Lisa Kay, Baby Sister

I am a bit worried writing this one because I know that Lisa is reading this blog. Lisa is my baby sister. I am the oldest of 4 and she is 14 years younger than me. My brother, Larry, is the third child and he is 9 years older than Lisa. So you see, Lisa is the baby sister to us. Lisa, you had to know that I was going to get around to talking about you. It's all good.

I remember going with Mom and taking Lisa to Kindergarten on her first day. I was in college. I remember her running to the window and looking out at me and Mom. She wasn't happy. She had "The Stare" on her face.

Lisa is not the talkative one in our family. Knowing that, being the oldest, I am most scared of Lisa. Diana is the one most likely to shoot you, but Lisa has “The Stare”.

I would never want to get in an argument with Diana, because, well, you can’t win that one. But, with Lisa, you have “The Stare”. Lisa has had “The Stare” since she was a small child. She wouldn’t say anything, but the look she gave you sent chills through you. You know she wasn’t happy. I have a great story about her when she was about 5. It to, involves "The Stare".

But this story is about her at the hospital with Mom. Lisa lives next door to Mom. She has for a long time. She and Diana take care of Mom and I appreciate that. She and Diana took care of Dad too. Dad used to tell me though, Lisa is the boss. He meant that with love but he meant it.

This story is about the second time that Mom went to Brackenridge Hospital with her heart condition. We had just been there a week ago and the cardiologist said that he thought that this was a one-time condition. Well, here we were again.

This cardiologist was part of a group of doctors that took turns seeing people in the emergency room. Our family was sitting in the emergency room that day waiting on the doctors. Mom was in stable condition. This one cardiologist came out and said that he was going to run further tests on Mom, including an angioplasty. We all felt relieved. Well his partner came in a little later and released Mom with no further tests. We were out in the emergency room and didn’t know that he had come into see her. We had gone into see her and see said that she was going home. We insisted that she stay.

Well, needless to say, we were upset. But Lisa had “The Stare”. I got up the next day; it was a Saturday and went to the hospital before dawn. I wanted to talk to the cardiologist. Well, I sat there all day with Mom and he never came in. It was evening and my brother, Larry, and my sisters, Diana and Lisa, and my wife, Carla was there. I think Dad was there too.

We were waiting on that cardiologist to show up. They were all telling me what to say to the doctor. The cardiologist finally shows up and acts like nothing is wrong. He is in front of me and Lisa is behind him. I lit into him about the lack of treatment that Mom was getting. Lisa was staring at me from behind him. I kept giving this doctor a piece of my mind, all the while looking past him at Lisa. She was staring him down from the back and boy, if looks could kill. I thought that the more I chewed on the doctor the better she liked it. I was afraid that I wasn’t doing enough for Lisa’s liking. After a while Diana and Larry both jumped in and started chewing on that doctor. Lisa didn't say a word. She didn't have to, we all saw the look on her face. You know they saw that a picture is worth a thousand words. A stare from Lisa will make you start babbling like a baby.

Well, the doctor apologized and did the angioplasty on Sunday, when no other procedures were normally done. This doctor normally didn't work on Sundays, but he did that one. It turned out negative and Mom had more problems later, but at least I did all that I could to make Lisa happy. We are a great family, but honestly, Lisa is in my opinion the glue that holds us together.

Enjoy the video, "We Are Family".

An Old Family Saying

I don’t know who came up with the saying, I think it was probably my brother, Larry, but it is so true.

Dad taught all of us kids how to use firearms. My brother and I hunted on the same deer lease with Dad for years while we were growing up.

My two sisters, Diana and Lisa, also knew how to shoot guns. Mom is a good shot. We always lived in a rural type setting and Mom was deadly with a pellet gun. She shot all types of varmints around the house.

My sister, Diana, is only two years younger than me. She took a real liking to firearms. She carries them with her. Diana was always a little paranoid of strangers coming up to her house. She and my brother in law, Guy, live in a rural setting.

One time she opened the door with a loaded 357 to greet the UPS man. Scared the hell out of him. She just didn’t know who was at the door. Well, my mom lives next door to her and I would often go up to her house to see her. I would always call her on the phone and tell her I was coming and when I got to her house, I would stand beside the door and knock and start yelling, “Diana, it’s me, Mike” at the top of my lungs. Needless to say, I didn’t want to look down the barrel of that 357.

Here’s the old family saying. Lisa is the best shot of the girls in my family, Mom is the next best shot, but Diana is the one most likely to shoot you.
Diana, don’t shoot me for posting this. I have attached a video that I think is appropriate, "Gimme Three Steps".

Leroy Carlson, My Dad

My dad passed away at the age of 85 on August 16, 2007. He was a truly wonderful man that got better with age. I have so many stories about my dad, that it would take a years writing every day just about him.

My dad was a full-blooded Swede. My grandfather came to America from Sweden in the early 1900’s. East of Austin, the Germans and Swedes settled the area. From Manor to New Sweden and Elroy and places in between.

My grandfather, Gustav Carlson, had some kinfolk that had come to America a few years earlier and sent for him. He came along, going through Ellis Island on the way to Elroy, Texas. My grandmother, Ruth Carlson, (that’s right her maiden name was Carlson) came to America first through Minnesota and then came down to Texas.

My grandmother had 4 children, before she died in childbirth with the 5th child. The baby died also. My dad was the second oldest. He had an older brother, Edward, a younger sister, Ethel and the youngest, Leonard. My dad was about 10 years old when his mother died.

My grandfather was a tenant farmer in Elroy. He farmed some of Judge McAngus’ land. When I was a teenager we use to go dove hunt on the McAngus property and I saw what was left of the house that my dad grew up it. It literally was a shack.

When my grandmother died, my dad quit school. He was in the 6th grade. He had to go help his dad out in the fields. My Aunt Ethel, who was about 8 or 9 at the time had to take up household duties. Washing clothes and cooking and cleaning. My dad was always very protective of his sister. He would fight anybody that crossed her.

My dad was to first to leave the farm, he was about 20 when he came to Austin to work at the old Brackenridge Hospital as a porter. He cleaned bedpans and waxed the floors at the hospital. It was hard work and not much pay, but he wanted off of the farm.

I am not sure when he went to work for Binswanger Glass in Austin, but he started out learning how to install auto glass. He liked the work. He had a friend that worked for Binswanger in Fort Worth and his friend wanted him to go work there. Dad transferred to Fort Worth and worked at Binswanger there, but he didn’t like it. His family were all back in Austin. When he tried to get his job back at Binswanger in Austin, they didn’t have a place for him.

Not knowing what else to do, dad opened up his glass business. His first was a leased stall at the old Austin Top Shop on West 5th street. Billy Pannell owned that shop. They installed seat covers and convertible tops. I’ll have another story about the Austin Top Shop.

Well dad was in several locations. The first location that I remember was on Riverside Drive between South Congress and Barton Springs Road. Before he left that block in 1969, he had a shop in 3 different locations on that same block. They were right next to one another.

Well, my dad married my mom on April 9, 1949. I am the oldest of 4; I have one brother Larry, and two sisters, Diana and Lisa.

As you can tell from the early life of my dad, he really didn’t have a childhood. All he knew was work. He could fix practically anything. If he didn’t fix it he probably tore it up.

Dad really didn’t know how to deal with kids. Mom was a stay at home mom and she took care of us. She administered most of the punishment. If we were really bad, she threatened to tell dad. I can only remember him spanking me one time, but the threat of his punishment got us kids to straighten up.

People loved my dad because he was caring and compassionate. Since he died, I have had more people tell me stories about my dad and the good things he did then I could have ever imagined.

But dad was one of those guys that really started to mellow as he grew older. My youngest sister is 8 years younger than my brother. She was the baby of the family. Dad was 44 when Lisa was born in 1966. His tenderness was growing rapidly after that. Then in 1976, I married Carla and dad got his first grandchild.

Then other grandchildren started to come along and I almost didn’t recognize the man anymore. He talked about those grandkids all the time and worried about them. Then, my daughter and Kelly (Diana’s daughter) begin to have children and give him great-grandchildren. I have a great picture of dad holding one of Christi’s kids at Gattitown. He was unbelievable. It was almost funny, but really was fun to watch this man age.

I’ll stop now because I just wanted to give you some of the basics about this man. You can see the other stories fit in place as I tell them.

Coming Tomorrow, How I became Pop and why Tucker doesn't like the song; Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys