July Update

This time around I'll be all over the place with the pictures and such. I wish I had more time to dial all of this in so it's no so helter-skelter. I'm trying to reserve my day off for a half-day at the lake with my 14' aluminum fishing boat that I've had for more than 3 years and haven't gotten it wet yet (lots of luck with that, Ran).

 Let's start with a picture of my grandfather, Connie Franklin Minnick and my grandmother, Margaret Janet Minnick (nee Sanders). This is probably right at late 1925. Their son, Connie Ray, was born in April of 1927. She was born in 1908 and passed away in 1983 at age 75.

Connie Franklin died as the result of major abdominal trauma after being kicked by a horse. He died in 1932. My grandmother remarried a few years later. She married her sister, Hazel's, brother-in-law, Aaron Brown. Hazel was married to Otto Brown, of course, but the younger folks will need the timeline. Apparently, it wasn't uncommon for sisters to marry brothers in those days.

What I wouldn't give for that "hoopie"!

This my dad at his apartment on Thomas street (half block off Fresno St.) in Fresno. It was only five blocks from Jones' Ambulance where I worked. This is probably late '78 or early '79. He died in April of '79 two days prior to his 52nd birthday.

 This is my grandmother prior to her getting hitched to Connie Franklin. It's interesting that she's sitting on the lap of Connie's brother, Walter who, it is speculated, may have had a shine for her prior to Connie Franklin.

It is without controversy that the Sanders family provided a ton of the talent from which the rest of the clan learned much and probably inherited much of their "ear". However, imagine the shock on Ol' Ran's face when he saw his great-grandfather, Monroe Minnick, with a fiddle in his face!! I'm not yet sure who the young fella is strangling the flat top guitar but, if he's a brother (perhaps Homer), then I can safely report that my generation got a "double whammy" of genetic musical input!

This is great-grandfather, Monroe Minnick, again. It must have been shortly prior to his demise as he died at about age 58. My greatest of thanks and gratitude to cousin, Danny Phillips, for sharing the fruit of his tireless genealogical research. Likewise, my greatest of thanks to cousin, Jimmy Sanders, who also worked hard to fill in a lot of blanks regarding our genealogy.
 

This is my great-grandmother, Margaret (nee Carlisle) Sanders with my mother, Geraldine (nee Kitchen) (Minnick) Black. She's holding the son of a close family friend, Valeta Ruth Johnson. Valeta's father, "Tut" Clark, was married to my great-aunt, Willie Roberson, for awhile but remained close friends of the family following the divorce. "Ma" Sanders died at age 70 (1961 as I recall).

I'm not sure how this picture of some skinny lanky kid got in here but ...hey. He may be related, eh? Summer of 1969 in Fresno, CA where I was staying and working at the time. First wife, Vicki, took the picture. The car is a '62 Olds 98 which I dearly love to this day. It was in this car that I also came the nearest to instantaneous death I've ever encountered.

I had just picked up my wife and our 3 day old son, Jeff, from the hospital. We were on  our way to Exeter to show off the shiny new manchild to his grandmother over there. Right at the intersection of Hwy 65 and Strathmore, some clown made a U-Turn in front of us and stopped! With oncoming traffic, I had nowhere to go but between the stopped car and the median (which is no longer there, thank God). In the three seconds I had to work with, I threaded the Olds between it and the stopped car but the right rear of the car hit the curb, vaulted up, took out the stop sign and taking part of my bumper with it. The violent right and then left turn of the steering wheel catapulted me over on top of Vicki and Jeff yet I was still in control with my left hand! Can you guess who became one of the world's greatest advocates of seat belts was after that?!

Since we're dealing with skinny kids, here's a shot of Ol' Wingnut, and his Air Scout buddies. My instructor, Ray Woodmansee, is kneeling at the right. He recently passed away. The plane is a 2 place 1947 Luscombe 8E. I received my first ten ours of instruction in that bird. Later, I soloed a new Cessno 150G a year or so later.

I've flown the Luscombe 8A and the 8E models and love them to pieces.

Have you ever wondered what an over-weight, middle-aged, white guy looked like in the 4th grade? Well, here is a shot of one of them. This is about the time I the "flying bug" bit hard. I've never found a cure  (not that I'm looking).

This is David Ray Minnick at about the 8th grade. Not sure what the pensive look was all about. Dave was in his own world most of the time. He died the first week of Dec. 1979 just a couple of weeks short of his 29th birthday.

This is, of course, Steven Craig Minnick, at about the 7th grade. After I moved to Rockford in '69, I lost contact with him until returning in '74. He had married and started a family. Unfortunately, that didn't last. He remarried a few years later and that, too, was short-lived. He died July 3, 2014 at age 60.

More really young folks. This shot is in April of '74 ( a mere 41 years ago). I had just returned to the Vally and was at my mother and Jess's home on N. Newcomb (which she only recently sold). Can you handle all of these YOUNG people? On the left is my first wife, Vicki, and I. Steve and his first wife, Cleta, by whom he fathered his daughter, Brandi, is to the right. Steve is taller than I am and yet, he married a gal shorter than my wife, Vicki, who is 5' 2" tall. Go figure.

Dave, ever thinking that he was a real guitar player, is in the background to the right. In the forefront is my daughter, Jennifer (age 3). Someone fed her and she grew up, got married, and had children of her own (making me OLD). My mother took the picture.

Bear with me while I part and parse more pictures and try to get them posted. I don't want to just flood the place with pictures without a narrative. If you've got questions, hopefully, I have answers or can get them.

There are a number of our kith and kin for whom I no longer have an e-mail address. If y'all can help me rebuild my data base (after a couple of hard drive crashes), I'd be much obliged. Ship them to "swordman49@aol.com". I'll try to use that addy as the main contact point. From there, I'll send my address from my main account in return. In fact, you may have to forward this to those that you are fairly sure don't have my address or vice versa. Thanks!!

January 8, 2014 Upate

1. 

This shot was taken around 1962 when we lived in the house on far west Olive in Porterville. It was located just across (west of) the Tule River bridge and on the south side of the road. It's still there though a different color and it has been built onto. Dad had a "flat top" haircut for the first time ever. Not sure who put him up  to that or why. He only had it about a year or so and he switched back to his usual "do".

I don't have a time line on this picture but I'm confident that it was taken in Duncan, OK. He appears to be about 5 or 6 years old here.

This was at the funeral in late April of '79.  It is of minor note that his estranged wife, Fran, had, for whatever reason, tried to block having the funeral and burial in Porterville. She wanted it be in Fresno though she actually didn't even live there any longer. There is a politic that was there about which I have yet to be informed. There was a bit of a power struggle but the family prevailed in the end. The funeral parlor in Fresno simply shipped him home to the family in Porterville and was done with the matter. Prayer works.

David Ray died in Dec of that same year ('79).  I don't recall the exact date but it was close to the middle of the month. He died on the 10th I believe after being in a coma for a couple of weeks after Thanksgiving Day. He was cremated and buried in the same plot with Dad. He was just shy of his 29th birthday which was December 21. The plot is at the "Hillcrest Cemetery" in Porterville where just about all of our kith and kin are buried.

It looks like Rocky Hill in the background which would place this shot out on the east end of Hooterville. That tells us, then, that this is very likely Page Street and where Tut and Vernie Clark lived for many many years. They ran a fertilizer hauling business for a long time in this area. There used to be many chicken ranches in this area and Tut would haul off and sell the chicken manure. Fuzzy Sanders and my dad both worked for Tut in their younger days. I believe that that's how Fuzzy got started in the trucking business.
Tut was married into the family for a few years when he was married to Willie Sanders, my grandmother's sister. They were both quite young and times were tough in those days. He and Willie divorced but the family just adopted him anyway. I took Dad to see the Tut shortly prior to his passing. Vernie, his wife, passed away a couple of years later as I recall. Nice folks, to be sure. The timeline is probably around 1951 which would make the toddler that Dad is carrying David Ray.

Speaking of David Ray, this is him in  '65. We lived on North Prospect just north of N. Grand here in Porterville. The house is still there. Dave was a natural athlete. In fact, the boy had phenomenal abilities. The coaches from PC came to the high school when he was a freshman and recruited him to come teach the "big boys" how to high jump. He could have been a true star but frittered it away. I was and still am mystified why he wouldn't focus on doing something with that talent. He had more athletic ability in his little toe than I every had in my entire body.

David Ray the guitar player. Yes, he did play the guitar. However, he really never applied himself to it so usually just played a bit of rhythm. His timing was pretty good and he did toss in a few lead licks. This was taken on James Street in Fresno and it was probably the summer of '79. He lived in Fresno at the time in a halfway house. His life was always one of recovery. It was sad.

The "Tres Hermanos" in April of '74. I had just moved back from Rockford, IL after 5 years. Steve on the left and David on the right. This is the house on 1700 N. Newcomb where mom still lives. I was 25, Dave was 23 and Steve was 20.

This is Steve and his first wife, Cleta. This was taken at Dad's post-funeral reception that was held at Bob and Elaine Batten's house in P'ville.

Steve playing Dad's '53 Telecaster in Fort Scott, KS. This is probably '58 making Steve right at 5 years old or just short of that. Although he played the guitar well, Steve ended up being one of the best bass players around. The Tele ended up with a friend of Dad's, Jim Knapton. I suppose dad needed the money at the time and let his "ax" go. Jim, another g-tar picker (though not all that good of one as I recall), moved to Las Vegas and his family probably still has it. It's worth a lot of money if that's the case. Dad had the matching herringbone amp too and held onto it until the early '60s. I don't recall what happened to it. It, too, was worth a ton of money.

"The Band". Alen Jackson, far left, is still a professional musician who even played with Buck Trent in Branson. This area has produced a lot of great talent and Alen is one of the best and brightest. We stay in regular contact and get to visit once in awhile.

 Next to him is Sonny Carter, an excellent guitarist to this day. He and his wife, Beth, live  in Port Angeles, WA. I had the opportunity to visit with them a few years ago. It was good to see him after a long long time.

I forgot the next kid's name but that's Steve-o on the far right. They're all about 14. I was in Illinois at the time but wish that I could have heard these guys.





                                          
Not that there was any doubt, but the entirety
of the Connie Minnick clan was musical. This my
mother, Geraldine, on the drums. This shot was
taken at the "Senior Citizen's Center" at the Santa Fe
Depot in Porterville in the early "oughts". My guess
is about '02. She also plays lead, rhythm, and bass
guitar and sings too! 'Scuze me for bragging but my mother
is the easiest drummer to play behind that I've ever seen.
Her rock solid timing takes the work out of playing music. Some drummers
can work you to death (you pickers know what I'm talkin' about).

 

 

 

Here's a shot of the Ol' Wingnut, himself. This was taken at Eckert Field in Strathmore, CA probably in '97.  The plane is an early '70's Cessna 150 which was just barely powerful enough to haul me off the ground (at about 200 lbs in the picture). I flew this plane quite a bit until the guy sold the airport and the planes and they were no longer available for rent. The airport (surrounded by orange groves) has a runway that is only 2,000' long. One has to be mindful of density altitude on hot days when flying out of such a short field. Otherwise, you are no longer a pilot; you are an orange picker. The nice hairdo is courtesy of the headset I had just taken off. I had just stepped out of the plane from a trip to "Meadow's Field" airport in Bakersfield where I took the written test for my commercial license.

Reunion!

To say that we all had a great time is truly an understatement! We had a blast! After a good while of feasting on the fatted calf as well as chewing the fat (there has got to be a moral to that story), Jimmy Sanders and I fired up a couple of amps and grabbed a couple of "axes". That's when the hoot started!

We knew that being "mic shy" didn't run in our family and that proved to be true today! We kicked off with "I'll Fly Away". And, you could hardly believe how the younger folks took to the bandstand! We had Elijah , 6, give us a great rendition of "You Are My Sunshine". Then, 7 year old Ellery and 10 year old Skye gave us great a Christmas song, "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer".  Robert Yarbrough chimed in as we sang a Johnny Cash tune, "I Walk The Line" (did I sound like Luther Perkins at all?). After that, Leslie Bua, daughter, Stephanie, and her granddaughters, Havvie and Ellery, got onboard the music bus and started singing! It was fun, fun, fun! We even knocked out a Bob Dylan ditty, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". We forgot to tell the girls that Jimmy and I hadn't played that song in ....oh....bunches of years so we were a bit rusty! But, we just gritted our teeth and it all came back to us in short order. That was great but you should have heard Les and Steph tearing up "La Bamba"! They even had Havvie dancin' in the aisles! HAW!

Only too soon it seemed, the ladies cleaned up, folded the table clothes, and we all hugged each others' necks and called it a day. Everyone was tired and full and ready for a nap. It was an excellent time and we're all looking forward to doing it again when the rest of the clan can make it. All of wished that the rest of the kith and kin could have been there as we sure do miss them! It has been a really long time since we've seen some of them! We'll be sure to have three or even four months notice so that things will work out if at all possible.

I haven't done the math but I'm almost sure that the last reunion was in the late 1990's and was held at the Porterville Garden Apartments where I was manager. Billie Jean was still living there at the time.

Here are some quick shots of the place. If anyone wants to e-mail some pics to me, I'll be glad to add them! Many thanks to Rick and Les for at least 40 of the best shots!

 

[                                                                  LOVE YOU ALL!!