Grandma and the Blackwoods update

A few more memories to add to the story.

• The year was most likely 1941, since it is thought that Grandma would not have gone after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place later that year.


• Grandma may have taken a bus to Shenandoah, but it seems more likely that she rode with someone else who was going.


• Shortly after Grandma left, most of the family became sick from eating canned meat that had been left open. Grandpa suffered the worst, and only Matilda and Carl were spared (Esther was not home at the time, possibly with the Albert Franz family helping take care of kids). One can only speculate why: maybe God knew someone had to take care of the rest, or maybe they ate less meat or somehow got unspoiled meat from the bottom of the can. Maybe both factors came into play.


• Shenandoah is about 120 miles from the farm, so on their trip to pick up Grandma, Grandpa and the kids would have taken Highway 6 east until it joined Highway 2 southeast of Lincoln, then gone through Nebraska City and crossed into Iowa and on to Shenandoah.