[prohornblower]

Cool thread.

I don't know much about my mothers side, but her grandmother b. 1897 used to tell stories of riding in a car when most everyone else was still in horse-drawn carriages. She only died in 1993, so I remember the stories.

As far as my paternal side, my ancestors left Ireland in 1850, supposedly after killing a man. He was to meet his lady at the ship to depart for America, but when he (don't know his name) showed up to leave County Cork, his lady's older sister was there in her place. The father of the girl wouldn't let the 2nd sister marry before the first, so he basically said "eff it" and left for America hurriedly with her instead.

I suppose they came in through Ellis Island, but they basically came all the way in to St. Louis and settled there.

Other stories my dad has told...the son of the guy who came over..my fathers great-grandfather..he owned a construction company and basically wasn't joining unions. He was hiring people for a lot less than the other construction company owners and apparently they all got together for a meeting to determine who would kill him. There were 13 people there, and they all drew a spade from a deck. Whomever drew the Ace of Spades had to kill my ancestor.

Word got out, and apparently my ancestor went over there, busted in and declared, "I know about the Ace of Spades. I'll take on everybody in this room, one at a time." At which point nobody budged. So he kicked over a fire-laden kettle and burnt the f***ing building down to the ground. They never bothered him after that.

Then that guys son...my fathers grandpa...used to live with my dad when he was really old and my dad was a child (back in the 50's). My dad said he was like in his 80's, skinny as a stick, but he would always walk down to the bars in his dress suit and get sh*tfaced, and get into fights with young guys and come home bloody as hell. lol.

I don't know much about my fathers dad, but he was an engineer who played semi-pro baseball, worked on the Arch, helped design the layout for Six Flags over Mid-America and was a personal friend/acquaintence of Mayor Cervantes. He graduated from Washington University after 2 years. He was born in 1904, and died in '76, 3 years before I was born.

I'm sure some of this stuff is exaggerated or fabricated, but hey...that's what makes it fun!