GINGER
Harold Augustine
“Hal” Lane (12 Jan 1921 – 10 Feb 2004)
Submitted by Diane Elaine Wilson
Cousin Gertrude never used her real first name after she was
twelve years old. She was a teenager in the Roaring Twenties, and snapshots
show her in coquettish poses at the age of fourteen. Those poses later would
usually include a cigarette in her hand, often in a long holder. The best
smokers of the movie screen were her idols and models. Gin was tall, slender
and best described as gangly. I have an unforgettable mental image of her doing
the Charleston.
Ginger, or more often, Gin, was alternately in love with
Commander Richard E. Byrd, whom she called her “Dickie bird,” and Robert Montgomery
whom she called her passion.
Gin made me feel important. Although she was five years my
senior, she always treated me like an equal, asked my opinion, listened.
When she and her next youngest sister were being taken to a
barn dance, Gin suggested that her youngest sister and I come along. We were
thrilled to be in the company of these almost adults. We were little more than
twelve. Bobbie and I squeezed into the rumble seat of a ‘Model A” Ford roadster
and enjoyed a most grown-up evening.
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| Hal's Graduation Picture |
When I was in high school Gin had a date to go to a
University of Santa Clara dance at the Palace Hotel. At the last minute her boy
friend couldn’t make it, so she asked me to escort her. Was I flattered that
she would be seen with a young twerp like me? Yer darn tootin’! We even went
with a group down the alley from the hotel to Breen’s “where you could get a real drink.” Cousin Gin told me that it
was okay for me to have a Tom Collins highball because I had a relative with
that name.
I wasn’t the only person
that Gin mothered or big-sistered. Her sister-in-law, Elaine [Diane: my Mom!]
told me years later that Gin had been her confidant. She learned all about
birth control from Gin, she said. And then she proceeded to have seven kids.
Gin had four. I asked which side of the subject Gin had spoken on – pro or con.
Ginger was one of my favorite people, not only in the
family, but in the world. She was a doozer.
Diane Wilson has lived in the SF Bay Area her entire life. She is a retired computer programmer who
considers herself an intermediate level genealogist. Her other hobby is geocaching. Hal and Ginger
were 1st cousins, their mothers were sisters.
Ginger was Diane’s Aunt, the oldest sister of her father. You can contact Diane at mistycity @ gmail.com
© 2017 Diane Wilson - Please contact contributor for use of any portion of this story.
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