A picture of you and Grandma Bignell

In all of the pictures Grandma Bignell gave me of the time you lived with her and Grandpa Bignell, there weren't any photos of you and her together! That's probably because she took all the pictures!

I finally remedied that oversight on Friday. Here's a picture of her with you from that day.

Grandma Bignell was born after the Second World War in Eau Claire, Wis. She grew up in rural Fall Creek, Wis., and graduated from that village's high schoool in the mid Sixties. She married your Grandpa Bignell about a year after graduating; they were married in Arkansaw, Wis.

She spent most of her life as a homemaker and running with farm with Grandpa Bignell. She did earn a CNA license later in life, though. She loves to gardan and some of her most pleasant memories are of you helping her in the garden by wearing the plants when you stayed with her.

Our elementary school basketball team

Do you like to play sports? When I was a boy, I did. In fact, I even went out for basketball in elementary school.

Actually, I got our school to start a basketball team! The girls in our school had a team but the boys didn't. So I convinced a bunch of boys to promise they would go out for the team and to speak to the principal with me about starting one! I was in sixth grade.

As most of the boys on the team were only in fifth grade, we had to play in the fifth grade league. Grandpa Bignell helped coach the team. Our nickname was the "Cardinals."

We were lousy! We won only one game all season out of the six or seven games we played. But boy did ever we celebrate when we won! And we still had lots of fun and made some great memories along the way!

Today is Grandpa Bignell's birthday

Today is your Grandpa Bignell's birthday. He is 67 years old. That's treally old, isn't it! When I told him that, he agreed!

Although you may not remember him, you lived for a few months with Grandma and Grandpa Bignell. I have a couple of great photos of you and he laughing together when you were a baby, but they're packed away, so I couldn't post them here.

Grandpa Bignell was born in Durand, Wis., and grew up in the country near Arkansaw, Wis. He worked for a while at a meat packing plant in South St. Paul, Minn., where his father and an older brother also worked. But he spent most his life running and building his farm, outside of Knapp, Wis., which is where I grew up.

Here's a photo of Grandma and Grandpa Bignell in the late 1970s when I was a little boy. That's me on the right and your Uncle Chris behind me.