Four Sisters - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Four Sisters

 Hoying Sisters:  Anna Marie, Louise, Regina, Dettie

My mom had three wonderful sisters shown in the photo collage above posted by a cousin recently on Facebook. The lower right baby photo was taken in 1920, the larger left photo in the late ’30’s during the Great Depression and the upper right photo toasting the end of WWII in 1945. Note the contrasting clothing styles in the Great Depression versus after the war! The sisters' parents, my grandparents, were Henry and Anna Hoying, pictured below with me on my first communion in 1954.

My grandparents owned this farm in St. Patricks on Hoying Road, of course!

Mom always reminisced about the challenging farm work her and her sisters had to perform while growing up, because their 7 brothers pictured below were all younger than her. And because the five oldest brothers all served in WWII, and since my mom was the only unmarried daughter at the time, she also performed lots of farm work during the war as well.

Hoying Brothers: Jerry, Ed, Hank, Pat, Gene, Lindy, Tony

The four sisters as well as the seven brothers are unfortunately no longer with us, with Uncle Gene just passing away last fall at age 92. All lived into their 80’s and 90’s, so longevity is hopefully in my genes as well.

Mom and her sisters all married and lived within 10 miles of each other, so the families routinely got together, creating many special memories for me, my siblings and cousins. A favorite photo is shown above of the sister's husbands solving the world's problems! Boy, could that foursome play a raucous game of euchre!

Starting with the oldest, Aunt Regina married Clem Aselage from McCartyville. The photo above was taken on their wedding day in 1939. Mom is the Maid of Honor on the far left. Clem and Regina had all boys, half older than me and half younger. They were a wild bunch for sure, as is very evident in the photo on the right above. The boys all enjoyed sports which they imparted to me as well. Given the age difference between them, our games were something to behold; with baseball in the summer, football in the fall and basketball in the barn during the winter. The competition was fierce, and it extended into high school playing Anna against the brothers closest to my age. The boys all had this contagious laugh, mimicking their father, as there was never a dull moment in that family. The nickname for the brother closest to my age was Speed, a fitting antonym nickname for sure! They also had a go kart with no motor we would push each other around a makeshift track the boys had built behind their shed.

My Aunt Regina was a saint, raising all those boys. Fun times for sure, at least for me when visiting, but maybe not my sisters, since there were no girls in the family, although from the looks of the above picture with both of our families, the Aselage boys were captivated by having girls around!

Aunt Anna Marie is next, marrying Greg Eilerman from Minster. They had 6 kids, including three girls, whom my sisters adored. We could ride our bikes to Minster so we and our Eilerman cousins had many fun times together.

Their place backed up to the Miami-Erie Canal as pictured above, which offered endless opportunities for adventure. My great uncle Louis Hoying also had a hardware store nearby where we would spend time checking out his wares, especially his repair room in the back loaded with all kinds of tools and spare parts. With current inflation hitting the price of eggs, check out the above informative ad for chicken feed published by my great uncle Louie's hardware store.

Last and surely not least was Mom’s youngest sister, Dettie, short for Bernadette. She married Paul Gaier in 1943 and they had 6 kids, 3 girls and 3 boys, all about the same ages as us, so it was especially fun to visit the Gaier’s, who resided in Osgood. We would occasionally ride our bikes to their place as well, and explore Osgood from one end to the other as documented in this past blog.

Gaier Family Circa 1966

Each summer the family reunion occurred which allowed all of us cousins to get together for the day at one place. Games were organized and competitions with prizes ensued. I never could master the three legged sack race, but excelled at any game with a ball, thanks to the many sporting events we enjoyed while visiting our cousins.

More photos of the four sisters - Imagine if these photos could speak about the memories they shared growing up through the Great Depression and World War II. The greatest generation for sure!

 Mom, second from the left, had some wallpaper in the kitchen like her dress!

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