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A Tip of the Hat

Thought I’d share a fantastic piece of mail I received from my great-grandaunt LaVerne with you. For those friends of mine that I haven’t yet told about LaVerne, let me provide a little background.

Last year, I started researching my paternal family tree. A few generations ago, there was an apparent split between certain factions in the family, and my side has somewhat lost contact with their side over the years. Naturally, I figured I might be able to get a little info about them from my grandmother. She seemed to recall that one of our elder relatives, LaVerne, lived somewhere here in Milwaukee, so I did a quick search on google and found her address. (Sidenote–proving that it is indeed a small world after all, it turns out she’s lived at The Chuck’s old gig, the Plaza Hotel, for years. In fact, when I asked him about her, he actually remembered her!)

Anyways, after finally establishing contact with LaVerne, we’ve had the opportunity to meet for breakfast a couple times and get to know each other. One of my favorite moments from last year involved a trip to the Lake Mills/Waterloo area with LaVerne to meet some long lost family members. While there, she showed me some of the old Hermann family farm properties, as well as a tiny old German cemetery where some of my ancestors are buried. Good stuff, all around.

A couple weekends ago, my father came into town for a visit. While here, I took him out to have breakfast with LaVerne at the Plaza Hotel cafe. After she met us in the lobby, she introduced me to the desk receptionist before we made our way into the restaurant. Once we were shown to our table, I removed my cap and had a seat. After the waitress left us to ourselves, LaVerne leaned towards me and quietly scolded me for not taking my hat off when she had introduced me to the receptionist. Don’t get me wrong–it wasn’t meant to be malicious at all. It was a completely sweet, endearing, almost motherly gesture on her part, and I politely apologized to her for my Emily Post faux pas.

So about that piece of mail…

LaVerne has been quite active in religious and public safety events ever since her brother, my great-grandfather Henry, was killed by a drunk driver way back in 1957. Since we met, she’s taken it upon herself to mail me invitations to said events as often as possible. (By the way, my favorite one so far was a Catholic singles function called “Eat, Drink, and Be Catholic”. Hilarious.) The most recent invitation was for a religious St. Patrick’s Day event, and the brochure she mailed to me had a hand-written note attached to it that I thought was absolutely priceless. It read:

“Hi, Les. Leave your cap/hat in the car so you won’t need to remove it!!! See you on 3/17. It’ll be fun!! LaVerne.”

Ladies and gentlemen, our elders rock. They absolutely freakin’ rock. Cherish ‘em while you got ‘em.