A post without pictures. My favorite Barry stories...

Okay...I just wanted to show that a post doesn't have to have pics although we have some excellent ones to share.

My friend Donna and her sibs get together once a year and share stories about their childhood. They started doing this first to remember their mom or dad. I was lucky enough to be an honorary Collingwood allowing me to sit in on some of these gatherings. In recent years, it's sort of morphed from rememberances of their parents to funny stories about each other. I love the idea, so thought that would be fun to do for the blog. Nothing hurtful here, only fun and/or fond memories. 

So, today, I want to relate two stories about Barry that I love to tell. It sorta shows how his mind works...

MUDDIN' BEFORE IT WAS A THING
So when Barry was about four, one Sunday afternoon, a neighborhood girl* knocks at the door. My mom answers the door, and the girl says, "I just thought you should know Barry and Neil ** are up at my house sitting in a mud puddle!"

So my mom goes up there and sure enough there's Barry and Neil sitting in the mud having a good ol' time. My mom reams both of them, though, for getting their Sunday best clothes all covered in mud. (yes, back then we went to church Sunday mornings). She drags Barry home and cleans him up, puts some play clothes on him and sends him back out.

About a half hour later, there's another knock at the door. The girl is there once more and says, "They're doing it again!" So my mom goes up there again and, yes, there is Barry and Neil whopping it up, covered in mud — but this time they are butt-naked. My mom scolds Barry who looks at her very perplexed.  He didn't understand what the problem was.

"We didn't get our clothes dirty! We took them off!"

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Although we've never been a deeply religious family, we did go to Episcopal (aka Anglican, aka Church of England) church when we were kids. In fact, Barry went to Episcopal private school at Zion Episcopal. As I recall, they started the school after I was already in public school at Fishkill but Barry was there a year or maybe two?

One day he comes home for lunch and my mom asks him, "So, did you learn anything today? What did you do?"

Barry says, yes, we got to go upstairs to the church to see the Father (I can't recall his name). Then, he proceeds to tell her what he saw.

"Well, there were all these grownups there up front. First Father took this cup. And he was talking to the cup. But...the cup didn't answer. So, everybody took a pill."

So went Barry's first communion. :)


*It was Nancy Meyers if I recall. The Meyers ran a day care center in their house that I think Barry attended.
** Neil Ruger, Barry's BFF in New York. They were great pals!

Littlest Gee of all shows off her pretty hair and party dress. Check out Francesca!

Francesca is getting big! And her hair is even bigger. I love her sun hat. The last pic taken with brother Finn on the maiden voyage of Cinci's new street car. :)

The many faces of Elizabeth

Taken in August 2016 at a trip to the store...clowning around with Mommy Dernaline. :)

I'm baack, and since it's September, some back-to-school pics.

I'm baack! In more ways than one. In 1995, I packed up and moved to Madison, Wisconsin. It's too long to go into detail here and most of you know this but it will always be dear to my heart for a number of reasons. In some ways Madison was a perfect place for me...it's where I really feel I came into my own and found out what really matters to me, politically, socially, spirtually...

BUT one of the things that matters to me, that being "away" really drove home was that I love my family and I want to be more a part of their daily lives, especially now that we have new adult members (the best group of spouses one could ask for) and lots of new little Gees running about.

So, I'm back in Cinci. :)

I didn't even remember that I tried to revive this blog one more time before I left Madison
Josh tried to post to this blog but couldn't. I've since sent him, Jodi and Brandon invites to be "authors" and hope to get emails from all the Gee adults to make them authors.

I hope that y'all will take advantage of this space to write Gee-related news. I will continue, as family genealogist, to use this space for that BUT I hope to see soccer game pics, birthday wishes, funny stories, anything you want to share with other Gees.

Facebook is great and I'm addicted. Texting is nice and immediate BUT this is a space for family news and good times. I hope you will find it fun to connect with. We're now all in the same state and most in the same city so maybe a blog isn't necessary BUT I'm gonna power through for my own amusement and I hope you'll chime in from time to time.

So...I'll start with these photos. It's September and school has begun for Lucy and Finn. Everyone else is too little or done with school but I've got some cute photos of the little ones later as they enjoy their first years before becoming "just another brick in the wall." BUT, hey, we're Gees...THAT is never gonna happen. :D!

From August and September 2016 —
Finn on his first day of school, Kindergaryen, followed by Finn on his new soccer team.
Lucy walking to school on her first day of Sixth Grade, followed by Lucy the day before school starts at tea with Maggie and Nana (Robin). We went to the Downton Abby exhibit. I think she learned to hold up her pinky from Jodi at an earlier tea outing. She's into tea like her Nana. Her great grandma Louisa Gee would be so proud, keeping Gee British roots alive! :)

Reconnecting

Well, this is one of a few blogs I started that went no where...now just part of the flotsam and jetsum of the blogosphere...but it doesn't have to be. I'm gonna get this thing going and share family history and lore here.

Although my great great grandpa John Gee came to the US from England in 1832, he didn't stay. After things went pretty sour for him, after his wife Hannah Green Gee died, he left his two older daughters Eleanor and Hannah in the US and took his son, my great grandpa John Phillip, back with him to England (Sidcup is where they end up).

Looks like Eleanor may have died before having any kids but Hannah lived to the ripe ol' age of 102 or so, married a guy named Hinkle and had a daughter, Ruth, who in turn had a couple of sons. I loose track of them after the 1940s but I imagine there are some Mellosh's with Gee blood in the US somewhere.

BUT the first rooted set of Gees to come and stay in the US in our line were my parents, Kenneth Herbert Gee and Patricia Hawe Gee (nee Patricia Jane Henderson).

So, my mother and father had two kids, the first to be born in the US and stay here. As kids, because my parents were only children and their parents were in Edmonton, Alberta and the rest of the Gees were still in England...our Gee outpost was just that...a US outpost of four people.

NOW, thanks to the procreative abilities of my bro, me and our various offspring, the Gee clan in 2016 is up to 18 counting spouses. I love being the matriarch of a large clan.

THE GEEs:

Barry Harold Gee and Jodi Bockenstette Gee
—Brandon Purnell Gee and Maggie Gee
——Lucy Pearl Gee
—Candice Amanda Gee and Amanda Gee
—Finnbar Patrick Gee
—Francesca Gee

Robin Linda Gee
— Joshua Barry Gee and Dernaline Waot Gee
——Miracle Gee
———Anthony Modall Gee
———MaKyle Gee
——Shayla Robin Gee
——Zedric Gee (dec)
——Elizabeth Bonina Gee

The Oldest Hendersons

As many of you know, Barry and I have been doing a lot of work on our mother's side of the genealogy lately. Our mom, Patricia Jane Henderson (aka Murial Patricia Hawe) was adopted by the Hawes and grew up in Edmonton. Turns out her blood family was the Hendersons who had a farm in Strathroy, Ontario. (they raised bees at one point). B and I are hooking up with various Henderson relatives AND with my mother's two living half-brothers. This is VERY exciting for us—two uncles we didn't know existed. I wanted to share with you a photo we got while doing research on the Henderson side of things.

Apparently, our mother's mother was Velma Bridgette Henderson. Velma's parents were Mayten Joe Henderson and Emma Harris Henderson (Barry's and my great grandparents; more on that later). Mayten's dad was James Michael Henderson (our great great grandpa). All these folks born and lived in Ontario. BUT James Michael's parents were originally born in Ireland and emigrated to Canada in the 1830s. Before that the family were originally from Scotland.

Not sure how many generations in Ireland before coming to Canada. Still researching that. James Henderson was born in 1781 in County Newry! His wife Dorothy was born later in County Down I think and it looks like James was 48 when they got married so I'm guessing she's a second wife. GOOD GENES alert—Ol' James lived to be pretty old (I think he died in the 1870s or early 80s...lived to 100 or so). He had 8 sons with Dorothy! We have spoken with John Henderson who lives in California and who is descended from another of James and Dorothy's sons.

So, here's the pic taken about 1865 of James, Dorothy and their 8 sons. Our ggrandfather, James Michael is the son on the far right first row, seated. Handsome devil, ain't he?

Weird thing is we (Barry and I) and our mom were raised Protestant and Henderson being a Scottish name I just presumed we were protestant Scots but we were actually Catholic Scots and likely we fled to Northern Ireland (Ulster) when the King of England opened it up to Scots. Apparently, he was hoping to bring in Protestants and dilute the Catholic population there to diffuse their quest for independence BUT it backfired and all the Catholic Scots went there instead wanting to be near other Catholics. Interesting....so if that is the case I bet there are a LOT of Hendersons running around. :)

Trying to Revive the Blog

So...I'm trying to get better at this. Been over a year since I last posted and not sure if any of you have even looked at this. We need pics of FINN and LUCY and MIRACLE and SHAYLA and yes, Rorie, Ezra and Maddie and, well, everyone. Also, a good place to share info on our genealogy research BUT also about anything. Please add whatever you want!

I'm going to see who I've got as contributors and add all y'all if I can. It may be that you have to subscribe to blogger to be able to do that. I don't know BUT I'm gonna try to get y'all hooked up. That means you—Josh, Brandon, Candice, Barry, Jodi, Maggie, Miracle—anyone I'm missing? Want to add the Bockenstette clan? Anyone else?

I'll start off (again) by adding my fav recent pic of Maddie:

She is very sweet. Greets me everyday by rubbing her face on my foot...first thing when I come in the door. It's her Howdy-do...BUT she is very naughty a lot of the time. Jumps up and knocks stuff over constantly especially at 5am when she's hungry and wants to eat!!!

Saw recent pics of little Finnbar...beautiful!

Haven't seen the latest pics of Lucy...I bet she's grown a lot since I last saw her!

Trying out the new photo settings!

I just heard there's new photo settings so I can actually add more photos. I will still get more stuff up on facebook, etc....but thought this was good for family photos. By the way, I made Barry an administrator so he can add Candice and anyone else who wants to get on here. I don't have her address.

So...more pics from my trip in August:

Well is sorta works. A little akward to use but...these taken at a restaurant...can't recall which one...that pizza place I think. What is the name? I like the one at Barry's and Jodi's house. Scroll down to earlier post (before the squashes) to see another nice one of Candice, Jodi and Barry.

So, here comes trouble next!!!

Robin's experiment in cropping :)

Here's one of my experiments in cropping. One photo with three different crops, four completely different pics. The first is the orginal pic. Cool...I think. :)

Robin starts the blog off

Okay, I'll start.

I've been practicing using a large digital camera that I bought off Donna. I took it along on some small trips I took this year. I have a lot to learn.

I took this one when I came home for Bluesfest. My actual Bluesfest pics didn't turn out but I especially like the ones taken in front of Jodi and Barry's house.

I have not figured out how to add more than one photo very easily on here so you'll have to check out my facebook and flickr accts for the rest. I put family and more on facebook and used flickr for my more artsy and scenic pics. I've been experimenting with cropping. A lot. :)

HEY GEE CLAN...we should use this, eh?

Hi, Josh, Barry, Jodi, Brandon and Candice....
WE should use this...post pics, talk to each other. It'd be way cool if you'd log on here every now and then and say hey!! I know it's a lot to ask with email, facebook, myspace...heaven forbid, twitter...a lot to keep up with but it would be nice to have this family communication board...just a thought...well, I'll try to be better as keeping it up.

Barry, this would be a good place for you to post the genealogy stuff. And, FAMILY photos.

Robin aka Nana aka Mom aka a pain, I know, but still....

Gee Family Blog

Hi guys! Sorry it took me a while to log in here

Hey...josh

Hi, Josh,
I don't see the message on here I left you. Barry's email is bhgee@yahoo.com. I will get Brandon's and Candice's soon. I'm coming home for a short visit November 9-11...Thursday night til Sunday morning I think. Are you graduating in December? If so, will there be a ceremony? Or is it June? Let me know. I am sooooo broke considering not coming for Xmas but I hope to. I will definitely be at whatever graduation you have, whenever that is...just let me know. :)

I got a wakeup call from the doctor today...basically lose weight or die...sooooo....I'm workin' on it. It is sooo hard 'cause you know us Gees...not too hot in the self discipline department. But I need to try. I want to be around to see YOUR grandkids. :)

Say hi to Shayla and Brianna and, if you see her, Miracle. I think about them and worry about 'em a lot. Did you know Lucy is already 1! She turned one Oct. 7...yikes, times fly. Apparently both Barry and his new girlfriend (now fiance) Jodi were there AND Crystal...not good but I think it went okay...just awkward.

So...call me or write in here...this is great...Thanks for setting it up. :) Love, Mom