Past relatives

2/16/2015  I just saw the following - written sometime in the past and saved as a draft.  I think it will be published now.  It is unimportant except to family.  I have not proofed it at all.  Later.  M3.
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We all have ancestors.  Many do not care to recognize same, but our ancestors have been here all the same.   I can only go back so far even though I have some paperwork that shows more.  But the folks I know / knew only go back my lifetime, if you get my drift.

I had two parents (as most have had).  Both of them had two parents.  I am sure this sequence goes back even "moe far back" than that series.   I am fairly convinced there are no sheep in my family tree.   Hey, you never know.
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On my father's side:  my grandfather was Clyde Marshall Metze, Sr.   He lived in southern Oklahoma in and around Temple, OK.  I do not know if I ever met my grandmother on that side of the family.  I just don't know.  I do remember my greatgrandmother, "Grandma LeBarre" vividly.  She lived to be 101 or so.
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My memories of Clyde Sr. are not the  best.  He had a "Still" in the back room and was liberal in consumption.  At one point of his life he ran the water system for Temple.  They lived out in the country on the bank of some creek while my father was in high school. The story goes that Clyde invented some device for the water delivery system of temple and as payment received free water for the remainder of his life.  That could be a good deal.
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By the time I was aware that my grandfather was anyone, he was working on his 2nd or 3rd wife - a slobbery female named Minnie.  Minnie had a daughter - name escapes me at the moment, not that I really care - who, I think, was morally below the average person.  I am not sure since I was rarely left alone with her...try never.  My memories are not too clear.  
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I can remember two different houses they had.  The first was on a main 2 lane road outside Temple setting in the middle of a field that needed to be mowed but had too much junk laying around to accomplish such a feat.  It had a front door and two back doors.  I cannot remember ever spending the night there.  One of the back doors was about 4 to 5 ft off the ground and had no stairs.  This one came out of the daughter's bedroom.  Guess it made things a bit tuff for her to go out at night - if she did.
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The second house was in town about 4 or 5 blocks from downtown.  It was a nice looking house from the street....front porch with pillars, no garage.   His still was on the back porch.  There was a couch by the front window which folded out into a bed.  Nobody had air conditioning.   Once we arrived, my father would spend a lot of time talking to his father.  I couldn't say what was discussed. We were not encouraged to have loving contact with him.   Nobody really spent time talking to Minnie.
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Family stone was that we arrived at the 1st house in time to eat lunch.  It was prepared and the table was set.  My mother had to stop and re-wash the silverware to get the eggs out of the tongs.  Other kitchen things suffered the same.  There is an old joke about getting dishes as clean as Cold Water can get them -- Cold Water is the dog's name.   Once again we rarely ate there.
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Occasionally we boys were given a dime or a quarter and sent to walk to town.  We did dutifully, walking the downtown streets of Temple.  There was nothing there but old buildings, old people, and fallen down junk.  The dime was spent on a coke which we drank walking back to the house.   I have no memory of my grandfather's funeral even though he did have one.
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Little side note here.  My parents married in college.  They attended Cameron College in Lawton, Oklahoma.  My father was a center on the football team and my mom was a violin player in the music dept.  Soon after they wed, my father's 3 younger brothers were taken in.  My mom always talked about raising these boys.  This should give you an idea of the home they had back in Temple.  I don't have the slightest idea where my folks found the money to keep these 3 boys in food.   I'm sure there are some long lost stories about that time in their lives.  In my humble opinion, all of the 4 boys were very successful in their lives:  one lawyer, one veternarian, one electrical engineer, and my father who had various careers - described at a later date if you please. 
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