Grandpa Montgomery

I know I said I'd write about the Gasaway side of the family, but I've been thinking about my Grandpa Montgomery, born Roscoe Lee in 1877. He always called himself Ross. My mother adored her father. He was a skinny little cheerful fellow who loved music, dancing, and baseball. Mother said he taught all of his children to dance by having them stand on his feet while he danced. Family reunions were usually held in someone's basement so we could dance. There was usually live music. I can't remember what kind but I know that about 10:00 at night, Grandpa would stand up and call out "Virginia Reel." We'd all line up, the music would start, and we'd dance. We kids loved those reunions. There was, besides wonderful food, a huge metal tub filled with ice and Uncle Carl's home-made root beer. No one checked to see how many you took. And there was home-made ice cream, gallons of it! Uncle Marlowe read poems he'd written and Uncle Roscoe and his wife Jiggs did crazy dances. My uncles would come up to me, bow, and ask for the next dance. I felt like a queen.
   Grandpa had a little Jack Russell he called "Blackie." I'm not sure why, as the dog wasn't black. This little dog grabbed Grandpa's trousers and hung on while Grandpa danced around the room, the dog swinging through the air.
   Grandpa loved baseball. Knew all the statistics and listened to the games on a beat up little radio. He was a dedicated Cubs fan. I remember going to visit and Grandma told me he was over at the sand lot. There he was, watching the kids play baseball. I asked him how he was. "Not so good today," he said. "Your Grandma and I were out dancing till near two o'clock last night." One year, Dick and I took him to Chicago to see the Cubs play. He had never seen them, never been in a big stadium. He was speechless with joy. He knew all the players, all their stats, and when the Cubs won, he said he thought he'd died and gone to heaven.
   Grandpa's father was Joseph Franklin Montgomery, born 1850 in Posey County, Indiana. In 1873, he married Martha Gasaway and there were five children: Roscoe Lee (Ross), Walter, Albert (Bert), Lewis, and Viola. Martha died in 1891. Grandpa was just fourteen. I think he and his brother Walter (then thirteen) went to live with their grandfather Samuel. The boys remembered that Grandpa Sam was strict about keeping the Sabbath. Walter told about trying to lift his grandpa's rifle off the rack and sneak out the door, but never got away with it. Sam would just point to the rack--never saying a word--and they knew it was no use trying to get that gun on a Sunday.
   Grandpa never spoke about his childhood and typical kid that I was, I never asked. I do know Grandpa and Grandma lived in Illinois around Pekin all their lives except for a short stay out side of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. (Good thing, as that's where Mother met Daddy, but I'll tell that story another time.) They rented a farm. My mother was nineteen and had a job as a cashier in a shop in town. During the week, she lived with her friend Genevieve in town. (I'm named for Gen's sister Ruth) Mother came home weekends. Uncle Carl (just a year older) lived at home and ran the farm. One night Mother and Carl sneaked out of a window to go into town to a dance. When they got home, Grandpa met them. Carl was twice his size, but Grandpa spanked Carl.
   I think our lives are made up of our stories, like a quilt. I tell you these stories so you can add them to your patchwork quilts. After I fill in the Gasaway side of the family, I'll tell more family stories. Maybe you can send me some of yours so we all can share.