im: So, uh, Uncle Cleland really seemed interested in chatting. He doesn't have many people to talk to, I don't think. I doubt it. Who would be alive in his family? Carol? Clifford? Does he have cousins? Does he still have any Towers around?  

Mom: I don't think so. They were always fighting anyway.  

Tim: So, he's got that granddaughter.

Is that the only child that Clifford had? Did Clifford have any other children? No, just Kim. Just that girl? Yeah. So he's got one grandchild.  

Mom: And she had a daughter that I thought was there taking care of him. Not Brenda, but begins with a B.  

Tim: She was staying with him? No, bringing in food and stuff. Oh, well they still do that.

At least he said Kim does that. You know, he's in a kind of a wheelchair. He can get around with a walker, but I think most of the day he's in a wheelchair.  

Mom: And of course, they didn't eat very.... You know, Mildred never cooked except in a microwave. You serious? For years. Farmhouse mom? Yes.  

Tim: Or she worked at the post office, didn't she? She worked at the post office.

Was she the postmaster? No, Delivery. She delivered? One of those little trucks or walk around? I think walk around. She probably got a good federal pension out of that. Did they save a lot of money?

He spent 30 years as a truck driver, he told me, Teamsters Union. And ran the farm, I guess. He couldn't have run the farm too well. I mean, he must have had farm hands or something. The boys weren't around to work the farm.

Mom: Well, he rented it out. Oh, I see. Gave up all the cattle. You know, they used to grow black angus.

Didn't do that anymore. So he was, he was a beef cattle farmer. I didn't realize that. I thought it was milk. No, never milk. I swear I was in that barn, they were milking cows. Well, they have to milk a cow.

That doesn't mean they were doing anything but churning the butter and making butter.  

Tim: Yeah. I guess a female steak from a black Angus female is as good as a steak from a black Angus male. Although maybe not, the milk production might affect that. Yeah, I don't think they did much milking.  

I remember seeing cows being milked in there.

I think they had a machine. Probably. Farming. Amazing. Most of the farms now are these big, uh... Mega farms, you know, like 20, 000 acres with 20, 000 cattle. Well, yeah, it'd be a lot of cattle, but I'm even thinking of wheat farms and corn farms, you know. They got million dollar equipment.  

Mom: You know someplace we haven't been in a long time is the blackman Farm.

I wonder if Junior's still alive.  

Tim: I don't know. We went up there a couple of Thanksgivings ago, didn't we, and got a pie. We'll have to take a ride up there. Maybe this summer we'll get up there. That's the one where the girl went to Cornell and she's running it now. Yes. I guess she's running it. She was two years ago.

There was a story in the Buffalo paper about it. She wasn't there when we were there, though. Not that I know of. Her mother did all the talking. Yeah, they had cider, you remember, and donuts or something. Right. What's the relation connection there?  

Mom: Uh,  

the guy's grandmother was Auntie May. Dad's, my dad's sister was married to Walter blackman, who had, who they called Junior, Walter Junior, who lives across the street, and he had kids.

But that was Walter Junior, I think. So there were two juniors? No, it wasn't whoever he was.  

Tim: Who were you surmising or wondering might still be alive? Would he be your age? Those people. That run the farm? Yes. Oh, okay. Their daughter's the Cornell, uh... Graduate. Graduate. Oh, okay. He might be alive. You never know.

He might be. Farm folk live a long time, don't they? Yes, we do. Some of them. I wonder if there's statistics on that.  

Mom: I don't know, Tim. There might be. Did I tell you Maureen Elizabeth called? Is her middle name Elizabeth? Yes. I didn't know that. Okay, yours, my sister was Maureen Anne. It's Maureen Elizabeth, yeah.

I used to I was here when she called. Anyway, about going  

to Cornell.  

Tim: Is she unhappy that she can't?  

Mom: She said they hadn't canceled anything yet, so possibly there'd be some sort of a program. In May? Probably.  

Tim: Boy, I hope so. I mean, we're gonna be closed down until April 30th at the earliest. Yeah. I wouldn't, I wouldn't count on that. She didn't buy her tickets yet, did she? They do have a hotel room. Do they? Yeah. I hope it happens. I hope they go to, I hope, uh, Matthew and Trish go to Colgate for a graduation. Never know. But, I wouldn't, you know, if you wanted to bet me, I'd bet that it doesn't happen. Yeah. I don't want to bet, but I hope it happens.

No, I agree with you. I agree with you. Two great grandchildren graduating from college the same month. Same year. Same year. That's great. Colgate and Cornell. Two great colleges.  

Nicole: That's awesome.  

Mom: Maureen, Maureen's eldest child. She's your eldest grandchild. Eldest grandchild. Graduated from what, Penn? Boston College.

No. Oh, Maureen graduated from Boston College. Yes. Yeah, her daughter graduated from University of Pennsylvania. Okay.  

A little nursing career. Awesome. She's in New York City.  

Tim: She better be... She's taking care of herself. She's a nurse. Psychiatric nurse. But I don't think she's treating... She's not... She might be involved in this because they're putting everybody on it.

You know, it's all hands on deck, as they say. Yeah. But  

Nicole: I told you yesterday, St. Mary's called me back. Right. And wanted me to come back. Yeah, I left on good terms, give them two weeks, whatever. I was just tired of the short, being short every day. And having 30 people to take care of by myself.