Sipple Cousins Get-together...

Last week was a first... in a long, LONG time...
Six of the nine Sipple cousins got together.

Joy F and Adda F Rockwell Sipple had five children:
1. Charles who has one son Mark...
2. Opal who has one daughter Penny...
3. Joy Jr who has five children: Susan, Joyce and Charlie by his first wife and
Ada and Joy III by his second wife...
4. Juleen who has two daughters: Jodi and Jerri
5. Rex... no children

Susan and her sister Joyce were in Nebraska from Oregon and California. Their brother Charlie who also lives in California was the only US Sipple cousin missing. The two Puerto Rico cousins, Joy III and Ada, and were the only other ones missing.


Jerri, Joyce, and Penny
Jodi, Mark and Susan

I don't know if we six have ever been together all at the same time. Jodi and Jerri saw Susan, Joyce and Charlie in California in the early 1950s. Susan & Joyce were last back to Nebraska together when they were in their teens, but Penny wasn't here then. Susan came to Nebraska last summer and stayed with me, Jodi. She had such a good time that she vowed to bring her sister Joyce this summer.

The "gals" were together all week, looking up the family homes and visiting cemeteries in Weeping Water, Nebraska City and Grand Island, visiting with the Aunts Juleen & Opal & Uncle Charles and just having fun talking and laughing.


Linda and Mark

We met Mark and his wife Linda Wednesday evening and had a fun time telling stories and reminiscing. Mark asked Juleen what they had to eat growing up and to his astonishment (or maybe not) she answered that they always had good meals, meat and potatoes, fruit; they ate good and were never hungry. It seems that his father, Charles, had always told him "all they had to eat was potatoes... fixed 100 different ways... only potatoes!!" I suppose this would be like the "we had to walk to school, up hill (both ways), in all kinds of weather" stories parents tell their children so they will appreciate the things they have now. Can't you just hear Chick saying that to Mark when Mark didn't like what his Mother made for supper or wouldn't eat... "you should be glad to have that spinach, liver, whatever it was... all we had was potatoes!"


Opal, Charles, and Juleen

At this writing, Opal is 92, Charles will be 94 in September and Juleen is 87.
Susan wanted to ask each of them what they contributed their living so long to... She asked them separately, so they didn't hear each others answers.
This is what they said:

Juleen, "We always ate well balanced meals, never had much sugar or candy."

Opal, "Cashews and chocolate"

Chick, "Good Luck, Common Sense, Moderation...
If I knew the answer I'd write a book.
There wasn't a day we didn't walk 5, 6, or 7 miles...
see the size of our feet..."

We had a wonderful time together and by week's end we all decided we had missed a lot by not knowing each other and getting together more often through the years.


Pictures from the week:
(clicking on any picture will make it larger)



The Rockwell farm home as it looks today...
2 miles north of Weeping Water


The farm home about 1903
Abraham and MaryAnn Rockwell and 10 or their 12 children
Adda is the dark haired girl in the buggy


The Rockwell home at 707 Randolph St in Weeping Water 2006


The Sipple home at 823 W 17th Street in Grand Island
where our parents were raised.

I'll post more pictures in with some stories at a later time...
By the end of the week together, with four of us snapping pictures all the time, we all were getting pretty sick of pictures.

What happens when you get too many pictures taken of you and you don't like any at all? This is one of the last ones I took.


Opal has re-written the motto from the old west where you would see "leave your guns at the door" posted outside the saloon.
Opal's motto: "leave your cameras outside the door" ...

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