March 15, 2010 The Ides of March

I didn't knowmy aunts and uncles well, just through visits back east from Arizona every 3-4 years or so.  Nne of my Dad's family ever visited.  Well, Uncle Harry, my Dad's uncle, did come by.  He was mining gold in Mexico.  My Dad's sister, Francis and her husband Uncle Foo Foo did live in CA until one of them died.  We were not close as an extended family, although my mother wrote to Aunt Opal regularly.

We went back one time, I've told this story a million times, and when we got there to my Aunt Margaret's house we came in and they were playing cards in the kitchen.  They hardly looked up, didn't quit playing cards, and after a few minutes decided to go down to the pub for a drink.  They all knew that Daddy didn't drink, so they left him anyway.  He was furious!  We went upstairs to unpack and he wanted to go right back home, right then, he was so mad at them.  My mother sweet talked him into staying a couple of days and then going out to stay most of our time with Aunt Opal in the country. 

On one of our trips we were supposed to go to WV and then to Georgia where we would pick up a brand new school bus and drive it to Arizona.  My brother said it wasn't ready so we stayed an extra few weeks in WV, which I don't remember.  We drove the bus only 35-40 MPH all the way to Arizona since it was a new motor and needed to be 'broken in.'  My brothers drove the truck.  Sonny was only 16 and Leonard couldn't legally drive.  We slept in the aisle of the bus and on the bus benches at night.  We were so poor we had baloney sandwiches most days.  Didn't cook anything when we stopped.  Quite an adventure.  I was about 8 years old.

Uncle Dot was in WWII and survived four years without injury until he got on a truck to go to the ship to take him home and fell off the back and broke his leg.  Had to stay another month in Europe.  He was in the Italian Campaign...Solerno Beach was one he went in on.

March 12, 2010 At Steele Indian School Park

Had some yogurt and ready to rest and write.

My Mother's father's name was William Buffalo McDiffett.  He was really a Roberts but his mother couldn't marry his father because he already had a wife!

William McDiffett's wife was Anna Mary Yost (Youst) and my sister was named after her.  My sister didn't like Anna so she always called herself Anne.

My Father's father, William Parker, was born in England and I don't know the whole story about him.  He had a family in England, and then married my grandmother Green here in the U.S. and had 9-10 more children, in addition to the two he had in England.

My grandparents were all dead except William McDiffett when I was born.  He died a month later.

That's about all I know about where they came from.

My brother, Leonard, lives in Winnemucca, NV.  His son, Leonard Lee Roy Parker, Jr., lives next door and his daughter, Rhonda Maria and her husband, Tom Creary, live in Las Vegas, NV.

Leonard was 8-9 when I was born

Ruth Edna Parker Schofield, my oldest sister, was 16 when I was born.  She was married up to 5-6 times finally settling in Utah with a Jack Mormon.  She had five children.  Anna Irene that died at the age of 22 form kidney disease.  Lloyd Dean who lives in Utah with his family, a wife from Germany and at least one son.  Dennis Dean lives in Needles, CA.  His wife is Mary and he has a couple of sons.  Jacqueline (don't know last name) his sister lives in Needles area also with her daughter.  Billy Lauck, the youngest is the one I've lost track of.  They all have children that I don't know.  My mother kept track of all of them, though.

My mother and her sister, Edna, married brothers, my Dad and his brother Spotsy, nicknamed because he had freckles.

My Dad's oldest brother, Will, came out west to live, too, because it was good for his health.  He was gassed in WWI in France.

I can't remember the order but there was Will, Margaret, Francis, Matthew, Johnny, Spotsy, Tom, Isabel, and Chuck, with a girl who died in infancy, Matty I believe

My Mother's family was Albert (Ab), Dorsey (Dot), Margaret, Opal, Virginia, Melvin (died at age 16 when a wall fell on him), Edna and Bobby.

Seems like all my relatives were ugly as sin.  They all had false teeth and never wore all of them.  Couldn't understand them most of the time.

Only Aunt Opal played an important part in my growing up.  She visited us in Arizona and taught me to ride my bike.  She may have also visited us in Parker Dam.  I also loved her place, the Old Homestead of the McDiffett Clan, in WV near Littleton.  It was on a crick named Long Drean (I always thought it mean Long Drain, drained a lot of territory, but who knows?).  Aunt Opal had a huge goiter but so did my mother and my uncle Dot and a couple more.  It was because there was no idodine in their diet.  That is one of the reason almost all salt says "Iodized" now, to prevent goiters.

Almost the only time we saw family was when we went back to visit them in WV.

Currently divorced after 43 years of marriage. Married June 12, 1965 in the Methodist Church in Parker, Arizona. Sealed in the St. George Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints July 13, 1976 to Claudia Louise Wilcox Parker.

We have three children and 13 grandchildren. Jake's wife, Alison, recently had Penny on April 2, 2010. This is their fifth child, each of the others has four.

Leslie Irene Parker Woolf, husband Christina, has Britt, Annika, Kaisa, and Sofia.

Jacob Richardson Parker, wife Alison, has Tate, Lucy, Miles, Calvin, and Penelope.

Hattie Brooke Parker Harris, husband Justin, has Keaton (Parker), Samson, Nellie and Corbin.

I've had 40 jobs in my lifetime so far, recently retiring after 15 years at the Maricopa Medical Center as the Executive Assistant to the Chair of the OB/GYN Dept.

My living relatives are my brother, Leonard Lee Roy Parker, and Gilletta Tharp Parker, my brother William (Sonny) Matthew Parker's wife. I have 14 nieces and nephews, one has passed away, Anna Irene Hardesty. She is buried in Beaver, Utah. The others live in Needles, CA; Utah and places unknown. All my aunts and uncles and their spouses are all dead.

I am white and an inactive Mormon at the present time. A Democrat, I live in Phoenix, Arizona in the Melrose District, the center of the metro-gayborhood. I bought a small condo and because of the economy crash have already lost $60,000 on it.

I am allergic to Codeine.

I have an okay singing voice and have been told that I speak softly. My nickname is Bobby. My Dad used to sometimes call me No. 3 Son.

My first pet was Queen Elizabeth, a calico cat. That was when we lived in Palo Verde, AZ. I also had 27 banty chickens, which I sold for $1 a piece to buy my first bike, a girl's Schwin. At Parker Dam, CA my only pet was my dog, Frisky.

July was a pet we had when we were first married. Pronounced Julie. Her sister was June.

No pets now...they're as much trouble or more than kids.

Beautiful day in the park. Sunny and clear after rain earlier in the week. Cool - 60 degrees F or so w/ a wonderful breeze. Won't last much longer I fear.

My name is Robert Merrell Parker - Robert after my Mother's brother Uncle Bobby McDiffett. Merrell after one of the wins friends of my Dad, Merrell and Merrick. I learned I was a twin when I was 60 years old!

I was born at home in the West Virginia hills on October 24, 1944. My Mother always told me there was a big snow and the doctor couldn't go home for two days. I believe now it was a lie to cover up the fact of my twin brother's death at birth and whatever that entailed.

Bethlehem was the name of the place of my birth. We had built a home in the countryside near Wheeling, WV, where my Dad worked in the Wheeling Steel Mill as a crane operator over the galvanizing vats.

I am now 65 and retired.

My Mother's Name is Margaret Anna McDiffett Parker. (The relatives got together and began to spell it differently after we left West Virginia...McDiffitt.) She was married once before my Dad. Her nickname for the first marriage was Maggie, but no one I knew ever called her that. It was always Margaret, and when back east because my Dad had a sister named Margaret, it was always "Matt's Margaret."

My Dad's name is MatthewLee Parker. He gave himself his own middle name on one of our trips to WV. He went to get his birth certificate and the only record ofhis birth was "a Parker grl" born that date - January 30, 1904. The guy at the desk asked if he wanted a middle name and Dad chose Lee. My brother's name is Leonard Lee Roy Parker, and Daddy always liked the name Lee.

I have tried to learn Spanish in my lifetime, have a good accent and a lot of vocabulary but it's too hard to try to speak it.

I am a Scorpio, born on the cusp I'm told. Don't know much about astrology.

I am right handed.

I have had cataract surgery and new lenses put in but still need trifocals to see and use the computer.

I am about 80 lbs overweight and began doing something about it today. I've lost over 100 lbs., 70 lbs., and 55 lbs several times in my life. As an adult my highest weight was 287 and lowest 149. Six feet tall with brown eyes and gray hair. It was blond, blond almost white when I was little.

I don't know my blood type, but it's probably the most common.