I arrived in W-S last night. Went to visit with Dad this morning. He seems very well and alert - happy to see me and Cathy. We had quite a nice chat. Dad started telling stories about his youth in NO with his family. I can't recall what led to this, but I found it very interesting. I never really talked with him about this before and didn't have a real sense of their life. Apparently (like many families in those days, I imagine) there were a number of related family members living with them from time to time (other than just the immediate family). He mentioned how Grandpa's clients often sent turkeys or chickens (live ones). When I asked if Grandma had to pluck them, he said no - her mom was living with them and did most of the cooking. There were also apparently several young Spanish women who stayed with them at one time - he seemed to think they were related to John Rosado. There was also a woman and her son, who he couldn't recall the exact relationship to (some relative of his father's). He talked about helping out a dairy man with boxes, and how he hung out at the drug store (soda fountain) with his friends. He claims he had figured out how to tell which candies had prizes inside (apparently some of the candies contained a coupon for a free dixie cup ice cream) - by the sheen on the chocolate. Dad always was pretty crafty, I guess. He said he never shared this secret, but did hand out prizes to his friends sometimes. Cathy said she couldn't believe all those people lived in the house - which she has seen (I haven't), but Dad mentioned he slept with 3 or 4 others in the same bedroom.

Dad does seem to be inconsistent in some things. He looked at his watch at one point. He couldn't seem to figure out how to tell the time - and was trying to work it out somehow. I noticed the watch was way off - so I reset it and told him the time. I also just reminded him about counting the minutes by five with the numbers. Later, when he looked at the watch again, he didn't hesitate in saying what the time was.

I'm heading back again to visit this afternnoon - we'll play scrabble, I think.