Beck and she would put them in touch with whoever they needed to contact here in Kansas. Mostly my ancestors settled around the Hunstville and Abbyville area. But back to Aunt Beck.
Sometimes I would walk from my house to the highway to Sterling and go up to Cow Creek and wade around looking for seashells. Oddly enough I found a lot of them. Jake and I used to fish Cow Creek and he and his friends would go down a dirt road to a swimming hole. I never swam and I knew they were down there naked (or so I assumed.) and I wanted no part of that!
Now a note here about the creeks and rivers in Nickerson. It is bounded on one side by the Arkansas River, another by the Cow Creek and another by the Bull Creek. Normally, the only one that carries any significant flow of water was the Arkansas River. But in the Springtime when the snow melted in the mountains of Colorado, the runoff flooded the rivers and Nickerson became isolated. At least I think it was what happened. I know when I used to travel to Hutchinson in the Spring, I had to go 50 Highway because all the little creeks long 96 highway would be over the road. Now what any of this has to do with with Aunt Beck is beyond me! Back to the subject.
Now, I could bore you with stories of my lineage, but I will not. The gist of this is mostly to satisfy my own curiosity. There was a time, I would ask one of the grandma's or mother, but not anymore. I have lost track of all the cousins and of course, all the aunts and uncles have long since passed to their reward, so I have to rely on genealogy and I am pretty lazy when it comes to looking thing up.
So, having consulted my book that has all the answers, apparently Aunt Beck was my great grandfathers first wife. Or, she could have been a sister to his first wife. Sure do not know who to ask at this point! But anyway that is all water under the bridge and I could say about anything and there is no one around to dispute my memory. That is the best part of being old!
So anyway, it snowed last night. According to the old way of thinking, we have 7 more snows until we are done for the year. Guess we will see.
You all have a good day today and I wish you Peace and Prosperity for the coming year!
And remember, you cannot sprinkle showers of happiness on someone else without getting a few drops on yourself!
