Charles & Rose

Carl Traugott Mirtsching begat Richard Max Mirtsching, who married Rose Fuchs and begat Charles Henry Mirtsching and Rose Mirtsching.

Charles & Rose, c. 1908

Richard, Charles, Carl, Rose, and Rose, c. 1908

Carl, Rose & Richard; children Charles & Rose, c. 1908

Then Charles married Anna Germaty and begat Leonard, and Rose married Gustav Weidemann and begat Rosemary and Richard.

Charles, Anna, Rosemary, Rose & Gus; boys Leonard & Richard, 1938

Leonard & Padi Get Married

Leonard and Padi were married on September 16, 1955, in Washington, Missouri. They are the cutest!

Leonard, Padi and the Garter

Marian and Frances Drennen, Padi's sister and mother

Anna and Carol Mirtsching, Leonard's mother and sister

Charles and Anna Mirtsching, Leonard's parents, and

Frances and Tom Drennen, Padi's parents

Carol, Leonard, Padi, Marian, and Padi's brother Tommy

Rich Wiedemann, Leonard's cousin and life-long best friend,

 Leonard, Padi, and Joan McSalley, a close family friend

Leonard and Padi and rice

Leonard and Padi and champagne

Leonard and Padi and the getaway ride

Aww!

(Or, if they're your parents, Eww!)

Anna Rides in Paw Paw's Sweater

This sweater was a very dark green and the collar, cuffs and wrists are bright orange. The whole sweater weighed about 25 lbs. It was given to me by my grandfather, Charles Mirtsching. He received that sweater from a girl friend who made it for him to wear under his leather jacket that he wore while riding motorcycles in St. Louis, Mo in the 20s. The story goes that Charles Lindburgh also rode with him and his friends because the clubs were all based out of Lambert Field in St. Louis. Paw Paw gave me that sweater because I was now riding motorcyles - the first of which was a 1950 800cc BMW followed by a 1970 500cc Triumph Trophy. I believe that in this photo I'm on my friend Lindy Fralin's BSA. I am about 20 yrs old - ca. 1980, Arlington, Virginia. Living in Key West, Florida 28 years later, I now ride a little bright green scooter. Ahhh - the years go by. Anna

Maw Maw & Leonard Pose with the Radio

Looks like the Mirtschings got them a new radio! And not a moment too soon, since Martians would invade Earth just a week later.

October 23, 1938

"Ach, Collie, not now. I'm reading the paper."

"It'll only take a second. Just get down in front of it. There, now pretend like you're changing the station. Now look at me and smile. Smile, Anna!"

"Just take the picture, Collie."

Leonard Plays the Trumpet

October 1958

Here we are, Maw Maw, me, and Leonard sitting on the floor -- something Mirtschings don't normally do. Leonard's all, Let's see if I can toot this horn like I did in high school, and gramma's all, Is that baby warm enough?, and I'm all, What?

Dig the barkcloth curtains! A little bit of Hawaii in St. Louis, Missouri.

Anna Mirtsching and Leonard

This picture is unusual among the photographs that Leonard's father took, in that there's no date or location written on the back. He always dated photos with a rubber stamp -- a blessing to us, hundreds of years later.

circa 1938

Though most assuredly not the artistic type, my grandfather Charles (Paw Paw to us grandkids, Collie to friends and family) was a talented amateur photographer. What he might have lacked in talent, anyway, he made up in volume. My brother and sister and I have zillions of photographs he took from the twenties onward -- and a right large number he inherited, from earlier than that.

My grandmother Anna (aka Maw Maw) looks pretty severe in almost every photograph of her that I've ever seen. In fact she didn't like to be photographed, but my grandfather made her pose all the time anyway.

Note Anna's chic shoes and her marcelled hairdo. Also the boxer printed on the front of Leonard's shirt. (Click image to enlarge it.) He looks goofy, but he was only six or so, and probably didn't know or care.