Memories, far and wide

We were enjoying our usual Thursday morning coffee with our middle child, our daughter, Alicia. We've been doing this for years and we're not tired of it yet. Our conversation usually ranges a wide spectrum and it was no different this morning. We were talking about something that made me remember my grandfather. That's the grandfather on my mother's side; the grandfather on the other side was a scoundrel and we never spoke of him! Grandpa Ray was a very nice man and although he lived far away, I was always eager to make the trip to see him. A trip in those days meant about ten hours driving up the Central Valley of California, on our way to Sacramento, in a car with no air conditioning. I'm not sure that my dad shared my enthusiasm for the trip. He later moved to Bakersfield, making the trip closer to five hours.

Grandpa Ray was a quiet man, an introvert, as was his daughter and his grandson. I loved spending time with him as it was always 'calm' around him. Now thinking about Grandpa Ray brought to mind his father, Louis Riley Fifer. My great grandfather was not a quiet man. Quite the opposite; he was a 'joiner' and, apparently, the life of any party. I can't help but wonder as to how the two of them got along?

L.R was an early member of The International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo. Yes, that's the name of this ancient fraternal order. Wikipedia has a history of the order that's close enough to be good. Click here to learn some more. L.R. was a lumber dealer in Seattle and Hoo Hoo membership was limited to those associated with the lumber industry. And they still are. Moss Lumber used to have offices all around the country and their logo had the arched black cat  found on the Hoo Hoo logo. I think there are still some Moss Lumber offices still open. It appears that the Hoo Hoo's are still active in half a dozen states, plus Canada and Australia.

I have a couple of documents regarding L.R. and one is his obituary. At the time of his death, he was a Vice-Regent Snark, a position he had held before. At one time he was a member of The Supreme Nine, the governors of the Hoo Hoo's.

 It's quite obvious the L.R. was an extrovert. With Extrovert all in bold and underlined.
I'm pretty sure that my introversion or ASD didn't come from this man!
On another note, this man and his son, Grandpa Ray, had me worried for a full year. It seems that they both died at the age of 65. I had my fingers crossed for a year...about ten years ago.