So, cousin Dale shoots me off some phone numbers to relatives in Iowa, and lo-and-behold, it's my dad's 1st cousins!

How cool is that?

I'm just yackin' away on the phone with Maxine and she knows just who I am. It seems that my dad spent some summers with them "on the farm" when he was younger. Maxine's father was my grandfather's half-brother, and the oldest of the three boys. My grandfather was the youngest, and my father was the younger of he and his brother.

Maxine is almost 83 and still farming. She and her brother Neuman (Newman?), and I think a nephew still own the Iowa homestead settled in 1855. Another brother of Maxine was Guy of the potato chip and snack company, "Guy's"

Cheers to Dale!