This is a picture that Uncle Don lent me to put on my blog site. It is an old picture of him from 1975 that was in the local newspaper in his hometown in Missouri. Like Grandpa, Uncle Don wants to be remembered for how he looked when he was young. This picture was in the paper because Uncle Don had just graduated from college at "the top of his class". I asked him if that meant he got better grades than anyone and he said "yes". Uncle Don said that this picture helped him meet his first wife, my Aunt Brenda, Cousin Bruce's mom. She recognized him from the paper when he was walking through town and they started to date each other and then got married one year later. Uncle Don is well known for his walks around town as he likes "to get his news through first-hand experience". I asked him what he meant exactly and he said that he doesn't trust the local news, but instead would rather talk to people in the town to find out what is happening. People in town have nicknamed him "the mayor" because he likes to chat with people even though some people say that he is not always in a "pleasant" mood. I asked him if the real mayor does that and he said "only around election time".
Uncle Don is Grandpas oldest son and is older than his sister, my Aunt Shelley. My Dad is the youngest of the 3 children from my Grandpa and Grandma and he has wondered why he was named Jem Bigsky II and not my uncle Don. I asked Grandpa this and he said it was because Grandma didn't want to name any of the kids that name saying "it should stay in the movies", but Grandpa said that he finally convinced her right after Dad was born because they couldn't agree on anything else and "Grandma was too tired to argue".
My Dad says that people in town respect my uncle because he is the only Buckheister to return to Missouri and he is very helpful to people there. "A man should never forget where he came from" was something I overheard a man say one day at the carnival. I am not sure if he was talking about my family or not, but it was something that made me think about my uncle. My Grandpa and Uncle Don haven't always gotten along so good, but now they get along better. My Aunt Shelley rarely talks to my Grandpa or any of us really and both she and Uncle Don use the name Buckheister and both rarely come to California. Aunt Shelley lives in Washington state and as Dad says "she might as well live in Russia".