Uncle Billy and Dennis

billyanddennis
Uncle Billy is our fathers brother. Holy crap… we have an uncle hanging around?! Dennis is our cousin. Son of Geraldine Hartman Jones. Billy is struggling with his health in a rehab somewhere in Los Angeles. Dennis went to visit him. I wrote about Uncle Billy four years ago HERE. with some crazy strange blog title: “Put your arms around me for Gods sake” and at the time I was angry at my fathers brother because he just nonchalantly walked right out of our lives and never ever once looked back.
So ironically 40 years ago I rode on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland in California with Billy and just recently last night got off the phone with him for the first time since.

Right after Gerry found this blog and the Hartman’s and Jones reconnected and right before her untimely death before I was going to visit her in Las Vegas, I spoke to her on the phone. I remember she told me how upset she was at that blog post “Put your arms around me for Gods sake” and she really defended her brother and also told me that my cursing and some the sexual things I had wrote on this ridiculous blog were totally uncalled for.

Talking with Uncle Billy I heard my father’s voice. I heard my Grandfather’s toughness but most of all I heard Uncle Billy. He is his own man that made his own choices and created his own life and really didn’t need to stay “connected” to Joan and her ten kids. He had that right. He owed us nothing and we certainly owed him nothing. I just thought it strange that not once did he just think to check in on his 10 nieces and nephews that tragically lost their father at such an early age? But that’s ok, even though we were little kids, we didn’t go out of our way to check in on him. Damn, I still sound bitter here, don’t I? Too bad.

It was only by pure luck and internet hocus pocus that Aunt Gerry searched her own name and found this blog because I hoped she would. My reverse finding tagging trick worked. Through Gerry I have rediscovered our long lost cousins, Robert, Diane and Dennis. All of us have lived our lives and roller coasted the ups and downs that it can bring. Billy in particular had a life threatening disease, polio, attack him at the age of five. This is one rough way to start your life. Dennis is quite a story himself and an outright damn miracle of recovery. I even posted a movie made about him on this blog HERE

It’s a small world after all INDEED when your fathers brother is still around even after 44 years four months and three days after his untimely death.

My cousin Dennis and me in the jaws of Disneyland 1975

My cousin Dennis and me in the jaws of Disneyland 1975

In the Summer of 1975 I was an awkward teen boy going through puberty from hell when our uncle Jay Jones died. I remember Dennis calling me up and crying about it to me. That Summer his mother Gerry, insisted that I come out there to be with them. Her greatest concern was that as she worked she would be leaving young Dennis alone. I really didn’t want to go. I was scared of everything at that age. I’m still scared of everything at my current age of 55.

The agreement was Gerry was going to pay for my plane fare to California there and mom was going to pay for it on the way back. The other agreement at my insistence was that I was only going to stay a couple of weeks. Well I ended up staying the entire Summer and almost ended up living there forever. Turns out when it was moms turn to pay for the fare back, she didn’t have the money. And thus began the non-relationship of mom and Gerry. You see, money destroys relationships quicker than a hurricane hitting a double-wide.

The day I left mom had to give me a ride to the airport and as the time grew closer and closer for the plane to leave, mom sat at the kitchen table getting drunker and drunker on white cans of Budweiser beer. I was sure I was going to miss the plane or that we would get into a horrific crash on the NJ Turnpike half way to Newark airport. Finally I just yelled “MOM we have TO LEAVE!” which was strange for a boy that didn’t want to go.

Needless to say I made the plane. Everything was pure magic after that. Pure absolute magic that I will NEVER forget. It was the first time I rode on a plane and it was crystal blue skys and puffy white clouds out my window seat. The stewardess treated me like a king because I was a 15 year old boy alone. I couldn’t believe how BIG and how BEAUTIFUL our country was from up there. When I arrived in LA and got off the plane there were hipsters and hippies and PALM TREES, California is not of this planet. It is it’s own beautiful world of color, neon lights, texture and gorgeous sunsets. Aunt Gerry was always a woman that loved to go out and do things! And that we did. She took me to Disneyland, we went to see Jaws in a huge theater in LA which just blew me away as a movie (now the special effects are laughable!) I was very fortunate to have Gerry take me that Summer. I left all my brothers and sisters in the groggy hot depths of Carteret as we went to Reno Nevada and played Kino for hours.

It was here I did see Uncle Billy for the last time. He was always so distant but that’s just him. Our uncle is struggling to walk now and he is full of memories. My phone call with him wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I was looking for the past again. I wanted to hear intricate stories of him and our dad running down back alleys of Westfield and getting into trouble. I wanted to hear Grandpa Hartman yell at them for not eating their peas. I wanted to see Grandma Hartman shopping at the A&P and squeezing oranges. I wanted to see them all riding to upstate NY in that station wagon they had.

Instead we talked about polio and prostates and how he was a salesman for AllState Insurance company his whole life. But that was ok. It was great to speak to him. And in this “small world afterall” he ended our conversation with … please call again.

About George C. Hartman

Redesiging design, coloring outside the lines, rolling down hills, figuring out strange people, dreaming in black and white, photographing in black and white, juggling, body surfing, fantasy football, painting, design, digital art and photo manipulation, green oceans, blue oceans, museums, discovering small towns, biking, beach, relationships that tear my heart out, bad poetry, movie making and BLOGGING
This entry was posted in cousins, HERITAGE, the beginning and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

6,532 Responses to Uncle Billy and Dennis

  1. Eric says:

    Not available at the moment incite elite swimming goggles review “Everything the temple gets should be known to the devotees,” said Shankaram Kutty, head of an advertising firm based in Cochin, who goes at least once a year to Guruvayur with an offering. “I feel every temple should declare their assets.”

  2. Orville says:

    I’ve just started at argireline peptide Having told onepost-match interviewer that she had been “a bit overwhelmed” and another thatshe had been suffering a “panic attack”, Azarenka later claimed that she hadleft the court because she had been having trouble breathing because of a“locked rib”.

  3. Friend35 says:

    Which university are you at? olanzapine attorneys los angeles Levenson said he spoke mostly on stereotypes, like music preference and the difference between white and black cheerleaders…he said he stereotyped the perceptions that white fans might be afraid of black ones

  4. Davis says:

    How long are you planning to stay here? twitching eye side effects of topamax Ireland’s funds and investment management industries, whichMurphy supervises, have remained largely divorced from the woesof the country’s banking sector, which forced the governmentinto an EU-IMF bailout in 2010.

  5. Paris says:

    Excellent work, Nice Design generic atorvastatin cost uk “When you set up to ramp a factory you need a plan, and wehave shipment targets we need to make with our carrier partners,and where we need to be right now is 100,000 units and that’swhere we are,” Woodside said.

  6. Chris says:

    I’m only getting an answering machine sleepwell resitec gold plus price One blaze that has consumed 85,000 acres near Fairbanks hasdrawn congressional scrutiny. The so-called Stuart Creek2 Fire was sparked in June by Army artillery training conductedin hot, dry conditions against the advice of federal wildfiremanagers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

  7. Hayden says:

    I’d like to speak to someone about a mortgage stendra en espao-a He said the final approach shot was “just kind of a smooth gap wedge for me. Kind of bread and butter. Hard enough where I could hit it, but it wasn’t an easy shot, a touch shot, I could go ahead and make a good swing at it. It was kind of a perfect yardage.”

  8. Evelyn says:

    We need someone with qualifications silagra cipla side effects “Because our military is voluntary and because so many veterans are suffering right now, I feel if we don’t actively do our part for returning soldiers, what kind of message are we leaving for future volunteers?”

  9. Aurelio says:

    I’d like to cancel this standing order malegra effects “Before, we had to walk to the valley to collect water, and this was dangerous, because we were threatened by nomads who would attack us.”

  10. Levi says:

    Can you hear me OK? free viagra from gibraltar The queues have caused the price premium on some metals,like oversupplied aluminum and zinc, to surge, promptingaccusations that the banks and traders that own storagefacilities are artificially inflating prices and distortingsupplies.

  11. Keenan says:

    International directory enquiries lexapro reviews weight gain
    The group sent a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack inlate July and met with him last week in Washington to discussits concerns. In its letter it asked that USDA “fix itsrubber-stamp approach to GE crops” and said that “improvementsin regulations and oversight must start at the field trialstage.”

  12. Odell says:

    I’m a housewife cephalexin dosage for throat infection “We will send to the Senate the provision which says up ordown, are you for defunding Obamacare or not?” Cantor said ofhis plan. “The House has taken a stand numerous times on itsopinion of Obamacare. It’s time for the Senate to stand up andtell their constituents where they stand on this atrocity of alaw.”

  13. Rogelio says:

    No, I’m not particularly sporty phd creapure
    Obamacare advocates said they expect the federal exchange site should show significant improvement later this week as information technology contractors add server capacity to the system to handle unexpectedly large volumes of online traffic and address software problems.

  14. Brianna says:

    I’d like to open an account famvir brown recluse Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to launch her campaign for president sometime in the next two weeks and will initially focus on intimate events, rather than soaring speeches to big rallies, as her team looks to put her in direct contact with voters in states with early primaries or caucuses.

  15. Andres says:

    Do you know each other? libido boost plus australia
    “Most of the philosophy is about helping local people,” explained the retreat’s manager. “The building is done by local people. We don’t use cement, we don’t use electricity, solar power is all that is used.”

  16. Eric says:

    Very funny pictures femigra 50 oder 100 mg Another Hong Kong newspaper, the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao, reported in January that Bo was about to be tried in the southern city of Guiyang, which sent dozens of reporters flocking to the courthouse.

  17. Victoria says:

    Have you got any experience? celebrex price walgreens In explaining the reason why a postponement was being sought, Arthur Larkin, senior counsel for the city Law Department, saidRudin“decided not to take any depositions in August mainly to accommodate his vacation schedule.”

  18. Adrian says:

    How do you do? extenze cvs To see why the length of the dry season is such a limiting factor, imagine there is heavier than usual rainfall during the wet season. The soil can only hold so much water and the rest runs off. The water stored in the soil at the end of the wet season is all that the rainforest trees have to last them through the dry season. The longer the dry season lasts, regardless of how wet the wet season was, the more stressed the trees become and the more susceptible they are to fire.

  19. Kelly says:

    I sing in a choir side effects of plavix in dogs The company, which made its stock market debut on April 25,said it now saw 2013 sales at the year-earlier level andoperating income down. It had previously forecast higher salesand flat operating earnings.

  20. Porfirio says:

    I didn’t go to university acheter dianabol steroide “That’s a hard one,” one personnel director said. “Eli has won a couple of Super Bowls. Peyton and Tom Brady have been the best quarterbacks in the league for a long time. You are asking a guy who would love to have either one of them. But one game to win, I got to take Peyton. I just think he makes everyone around him better. But Eli is a winner. The guy has shown up in big games.”

  21. Cyril says:

    Would you like to leave a message? meal prep pros and cons “The unmanned trains started to descend down a rolling grade to the center of Lac-Megantic,” TSB manager Rob Johnston said Tuesday. “In this area there are no types of track circuits, so the rail traffic controller would have had no way to know the train had moved.”

  22. Gonzalo says:

    Your account’s overdrawn oxsoralen pharmacy2uk
    Some 31 trusts showed declining scores from the previous year, although the effect was only small. Meanwhile, 31 trusts showed significant improvements across 10 or more questions compared to the previous year and 40 had smaller improvements.

  23. Pedro says:

    Can you put it on the scales, please? effexor 75 mg withdrawal Speaking to reporters, Obama said he and Rouhani had directed their teams to work quickly toward an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. He said this was a unique opportunity to make progress with Tehran over an issue that has isolated it from the West.

  24. Ariana says:

    Withdraw cash silvitra nzd Reflecting further on the matter, he decided against it: “We have to stand up here in New York and say we are who we are, and this kind of behavior by people who try to terrorize others should never be allowed.”

  25. Hershel says:

    Would you like a receipt? fluoxetine buy uk “It looks that there is a direct relation between the injection of gas into the underwater storage cavity 22 kilometers offshore, and the micro earthquakes we have sufferered over the last 15 days,” said Spain’s Industry Minister José Manuel Soria.

  26. Micheal says:

    Three years sumatriptan 50 mg ingredients Roughly three-quarters of Syria is comprised of Sunni Muslims. It has been ruled, however, since 1971 by the Assad family who are ethnic Alawites, a Shiite sect that has been historically persecuted by the Sunnis.

  27. Michael says:

    Withdraw cash minocin 100 mg precio en mexico “We have the duty to tell the Italian government and the EU that their structures and policies are not only inadequate, but they’re criminal,” said Rosario Crocetta, Sicily’s regional governor, after visiting Lampedusa’s immigration center with the mayor and a group of lawmakers.

  28. Hannah says:

    I’m on a course at the moment naproxen 500 mg dosering Holder is in critical condition after being shot in the head by police on Tuesday morning. Investigators said he fired at veteran Arlington police Detective Charles Lodatto as a task force was attempting to take him into custody.

  29. Antone says:

    Through friends do i need to taper off wellbutrin “As a long-suffering shareholder, we are happy to see some price realization right now, but we are wary as the stock has already moved quite a bit in the last couple of weeks given the speculation around activist involvement,” said Ryan Bushell a portfolio manager at Leon Frazer, which owns about 1.55 million Talisman shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.

  30. Duane says:

    Could you give me some smaller notes? 60 mg prozac side effects     The Brownwood/Brown County Health Department would like to remind the residents of the area that with July drawing to a close, school will be starting back very soon. Parent need to check on their children’s vaccine records and make sure they have all the required vaccines to go back to school.

  31. Raymundo says:

    We work together amoxicillin 500 milligrams what is it used for He quoted from the Greek constitution saying it “stated that political parties are entitled to financial support from the state for the election and their operating costs, as stated by law.”

  32. Sandy says:

    What line of work are you in? singulair buy online The BOJ will first start slowing bond purchases from the current pace of roughly 7 trillion yen ($70 billion) per month. It will taper gradually in several stages to minimise the impact on markets. At some point, the bond purchases will stop.

  33. Taylor says:

    US dollars clotrimazole (mycelex o gyne lotrimin) With the Nairobi terrorist attack still going on, world leaders gathered at the UN for the annual General Assembly gab fest. No, they didn’t figure out how to stop terrorism, although the phone call between President Obama and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, followed by Rouhani’s tweeting frenzy at the end of a week of posturing and snubbing, was pretty spectacular.

  34. Alfonso says:

    I’m interested in this position acyclovir dosis Community Health shares closed up 2.3 percent at $48.50 andTenet rose 3.4 percent to $45.19. (Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Susan Kelly inChicago; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Lisa Von Ahn, JeffreyBenkoe and Andre Grenon)

  35. Victor says:

    We need someone with experience buy jack3d online canada The team hope the device could boost tourism, the Mediterranean country’s biggest industry, but lament a lack of support by the local authorities which bought the device for 30,000 euros ($40,000) each and are responsible for maintenance after the first year.

  36. Jerrold says:

    Will I have to work shifts? meijer pharmacy free generic lipitor “The most distressing finding was that this is not resulting in children or in young adolescents switching from smoking to these new products that may or may not be safer when used alone. They’re using both in very high numbers.”

  37. Abram says:

    I’m on work experience accuracy dermaclear serum This has all been done under the leadership of Perlut, a marketing strategist and online Forbes columnist originally from Virginia. In media appearances over the last several years, Perlut has donned a lab coat and stethoscope, confounding interviewers and claiming a niche as America’s most noticeable mustache advocate.

  38. Lance says:

    I’m on a course at the moment cipro intellectual property online services THE late leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, lived undetected in Pakistan for nearly a decade due to incompetence and gross negligence by the authorities, according to a new report detailing how he was once stopped for speeding and wore a cowboy hat.

  39. Ahmad says:

    Who do you work for? kamagra visa A conversion of a former Jehovah’s Witnesses printing plant, the building funds a neighboring 85-acre park built on old waterfront piers under a unique private-public partnership that exemplifies Bloomberg’s vision.

  40. Rickie says:

    I can’t hear you very well fosamax 70 mg preisvergleich Telus declined to comment on Monday on the possibility of reviving its bid, and could not be reached immediately forcomment on Tuesday. Mobilicity officials also declined toidentify the potential buyer on Monday and could not immediatelybe reached for comment about the report.

  41. Freeman says:

    I’m sorry, I’m not interested what is arcoxia 90 mg tablets used for (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Matt Robinson;editing by John Stonestreet)

  42. Russell says:

    I’m a housewife masmedafrica.com The positive impact of international companies can be seenin the once derelict area of Dublin’s docklands, now dubbed Silicon Docks, where Google and Facebook’s offices sit next to the country’s largest theatre, newestfive-star hotel and modern apartment blocks.

  43. Ronald says:

    Insufficient funds para q sirve la pastilla provera Destring if necessary. Here’s a question for the seasoned bean growers among you – do you find that the stringy varieties taste less good? (You can comment beneath this article online at telegraph.co.uk/food). There is often a play-off between flavour and convenience, but my mother-in-law’s stringless runners are better than any stringy ones I’ve had. Hers, incidentally, are Lady Di variety and can be bought from gardenshop.telegraph.co.uk.

  44. Fidel says:

    There’s a three month trial period citrate sildenafil viagra
    TD Ameritrade, however, boasts more active trading clientsthan rivals such as Charles Schwab Corp. Average dailytrades at TD Ameritrade rose 12 percent in the quarter ending onJune 30 from a year ago to just under 400,000, but client marginbalances of $8.6 billion barely moved from $8.7 billion a yearago and $8.5 billion at the end of this year’s first quarter.

  45. Demarcus says:

    What sort of work do you do? cheapest coq10 uk Marc Winthrop, who lost his 13-year-old daughter to two separate types of cancer last month, has taken his grief at losing Talia and poured it into carrying out her dream of one day finding a cure for pediatric forms of cancer.

  46. Arnulfo says:

    I want to make a withdrawal promethazine 25 mg uk The move is symbolic: it would result in a swift Democratic defeat of the defund measure in the Senate and a quick enactment of the overall stopgap spending bill that does nothing to rein in the health care law.

  47. Lavern says:

    I’m on work experience topamax dosage needed for weight loss But it has a different story to tell, about a man who is as verbal as Walt was not

  48. Brett says:

    Please wait 150 mg amitriptyline daily “I recognise that meeting these new requirements of the post-Francis world comes at a cost. I am therefore pleased to announce that an additional £10m will be provided in the current financial year, to allow health boards to accelerate their plans to secure acute medical and surgical ward nurses.”

  49. Jamie says:

    Where are you calling from? generic strattera available canada The stark disagreement over blame for the attack may complicate discussions among Security Council members – Russia, China, the United states, Britain and France – over a Western-drafted resolution to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons.

  50. Dewayne says:

    When can you start? cheap online zyban
    Britain’s biggest drugmaker, which has some 7,000 staff inChina, has now hired Ernst & Young to conduct an independentreview of its systems in China, as well as sending top-levelexecutives to see how an alleged web of bribery worth up to 3billion yuan ($489 million) was missed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *