Golden Oldies.....

I wrote about my Grandfather Burgus on the last blog and we went to the reunion that had familes who represented 13 children, who he was one. I wrote about my Grandfather selling a farm, and then buying two others. He lost one of those farms due to depression, but lived on the other farm for a while. When he sold the farm to his son, my Uncle Donald, they bought this house in Murray. I have dozens of photos of different family members on this porch or in the yard next to the bay window. The house was sold back in the 60's and it has stayed in good shape to this day. I truly believe the bay window and the porch has kept this house from running down as it has enough good features that one would want to take care of it. The houses on both sides of it have been torn down. I remember there is a screened porch on the back side of it too. I will later write about that Greek pediment porch and all of the influences from across the seas on our architecture.
I haven't been in this house since I was 8 or 9 years old. I was playing with a "cootie toy" in the living room and an older cousin and his wife talked to me about it and Jackie the wife wanted to help me put it together. The older cousin, Roger Burgus, grew up to be a researcher that, with a team at the Salk institute, created medicine to help stop the effects of dwarfism. He worked with Jonas Salk, the guy who created polio vaccine. Roger later worked on cancer research but suddenly died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
We had a great time at the reunion. I want to share about it on another day. I never felt getting old so much as I do when I attend these and see distant cousins who are also approaching their 60's with grandchildren. The last ten years have been aging years for me in appearance, but seeing others getting old makes it more real. Thanks for reading.....