My dad’s parents

My dad’s father, Ed LaFollette, started driving freight wagons at age 15. He needed to support himself. His parents farmed in Wyoming, but had never farmed before moving there and were not very successful. They raised a large family… probably because birth control was not a thing yet. I don’t know a lot about them, but they didn’t starve. Ed helped other farmers, herded sheep, rounded up cows, drove freight wagons for weeks at a time. He told me he was too young to sign up for World War I; he did a lot of work because the older men were gone. When the men returned, though, he lost his jobs. It was difficult. Eventually he met and married Ida May Davidson Allen, when she was about 22 and he was around 21 years old. She had been married to Mr. Allen; I don’t know why Mr. Allen wasn’t there anymore. She had, at age 22, three little boys already. Ida and Ed had several more children, of whom my father was second.

Ed was a tall man, over six feet, when I first remember him in his 70s. He had begun to stoop then. I imagine him quite tall. Ida was short; I outgrew her height by the time I was 8 years old. I loved hugging my grandmother. She was just the right size to hug, and padded comfortably but not overmuch. Grandpa Ed was angular and moved stiffly. He started using a cane at some point. I remember his chin was scratchy when I hugged him, and he gave a small peck on the cheek.