FAMILY AND ANCESTRY

Grandma Annie and Grandpa Ben Fonke
Well this blog is all about my family and there are ALOT of questions. I'll just copy the questions in bold print and then answer. Here Goes:
1) What was our mothers name? Fathers name? grandparents name? What did you call them? My mom was Mary Edna Fonke and we called her mom. My dads name was Henry Clifford Thorsten, but everyone called him Bud or Buddy. We all called him dad. My maternal grandparents were Anna (Pauline) Fonke and Bernard August Fonke and we called them Grandma Annie and Grandpa Ben. My paternal grandparents were Antone (I think) and Martina (I think) Thorsten. We called them Grandma Tina and Grandpa Tony.They lived in Minnesota so we didn't see them often. But I remember them with great fondness.
2)Do you have brothers and sisters? What are their names?How old were you when they were born? Do you remember the first time you saw them?
I have two brothers and two sisters. Anne, Linda, Ray, and Mike. Anne was 4 yrs. old, Linda 2 yrs old when I was born. Ray and Mike are younger than me. I remember when Mike was born and my grandpa took us up to Depaul Hospital, where Mike was born, and my mom held Michael to the window for all of us to see him.
3) What about your Aunts and Uncles? What did they look like? Did they play an important part in your growing up? Did the family get together much casually or did you have to travel and dress up to spend time together?

Uncle Martin and Aunt Edith's house. Sorento Illinois
I remember Uncle Martin and Aunt Edith (my grammas brother) giving us hayrides out at his house in Sorento Ill. He lived in the house my mom was born in. They had a mean little chihuahua named Petie. Then there was Aunt Jean in Minnesota...we loved loved going there. That was my moms sister. They lived on a farm and you know that was right up my alley. ANIMALS!! We had 3 cousins, George, John, and Mary.They were Jeans kids. We went there every year.I have sooo many wonderful memories of Jean and Georges house and our vacations there.Uncle George used to cuss his cows out all the time. I think it was when it was time for them to be milked and he would try to get them lined up to come in. I MEAN HE CUSSED THEM!! I also believe Uncle George kept whiskey bottles hidden in the barn and would have a few nips while milking the cows. There was one cow named Friendly who only had three teets so she couldn't be hooked up to the milking machine. You had to hand milk her.Anyway, there were times Uncle George would hang out in the barn and then come in the house swaying just a tad, singing the old tune "Waltzing Matilda" THAT'S how we knew about the whiskey. He was a nice man. Very good to all 5 of us kids. Oh, how we loved Minnesota and the farm . 5 little city kids got to experience farm life and I think that's wonderful.
Okay, will have to stop here and continue this at a later date.

TONI'S GETTING MARRIED

I can't think about how to write this blog...I need to just put down the thoughts as they come.
My daughter Toni, is getting married tomorrow. It was kind of, well not "kind of" but it was a fast planned wedding. They decided on Monday to get married and will be married tomorrow. Saturday. Six days later. Again, she isn't pregnant but due to certain circumstances they decided better now than later. BUT ANYWAY.........
I found today that I'm very emotional and have cried on at least 5 different occasions....today alone. Over some really silly stuff. I had to sit down tonight and figure this out.I originally thought, hmmmmm....the prednisone (medication) I'm taking has turned me into a blubbering idiot. I heard it can and does do that so truthfully, that could be a part of it. But........it's because Toni's getting married! My BABY!!
In my head, whenever I think of "Toni getting married" visions of her as a baby and little girl pop into my head. The tears then start. There's something "final" about her getting married. What it is...I don't know exactly but the word FINAL seems to be the best description of how I feel. I suppose I feel like I'm handing her over to someone else to now watch over her. THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY JOB. Toni was always very shy, quiet, and fragile and I have to admit...I babied her, protected her, and babied her some more. I think that once your child gets married, your job as the protector is over.It's like being terminated from that job. It's final......

New Blog

I started a new blog because I wanted to dedicate this one strictly to the book "Our Children's Children".

If you would like to read about my crazy, disfunctional life, visit me here.

The Facts

September 2nd, 2007 6:07 am
This page is simply titled "The Facts" because that's what the page in the book is titled.I'm so ingenious.
My name is Karen Marie Thorsten and I live at ********in St. Louis Mo. I was born in St. Louis at Depaul Hospital on N. Kingshighway. (My mother worked there) I'm currently 49 years old and my birthdate is**********. My mom's name was Mary Edna Fonke and dad's was Henry Clifford Thorsten. (my kids can thank me later for NOT making them a namesake.) I don't speak any foreign languages although I did take German in highschool. My astrological sign is cancer.. which by the way always disturbed me on some level. "CANCER" I am right handed and near sighted. I am overweight but feel the need to say that I wasn't always. I'm 5'6" and have blue eyes. I wear glasses. My social security number is ********. I am divorced x's 3 and not very good at marriage.And not very proud of this! We'll get into THAT later. My maiden name was Thorsten. I currently don't have a spouse...nor see one in the future. I have 3 children.Adam, 29...Sarah,26.. Toni,22. I have 3 grandchildren Julian, 4.. Lucy, 1 yr. old.. Natalie 1 year old. My occupation has always been in healthcare. My race is caucasian and I'm a non-practicing Lutheran. I consider myself a liberal and I live in the city of St. Louis. I live in a 2 story brick house. I have no allergies and my blood type is A positive. I have a deep voice (from smoking!!) Past pet names were Hamlett (the pig) Henrietta (dog) Fletcher (dog) Sebastian (dog) Bennie (ferret) Gizmo (cat) Tibby (cat) and the list goes on and on. My nickname when I was a child was "Karkar" pronounced "care care" .
SOOOOO, these are the facts about me to pass on to my family. I am officially finished with the first page of "TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN". I certainly hope that in the far future my children and grandchildren enjoy this and know this was done with much consideration and love....for them! Adam, Sarah, Toni, Julian, Lucy, Nattie. XOXO

PROCRASTINATION

August 29th, 2007 3:22 am

I have been racking my brain on how to start this little project...therefore, I've done nothing.Now, I'm just hopping in and DOING IT!!
The whole point is to start answering the questions in the book "TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN" so that my ancestors, namely children and grandchildren, will acquire an understanding of how life was "back in the day". I figured the best way is to list the questions as they are in the book, at least the ones that pertain to me, and then simply answer. I know that doesn't sound too difficult to most people but......the first thing everyone will learn about me is I procrastinate.
The other dilema is..... How honest do I "really" want to be? I mean, come on, no one gets thru 49 years of life without skeletons and some of us have alot MORE skeletons than others. I guess I'll just wait to see how I feel at the time. At any rate, I have at least started and feel very happy about that.

My First Blog

I came up with this great idea about blogging for my children's children. Years down the road, when I'm long gone, I want my grandchildren to know how very much they were loved by me. I want them to know how my life was and all the trials and tribulations one goes thru. I have this book called "To Our Children's Children" with hundreds of very interesting questions about life and growing up. The problem was and is, no space to write the answers. AND...I want all my grandkids to have a copy. I certainly don't want to handwrite the same answers over for each grandchild (right now there are 3 kids..I suspect more will follow) I thought it would be a great idea to blog the answers, print them out for each grandchild, and make them a "My granny's blog book" or something to that effect.
Now, I just have to find the book !! It's here, packed away with all my other treasures. (My treasure chest will be a blog someday too. It's wonderful. Packed to the rim with memories.)
Well, let me start hunting !!