Blogs

I halted on page 161 of Bill Jehle's book this morning to ponder the implications of my own family members making an appearance in his history of the Cigar Box Guitar.

My mom was Vonna Lou Streeter. Her dad, Tom Streeter had a sister named Elsie Streeter (my mom's Aunt Elsie) who gets a mention as conductor of a home-made instrument orchestra in an excerpt from the Logansport paper on page 161 of One Man's Trash.

Bessie Wininger (who, blessed by one of Bill's typos, becomes a Wiuinger) gets credit for her talent at braying like a mule- a talent my grandfather also possessed. Maybe he learned it from her, or the other way around. Maybe Galveston, Indiana was just a hotbed of mule imitators.

If I remember correctly, Bessie Wininger also married a Streeter, maybe my mom's Uncle Claude? which is how we became related to the Wininger family. I got to be pretty good pals with my Mom's Uncle, Bid Wininger, Galveston's retired telegraph operator, because he lived a hundred years and because Galveston was between South Bend, where I grew up, and Bloomington, where I went to college for a bit.

The name Rodibaugh also strikes me as familiar, if not familial. I think my grandparents were friendly with some Rodibaughs.

Really. What are the odds? This reminds me of a T.C. Boyle novel.