THE FIRST FAMILY

No, this isn't about the family of the president, it is about the first family I knew, the ones that lived and visted Gram's house. Gram had many children, my mom was the oldest. I had five uncles and two aunts, not counting dad's side of the family. I also had a couple of great-uncles and best of all my Gram's dad, that everyone called Gramps. ( see other story on him on my blog) .
During World War Two, families that had a member serving in the war were allowed to hang a star in the window, my Gram's house had four stars hanging outside, one each for Lloyd who was in the navy, Jim also navy who was in U.D. T. --Underwater Demolition Team, which was the forerunner to the navy S.E. A. L.s, Max was in the army air corps, later the air force, and Henry was in the infantry and saw action at among other places, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Iwo Jima.
There will be many stories about my extended family in my blog but for now it strikes me I have left two very important family members out of my blog so far; my sister Sylvia who was seven years older than me and my brother Max who is sixteen years younger than I am. I also have a half-sister Vi, and a half-brother Matt.

MY LIFE

As I start this story it is about 2:20 a.m. 22 Feb, 2010.
I was born on June 28th, 1943, my friend Ellen, ( more about her later ) gave me a Life magazine that was published on that day.
I was named Stephen, after Stephen Payne an author and a friend of my dad's, and Charles after my paternal grandfather.
I was born in Fort Lupton, Colorado which is between Greeley and Denver. My dad was Clyde Matthew Brundy and my mom was Francis Louise Brundy. Her maiden name was Stanberry.
I never met ( at least to my knowledge ) either one of my paternal grandparents. My maternal grandfather named Elmer Stanberry was killed shortly after my birth when he accidentally walked into a propeller of a bomber that hadn't stopped turning. He had been to the optomitrist that day and his eyes were diallated. He was in charge of the security for the then top secret Nordic bomb sight.
A lot of my life was spent in Greeley Colorado-- but we also lived in Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Basalt, and Denver Colorado, Flagstaff, Phoenix, and Tucson, Arizona, Ft. Fred Steele Wyoming, Las Vegas, Nevada, Ft Ord, Calif, Salt Lake City, Utah, Dallas Texas, not to mention; North Saint Paul, Maplewood, St. Paul, Maple Grove, Hinckley, Sandstone, and North Branch, Minnesota.
As you can see we moved a lot, but to me home was always Greeley, and more specifically 1116 13th St. That was my Gram's house but we lived there off and on for many years as did most of my uncles and aunts. After Gram married Herb Betz they sold the house and moved to 2017 5th ave.
To this day I can diagram in my mind my Gram's house, partially because I grew up in it but to a larger extent because it was a house filled with love.