EY #9: Tell about your Dad

Dad's Birth Certificate

Today, Memorial Day 2013, it's only fitting that I remember my dad.  Ninety-one years ago today, May 27, 1922, Raymond Carl Friedrich Zielke was born in Downers Grove, Illinois.  Well, as you can see above, Raymond Zielke was born.  He was later christened with the full name and went by Raymond Carl through his life.

He was the only son born to his mother, Martha Staffeldt.  He had two half brothers, George & Henry and one half sister, Bertha. They were also cousins!

My grandfather first married her sister, Louisa Staffeldt.  She died in childbirth and my grandmother began taking care of the children.  Reinhold then married Martha and they had five more children: Helen, my dad, Grace, Marge & Dorothy.  Grandma adopted the oldest three when they were all adults so that when she passed away, property could be divided up properly without penalty on taxes.

Marge, Dorothy, Henry, Bertha, Ray & George
Helen, Grandma & Grace

I love looking at pictures of my dad when he was young.  He never looks particularly happy in the pictures until he got a little older.  Turns out, I learned from Aunt Grace a few years ago, that he hated having his picture taken and would actually try to hide.  Guess that's why he looked so grumpy!

I think he's here with 

sister Bertha

Or, why he didn't look at the camera...

But, as he got older, if you put an animal in the picture with him, apparently it made it more tolerable for him...

With his Spitz

He was raised on a farm and remained a "farm boy" at heart throughout his life.  

With his pony
(As I recall, his father sold the
pony one day while he was at school.)

He became a carpenter and a General Contractor.  He was very good at his trade, but I don't think it ever gave him quite the satisfaction working a farm did.  Even while doing his carpentry, he still helped maintain the farmland my grandmother owned until she passed away, when it was sold off for distribution among all the siblings.

Farming was such a part of his life that nearly every weekend I can remember

until I was eight-years-old, we spent Sunday afternoons going for drives and looking at farms to buy!  Why did it stop then, you ask?  Because he bought one!  When I was eight, we moved from Illinois to our farm in Watertown, Wisconsin.  And then... whenever we went to a fair, we had to look at all the animals and farm equipment before we could go on the rides.  It was times like that I really wished I had a sibling my own age to go on the rides with me, but with two much older brothers, I couldn't ride the rides 'til Dad was ready to take me!

School was not for my dad.  I also learned from an aunt many years after he died, that he never graduated from high school.  Could have fooled me!  I always thought this was his senior picture:

He never hid the fact that he didn't like school and I recall a story about him rolling down the stairs in a fight with a teacher.... I'm not sure why he didn't like school.  I know he could do math and I know he could read, but then again, school isn't for everyone.

I recently found this picture of my folks.  I don't recall ever seeing it before, but I love the way my mom is looking at my dad.  (I know she loved the wave in his hair.)

My dad was a good dad.  He worked long and hard and didn't spend an extraordinary amount of time with us, but he loved us and taught us to work hard and to have values and integrity.  He had a great sense of humor and laughed freely and easily.  One of the things I enjoyed most when he got together with any of his brothers or sisters was the laughter all around.

Dad with Billy & Allen
(Probably early 1948)

I know that I was the spoiled one though.  I was the baby girl and the one that was never supposed to be.  I was my dad's "Baby Snooks" (after a cartoon character) and later his "Peanut."

Dad with Boots & me
(Boots was exactly 1 year and 2 days older than me)

My special time with my dad was on my mom's bowling night.  Every Monday night she'd go bowling with her league and I'd spend the evening sitting on my dad's lap watching Ben Casey!

Sitting on my dad's lap.

Dad was tickled with his grandchildren and enjoyed playing with them and teasing them.  Such a tragedy that he only lived to know four of the eleven.

Grandpa & Gail Lynn 1969

Dad smoked his whole life, but oddly enough, it wasn't lung cancer that claimed his life, but rather bone cancer.  He enjoyed hunting (although he never got anything; I think he just enjoyed the time with "the guys.").  He enjoyed fishing after we bought the cabins in Wisconsin.  (I don't recall him ever fishing before that.)  He also enjoyed snowmobiling in the later years and he bought me my own snowmobile suit and helmet.

He was the tallest man in his family at 6'1". Dad had the most amazing blue eyes.  More of a turquoise than true blue.  And they sparkled when he teased or smiled at you. He didn't have the best teeth, suffering from pyorrhea, and he got false teeth in the late 60's.  (He didn't enjoy eating berries much after that...)  But his smile lit up his face and the smile went all the way to his eyes.  I know this isn't the best picture; the color is faded; but this is the look I remember the most.  When my dad would look at me and smile and tell me that he loved me.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

I love you.