March 1962 - David Forsythe pulling down Linda Forsythe's pants




Funny stories from the families.

Jessie left Mike (about 2 years old) alone for just a few minutes, while she went to the kitchen to wash some dishes. All of a sudden, she realized that it was too quiet, so she went to check on him. She found him hanging from the Venetian Blinds. She grabbed him and quickly called Dr. McEachern to get advice as what she should do. The doctor calmly asked if that were Mike crying in the background and she replied that it was and he guessed that Mike would be just fine.

Our parents (Jessie and Frank), especially Jessie was set against guns. Her brother had been killed as a young boy when he and a friend found a gun and were playing with it. Well, Mike got a BB gun and hid it in his closet. Mike then told Sandra Wilson, who told her brother Stan Wilson, who told Bev and she told Mom and Dad. Mike denied having a gun and Mom told him that she was more disappointed in the fact that lied about having a gun than the fact that he had it and Mike had to sell it. Needless to say Mike was not very happy with his little tattling sister.

Mike once bought a malted milk machine and gave it to his Mom, Jessie, as a present. Good thinking, Mike. On another occasion, Mike bought a necklace was for girl friend and when they broke up he gave it to his Mom.

Mike played more than a few pranks in his time. One of his best was the night that he poured a bottle of Joy liquid detergent into a large fountain near State Street in Ann Arbor. The next day there was a picture in paper. Jessie, his mother, read the article and saw the picture of all the suds and Mike was very quiet.

Mike had unique ways of losing his retainers. One time his retainer was found in the couch after… I (Bev) won't even make a suggestion. Another time he had put the retainer in his shirt pocket while eating something and then had gone outside to make a snowman. We found the retainer much later after the snow melted.

Mom (Jessie) used to tell the story about Pete and the day he first learned the word, "Damn." This was a forbidden word in the house. Pete was about two and when she put him down for his afternoon nap one day, she heard him say, "Damn." She stood by the door and Pete continued to try out the word, saying it as a question, then an exclamation, then softly and then loudly. Pete tried it over and over. She let him wear it out and then he finally fell asleep. She claims that he did not use the word again for a very long time. I'm not so sure.

Pete made a parachute out of an old bedspread and some rope and tried to jump off the library roof onto the driveway. Surprisingly, he didn't make it, instead landing in the lilacs by the back porch. It is still up in the air whether permanent damage was done.

Pete and Mike carried sibling rivalry to an extreme. Pete admits that he started this particular series of events. To get back at Mike for something, Pete tied Mike's bedroom doorknob to his desk in such a way that when Mike came to open the door he would pull down his desk and it would collapse in a heap. Great idea. Mike discovered the rig before bursting into his room and took Pete's rope and tied it between Pete's doorknob and his closet pole, which was holding up all his clothes. Pete fell for it and his clothes fell into a heap on the floor, which provided a great victory for his little brother. Another time Pete tied a rope between Mike's doorknob and the banister and then sat outside his door refusing to untie it until Mike cried "uncle." So as not to be defeated, Mike crawled out his bedroom window, down fire escape to Mom and Dad's room. Mom, Dad and Mike then sat at the bottom of the stairs and watched Pete try to get Mike to say "uncle."

Bev was given many nicknames as she grew up. One name was squeaky, because her "rubber" pants squeaked. During World War II, there was a shortage of rubber, so "rubber" pants were made out of some other material, which squeaked. Although the frequency decreased over the years she was still known by the nickname on special occasions well into adulthood. A second nickname was "Beaver or Beav" and it came from an Iranian student in her debate class who pronounced her name "Beaverly." At the age of 60, she has a collection of about seventy-five beavers. Once Bev learned that China was on the other side of the Earth, she set about to dig to China. She chose the narrow strip of land on the right side of the garage to start her project. After working very hard for several days, the project was abandoned with the hole being perhaps a foot or two in depth. Bev wasn't the only one. Mike and Pete dug on both the side and back of the garage and got down 4 or 5 feet but never met anyone.

Bev played the flute for 6 years, and on one glorious day, her flute teacher announced that she felt Bev should quit the flute because she had no rhythm and wasn't ever going to get any. She was ecstatic and that was that. Mike thought that she should sell her flute and give him the money, because his cornet had been sold to get her the flute. Bev was also told by her French teacher that if she quit French and promised never to take it again, that the teacher would give her a "C" in the class. Music and languages were never her strong suit.

When Jessie was a little girl, she rushed into her house and declared that there were millions of dogs in the back yard. She was asked, "Jessie, How many?" "Well, 100." "How many?" "Well, at least twenty-five." "How many?" Well, there's our old dog and another."