Family

It's clear there are two things central to Jimmy's life - faith and family. Family is that one thing around which his universe revolves. Family was everything, regardless of issue or circumstance. Dad & Mom led by example. (See, I'm doing it again - I can't think of Dad without thinking of Mom.) I never heard them argue, except for an occasional exasperated "Oh Jimmy" let out by Mom. Nobody took 'separate vacations'; if we went, we went together, whether you wanted to go or not. If a family member needed assistance that took precedence over everything else. If family dropped by the door was always open - and some summers in New Jersey it seemed the door never closed. Even friends became family, most particularly the Horns who lived across the street from us in New Jersey. They should have just changed their names to Haren and been done with it.

Dad with two of his three favorite gals - Moira and Sheila

Sometimes being a family means you travel - and Mom & Dad often took
time to visit us wherever the Army stationed us (in this case, North Carolina).
Here Aileen is enjoying a little of Jimmy's silliness

Dad with 'the clan' at Kelly Haren's law school graduation

Who's got worse hair - Elizabeth or Jimmy?

Goofing around at Hannah & Connor's wedding

Dad with our cousin Debbie Bonner and Sheila

At a Haren family reunion - a great time!

Nothing says 'family' like meat, especially if your grandson owns the shop!

Dad & Sheila at yet ANOTHER reunion

Dad with his 'baby' sister Ethnea

Jimmy with Pat and his boys - a great legacy!

Sometimes being a grandfather means just playing along!

Some handsome men

Just horsin' around

Three Houses

Dad just recently talked with Moira about the street he lived on in South Buffalo. Both of our parents loved to regale us with tales of the old neighborhood - they grew up close together but moved in different circles until they met in their early teens.

Mom & Dad loved to sit at the dinner table and just talk and talk and talk of the old neighborhood, old friends, places and experiences. If you added one of Mom's sisters and/or our grandmother (Dad's mother) to the mix the talk would go on for hours, with lots of laughs, some sadness and plenty of "gee, I never knew that!"

During the summer we'd see a steady stream of visiting relatives passing through our South Jersey home, and this table talk provided some of the background noise of our lives as we grew up. Endless cups of coffee, frequent 'adult beverages', too many cigarettes, and talk, talk, talk. I miss it (all except the cigarettes)!

Here's Dad:

"Three houses in a row on Edson St. (in South Buffalo): Harens, Werners, Millers.

In the Haren house there was always tea brewing. In the Werners house there was always wine (they came from Alsace-Lorraine region (of Germany) and in the fall someone would bring in bushels of grapes and their relatives would come to start processing). The Millers always had coffee brewing on their old wood burning stove. The Harens, had an electric stove upstairs and a gas in basement which she (Dad's mom - our Grandmother Mary Imelda) used for canning.

Werners had a phone, Millers and Harens didn't have one. I'm not sure when Harens got one. (Side note - I remember Dad talking about how in the neighborhood the houses were so close together all you had to do was stand on your porch and yell for whoever you wanted to talk to. They'd come out on their porch and yell back. So nobody needed a phone for 'local communications' 😀)

In winter the Millers put their car on blocks and drained it where it sat all winter. The Werners kept theirs in their garage. The Harens finally got their car after WWII.

Streetcars had a 3 cent mark just as you entered. If you were below mark you road for free. For 3 cents you could ride all day and have free transfers if you knew where to get transfers. You could carry on as many packages as you could get in before he closed the doors."

Thanks Dad, and keep the stories coming!

Snappy Dresser

I always remember Dad being well turned out. Even when he was being casual, he dressed well. Now, he's not a clothes horse, but he had real good casual and business dress sense. And he knew how to tie a tie - something I have yet to master.

It's clear his snappy sense of fashion came early in life. After all, who wouldn't want to go strutting round the streets of South Buffalo looking like this?

From Debbie

Dad, Cousin Debbie (his niece) and Sheila

Happy 90th birthday Uncle Jimmy! I have so many wonderful memories of our times together in Marilla and family visits to NJ. You and Aunt Donnie were so kind to my brother Jim, offering him support while he was a student at Valley Forge Military Academy. My parents always looked forward to getting together with you both and after my dad passed, Mom enjoyed her visits with you and Aunt Donnie either in Buffalo or Maumee. Mom always shared the funny stories of your adventures which were always fueled by your humor and wit.  

Fast forward many years and Mark and I so enjoyed the family reunion in Troy a few years ago. So great to reconnect with you and the beautiful family you and Aunt Donnie created.

Mark and I send our very best wishes to you on this big day!

Lots of love,

Deb and Mark 

Gettin' Hitched

Mom & Dad were married on October 31st, 1953. That was also Mom's birthday. It took me a few years to figure out that October 31st is also Halloween. Thanks you guys for picking some easy-to-remember dates!

They were married in Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, NY. Again, more of this family connection thing. During the construction of the basilica about 30 years before their marriage my grandfather, Jimmy's dad, helped lay out the steel ribs of the basilica dome. It was one of the first jobs he got in America after emigrating from Scotland as a journeyman pattern maker. I'm sure he sat in the pew during the ceremony, looked up at the dome and after thanking God said to himself, "You've come a long way, laddie".

Hey you two, no foolin' around now!

Historian

Jimmy is one of the smartest people I've ever known. Yes, he was well educated (he holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Canisius College in Buffalo), but he's also just smart in ways you can't get out of a book. He had lots of practical smarts- lots of common sense. When his growing family needed a larger place to live he went out and built himself a house, out in Marilla, NY. Yes, he had help, but the fact that one day a city boy with no real carpentry experience just up and decided to go build a house (and it still stands - you can see it in Google Earth) is an amazing testament to his practical smarts and personal drive. It also says something about his personal commitment - how many say "My family needs a larger house so I'm going to go build one - with my own two hands"? But like so many things in his and Mom's life, there was a close family connection. The parcel he built on was bought from Mom's sister and brother-in-law, Dottie & Andy Harbison, who were our neighbors on one side. Our neighbors on the other side were Mom's parents, Mary and William Winterberg.

Dad seemed to know everything, and it amazed me. One day while we were driving to the Jersey shore we passed a long, low building I'd seen maybe a dozen times before on similar trips. The building always caught my eye. So on that particular trip I leaned over the front seat (these were the days before seat belts and child seats - we just bounced around in the back like a bunch of rubber balls) and asked, "Dad, what's that building over there used for". He gave a quick glance to the left and commented casually, "Oh, that's a chicken farm". Wow! I was amazed. I had the smartest dad in the world. He even knows what a chicken farm looks like!

What this all really means is that Jimmy has a natural drive and curiosity that is never satisfied. Everything interests him, from politics to physics. But one of Jimmy's true passions is history, and it's a passion he handed down to me. We are both absolutely fascinated with history and have spent many wonderful hours talking about this or that historical fact, deed or event. I think what helped is that we were often living in places that were just dripping with history. New Jersey and Philadelphia are the cradle of America, and you couldn't turn a corner or step through a door without being confronted with a historical plaque or marker. Even as odd a place as Maumee, Ohio played a significant role in the development of the post-Revolutionary War west. We were blessed to live in places that had a story to tell, and we both drank it in.

Dad reading some historical document, somewhere...

Visiting Ben Franklin's grave in Philly

Some Random Jimmy

Cooking in Sheila's condo in Philly

"Tickle, tickle, tickle!" Elizabeth and Grandpa having fun

I'm guessing there's rye in that drink

"Well Hi!"

With one of his best buddies - Rosie

Doing one of the things he loves best - reading

Cap'n Jim

Dad loves the water. It seems we couldn't pass a boat yard, marina or boat sales office without getting out to see just what was going on. While the family lived in New Jersey we were bracketed by water - the Delaware River to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. While Dad never owned a boat while we lived in New Jersey, he took every opportunity that came along to get out on the water. Or fish in it. Or swim in it.

When we moved to Ohio and, I'm sure, some of the financial burden of raising four kids started to lift, he was finally able to indulge his dream. And indulge it he did - by buying a sailboat and joining a local yacht club (the Jolly Roger Sailing Club in Point Place, Ohio), and eventually becoming Commodore!

Dad, receiving his Old Man of the River award from the Ohio DNR

Out on the water with Dad & Elizabeth and Aileen. I'm guessing Roberta was
the photographer. There's enough floatation strapped to the kids that if
they went overboard they'd become a hazard to navigation!

Dad - out after whatever happened to be swimming in
Lake Erie at the time

In The Beginning There Were... Knickers!

Why did parents put their kids in knickers - or shorts - in the winter? This is Buffalo - it starts snowing there in late August (or thereabouts). The headwear is pretty jaunty though!

Here's Jimmy with his Mother, the lovable and formidable Mary Imleda (who ended up being everybody's Grandma) and his older sister Maureen. Sometime in the early 30's, somewhere in Cazenovia Park in South Buffalo.