My mother (Alice) had one sibling. Jerry was about 10 years younger than Alice and he was born with big feet. That should have been a clue because he grew to 6 foot 5 inches in height. My little brother, Jerry Lee was born years later and to eliminate the confusion of having two "Jerrys" in the family, we ended up with Big Jerry (Alice's brother) and Little Jerry (my younger brother). Don't ever name your kids after someone in the family because it is forever confusing.
Big Jerry moved from Plymouth to Cable, Wisconsin in the mid 1940's with his parents (my grandparents Jiggs and Helen). He had no choice. They lived in a lodge that had cabins which were rented out during the summer and during "deer hunting season". There was no running water, no electricity and no indoor bathrooms. Rugged stuff.
Big Jerry was hearty. He could fish, hunt and swim. He made extra money guiding Chicago executives to where all the big musky fish were. As big and tough as he seemed to be, his interest was to play in the high school band. It drove my dad nuts. My dad, being an athlete, always envied size and strength. Football was a must. Not big Jerry! I don't remember his instrument in the band but it was probably a piccalo (actually I think it was a tuba).
I was always considered part of the Andrews side of the family while brother Jack was considered Stiller. Jack got the favored treatment. Big Jerry had no patience for tears. He had no patience for complaining. He had no patience for "hurt". You could have your arm broke in three places and his comment would have been "toughen up".
I only saw Big Jerry when we went to visit Wildwood Lodge near Cable once or twice a year. Many times he was busy with buddies so we'd only see him occasionally. Very vivid in my mind was after he enlisted in the Navy, his buddy Artie picked him up in Milwaukee on furlow and on the way home to Cable, they stopped in Plymouth to pick up Jack and myself so we could go north with them. Big Jerry's buddy had an old clunker Nash that belched oil constantly. We stopped every 50 miles and put in two quarts of oil. The trip was 300 miles so we went through 12 quarts of oil. Jerry thought that was funny.
Jerry lived with our family at the City Club for about 6 months between stints in the Navy. He worked in the local foundry. He went to the Sheboygan Extenstion (college) but flunked out. After 6 months he rejoined the Navy and made a career out of it.
Our family visited Big Jerry in 1976 in California. We stayed with him for a couple of days. Grasshopper No. 4 (he was 4 years old) was treated the same way Jack and I had been treated. Paul was knocked over constantly by the "aggressive" big black lab dog and Big Jerry thought it was funny. Paul endured but there were plenty of tears. Predictably Jerry's attitude was toughen up.
I saw Big Jerry several years ago when he visited family in the Wisconsin area. I think Jerry is now in his early 70's. He is still big but things changed. He was taking large does of insulin for diabetes and he had an oxygen nose "hook-up" to help him breathe. He had trouble walking any distance.
Big Jerry is a good guy that popped into my life from time to time. He is family. He is tough to get close to because he always has had a "prickly, gruff" personality. He still lives in California with his bride of about 10 years. He will show up again. It will be un-announced. He will be fun to visit with and he will be gone again. That is Big Jerry!
Love,
Dad