On August 11th we drove to Evansville, Indiana on our first leg of a trip to see various and sundry Karl/McCullough relatives and to attend the Kenefick reunion in West Virginia. Other than the crowded interstate between KC and St. Louis, the driving was easy and the scenery lovely especially once we hit Indiana. The next day was an easy drive to Union, KY where cousin Nancy P. lives, a lovely suburb of rolling hills. When I travel east I always notice the absence of fences in the back yards between houses. I thought it was just the older housing areas, but this time saw new housing subdivisions that did not have fences either. It is probably not very practical for dogs, but it gives the neighborhoods a much friendlier feeling without all of those fences. Spent the night with Nancy and heard lots of family stories.
From there we dropped by to see Sally and Vince in Columbus, OH. I had met them 2 years ago when Pat was making the first trip to scan pictures and gather information; they are the genuinely sweetest couple I have ever been around. We then headed to Steubenville, OH where Kitty Lou and a bunch of others grew up. We went out for supper with cousin Bob - 80 years old - who has many fascinating stories to tell. His father - the oldest McCullough son - was named John but called Jocko. Jocko was not the most honorable fellow and sent his 3 boys off to the orphanage where the boys lived for 8 years after he and his wife split up . Parents and sons were reunited for a few years, split up again and Bob was sent to live with an uncle at 14 years old. The uncle promptly got him a job in a coal mine. After being in WWII, Bob knew he did not want to go back to the coal mine so he went back to school and ended up as a manager for a company. Bob said he had met Dean Martin when they were both growing up - he remembers Dean as arrogant - "you know, like all Italians". There were more stories...
After eating, Pat and I went to cousin Mike's house. They live in a big old house which was built by the Mafia years ago. There is a safe in the basement encased in concrete that no one has ever opened - we theorized what might be in there! The next day we went to breakfast with Bob and his wife, Rita, a former nun and from there to the 23rd annual Kenefick reunion in Follansbee. There were about 50 people there and one 82 year old that remembers Kitty Lou - in fact Aunt Wolly bought Kitty Lou's stove when Kitty Lou moved away. After the reunion we headed to Youngstown and Pat showed me some of the places the Karls had lived. The next day I flew home from Cleveland and Pat is still on the trek visiting more relatives and doing who knows what...