THE TREE

Wray Christmo's parents Andrew and Elsie divorced when he was barely out of short pants. This just wasn't done in those days, so you know Andy must've been a bit of an asshole. Elsie kept the kids- Wray, Otto, Bill, Maime, and little Bob. That's as much as i know about Great Grandfather Andrew. Far as the rest of us Christmos are concerned Wray is the beginning of the line. That family tree was planted on a shady tree lined street in Montgomery, NY. Everything else was cut up for fire wood.
As I said I bonded early with my grandfather and kept that bond until he died when i was 13. We were inseperable. He taught me how to fish, work with power tools without cutting my fingers off, butcher a deer, drink coffee and drive before I was 10 years old. When Maude died we became even closer. I was his mini-me. He was my escape from my parents, three brothers and one sister. If he had lived we would've ended up in jail together.
He always had some scheme going to make a buck. During deer season we butchered all the local's deer. In the summer we raised nightcrawlers in his basement and I sold them to the fishermen who pulled carp out of the Wallkill. He gave me his old '49 Chevy when I was 10 and I sold it to a friend for $12. We put the car in a corn field and used it like a tank blasting through the stalks and running into trees. I feel sorry for kids sitting in dark bedrooms clicking away at video games and smoking joints. They should be outside driving junk cars into things and smoking joints.
Wray and Maude had four kids- Wray, June, my old man, and little John. Wray fought in WWII and came back a stone cold theif and junkie. June never got along with Gramp and sided with Maude in all things. My old man idolized Wray almost as much as I did. And John? That's another story in of itself. I'll get to him later. If the term had been used in those days the Christmos would have been considered classic dysfunctional. As the term wasn't used they were just considered normal.