Two For Tuesday II

Look What I Found!

This picture is of my Uncle Walt and Aunt Donna's family at my Aunt Ileen's wedding 28 June 1963, and it represents the way I remember them best. The cousins shown are the ones I always felt closest to while I was growing up, Mike, Mark, Leslie, and Lori (listed in chronological order.) Lori and I are only a week apart in age. Leslie was are leader, Mike and Mark our constant tormentors.
Today I have been thinking about my Uncle Walt and so I want to share memories of him.

Walter Cecil Hamilton was born 21 April 1928 in Oregon. At 17 he enlisted in the Navy which must have made him seem so glamorous to my Aunt Donna at the end of WWII.

I remember him as being big, loud, and a little scary. With my conservative and sheltered upbringing, he was the only person I knew in real life that had a tattoo. I think it was a sailor. He represented to me everything that seemed adventurous, brazen, and exotic. The thing that always stuck with me is I knew how much he loved his children and so I idolized him. 

Someday I hope to get to know him better. He moved on when Lori was a teenager and I never saw him again after I was 18. I will never forget hugging him at Lori's wedding and thinking how much he still reminded me of a pirate.