Jesse Steven Edge

Jesse Steven Edge was my dad's great-great grandfather. So that makes him my three greats grandfather.
Jesse was, indeed, a cool ancestor to learn about. Back in those days, he traveled everywhere, and would often stay in stranger's houses. As the story goes, he was gambling at one house, and for some reason there was a conflict--he was hit in the head with a crowbar, and he stumbled into a fire and got burned. Later, his host was leaving town, and someone shot him dead off of his saddle. No one knows for sure who killed him. I have a slight idea who.
Because of his head injury, he wasn't quite right after that. His wife eventually put him in an asylum, where he died.

Uncle Ray

Uncle Ray is my Dad's uncle. So does that make him my...great uncle? I dunno. However...he is a really cool guy. He's still alive. He flies in from Florida every so often for the deer hunting season, and fills me up with amazing stories.
When my dad was young, Ray and his brothers would take him to get flounders. They use a long pole that is forked at the end (called a gig), and stab the flounder and pull it up and put it in the boat. The scary part is that they did this at night. Every time the river would come by a creek, alligators would see the bright light, and follow the boat.
They would also catch catfish. Only...the catfish don't die for a couple of hours, so they flounder about making huge "uuuhh" noises. Must be kind of scary, in the dark, alligators following, and catfish moaning.
To make matters worse...if you took young reckless Uncle Ron with you...you might get into trouble. Ron was reckless. He'd sometimes use the gig to try to stab cottonmouth snakes...not smart, because they'd start crawling up the gig, and Ron would have to hurry and try to scrape it off on a passing rock, or there'd be trouble.
Ray continuously loved to tell stories like these: Uncle Steve (my uncle, my dad's brother) fell asleep...and he was pretty close to the surface of the water at the back of the boat...and an alligator was following. Ray jokes that they were using Steve as bait...
Or about the time where my dad asked if the stabbed flounder would bite him if he put his finger in its mouth. Ray said, "Why don't you try it?" my dad stuck in his thumb, and it got a dark bruise for weeks.
When I was little, I asked Ray if he'd ever been stung by a jellyfish. The answer was yes. All across his belly. I asked him what he did about it...he said, "Heck, I didn't know what to do...so I just rubbed my cigarette butt in it (the wound)."

Grandpa K

Every time we'd sit down to eat lunch at Grandma and Grandpa K's, Grandpa was the entertainment. He didn't know this, of course, but he was the entertainment even if an intriguing conversation was being carried on. No matter the meal, he'd mix everything up into one pile of sludge, then he'd eat it with toast. Whenever he chewed, his hearing aids would ring with every chomp, and we'd say, "Grandpa, your hearing aids are squeaking!" And he'd say, "eh?" And he would continue
chewing and eating.

Summary of grandparents

Grandpa E-My dad's dad. Loved fishing, dogs, scaring the grandkids, and was very territorial about "his chair". Hear stories about him all the time!
Grandma E-So sweet and kind, always let me take as much candy as I wanted out of the candy jar. Gave wet kisses.
Grandpa K-The most amusing man who taught me how to find the beat in music. Believed in the power of the mind. Inspired me to get a face watch "because you never look to see what time it is, only what time it isn't." Also gave some magnificently wet kisses.
Grandma K-Amazing woman of amazing health. So kind and sweet. Always keeps the tiny house spick and span.

This is the first post of hopefully many, and I will be posting memories of my own, memories of others, of these wonderful people.