...About Gummy Kingsbury who, as team captain, led the University of Maine Black Bears to many football victories.
... About the hardships that led Anna and her kids to move to California when her husband, a successful GE engineer, fell ill.
... How she stayed out West after he died, working, earning her teaching credential at USC, and raising her two children, Helen (my grandmother) and my Uncle Ralph.
... and then her move to Holtville way down in the Imperial Valley and how she become one of the best and most respected teachers and administrators at the high school.
All of which gave me great insight into the pioneering spirit of our family.
This morning, we scoped out some of the homes where the Kingsbury and Skinner families lived in Brewer, just across the river from Bangor. Most are still standing and likely don't look all that different than they did when they lived there. We also spent a couple of hours in the old cemetery, looking for clues to piece together the family puzzle Jerry is building. We found some of the graves, but not all, so maybe we'll go back someday. It was great way to spend a crisp fall New England morning and imagine what life was like for them here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
