Harold Gilson is the grandfather of the author, known for his phrase "tell me a story." The author records some of Gilson's childhood stories, including how he grew up poor without modern conveniences. Gilson also tells stories about meeting his wife Virginia when he was her cousin's best man, building a cottage in Rondeau Park over weekends with friends, and his experience serving in the Korean War stationed in Alaska, where he played on the hockey team.

1. HAROLD
Raymond
GILSON

2. tell me a story
”My grandfather, Harold Gilson, means a great deal to
my family and I. His famous phrase among our family
is “tell me a story” - my grandpa loves stories and we
love to hear his stories, too. My goal in this is to record
some of his best stories for my family to enjoy for years
to come. He was born in 1928 to Carl and Mary Gilson.
He attempted to enlist in World War II, but failed the
physical due to a hernia. He got his hernia fixed, met
my grandmother, Virginia (Ginny) and got married, only
to get drafted into the Korean War, where he was sta-
tioned in Alaska. The rest is history.
“

3. HWhen asking my dad about my Grandpa’s childhood, he said “Grandpa
was very poor growing up. They did not have a dining room table or chairs
for quite awhile they sat on crates and made a makeshift table. His mom
did they best she could providing by sewing and doing various jobs to have
enough money to eat and keep the house. They did not have a refriger-
ator, so they used the neighbor’s across the street - the Gahers. Grandpa
bought many of his cars from Mr. Gahers, the dad who owned the house
across the street where grandpa grew up. They remained lifelong friends.
Grandpa gives money to the Goodfellows every year. That is an orga-
nization that gives out holiday gift boxes to young kids (among other
things) - the packages include “warm clothing, toys, books, games, can-
dy, a dental kit, [etc.].” Grandpa always remembered that they provided
many gifts and food to his mom and their family especially around Christ-
mas. That is why every year Grandpa gives that organization money.”

4. How’d you meet Grand-
ma? “Oh, now that’s a
good story. Her cousin
wanted to get married
but her mom was wor-
ried sick about it, so they
decided to elope. She
asked Ginny to be her
maid of honor, and her
almost-husband didn’t
know anybody, he had
been in the Coast Guard,
but he remembered me,
so he came over to my
house and he said “Har-
old, would you like to
be best man at my wed-
ding?” and I said “yeah,
when are you going to
do it?” and he told me
this Saturday. So I said
okay, I can go. To get
married we had to go
to Bowling Green, you
could get married there
just as long as you got
a blood test. When you
get there, they ask you
what denomination you
are – catholic, protes-
tant, Jew, Baptist – so
we said Baptist. Then the
guy took us to a Baptist
minister. Then they got
married and he kissed
his new wife and hugged
Ginny, and I hugged the
bride and I kissed Ginny.
Next thing I know, it was
a 5-minute kiss. On the
way back, we got a big
sign and a crayon and we
wrote “just married” and
we got some tape and
we taped it on the back
of the car. They were
driving in the front, and it
was me and Ginny in the
back, and we kissed until
we got home. When we
got back [I introduced
myself to her family].
Since I ice skated, I asked
her family if she could ice
skate and they all said
“yeah she loves ice skat-
ing, she can ice skate” so
I said for our first date, I’ll
take you out ice skating
in Ann Arbor – they had
a nice hockey rink there.
She could barely stand
up, she was holding onto
me the whole time, so I
decided not to take her
ice skating. After that,
we had a few other dates
and I was dating her all
the time. About a year
after we were going
out I said I want to get
married and I proposed
and gave her a ring…
Here are some things
we got for our wedding:
$5, $5, $17 – that’s the
most we ever got at our
wedding, some pillow-
cases, a cook book.”
H

5. Happily ever after
EST 1951

6. “I went to Fort Wayne and we all took tests to see where we’d be placed.
Then I went to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for my army basic train-
ing and then I got into heavy equipment because I worked at the DSR
which is a bus company where I did maintenance and worked on a lot
of buses. This way, I had a chance to get into heavy equipment, so I
went to school at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, which isn’t that far from Wash-
ington DC. One weekend we went to Washington DC and saw all of the
memorials and fixtures and things. The second day we were there, we
went to the Statue of Liberty, and we climbed the stairs all the way up
to the top. Since we were in the service, we might’ve gotten in for free.”

7. Catch a ride
“We had the chance to play in a tour-
nament in Seattle. I played in one game
and then I told the captain of the hock-
ey team “Can I go?” I showed him my
orders – I had two weeks off, and he let
me go. So I hitchhiked from Seattle back
home to Detroit. I had my uniform on,
and it’s better to go by yourself than to
go with other guys. And back then, any-
body who was hitchhiking that was in
the service, they normally stopped for.
I started hitchhiking, and thank good-
ness I had a map, because I had to fig-
ure out how to get all the way back to
Detroit from I rode 1,000 miles with this
one guy – thank goodness for that. The
next morning, I got up and hitchhiked
further and when we got near Chicago
the driver left me on the west side of
Chicago. Well I needed to go all the
way across Chicago in order to get on
the expressway to get home! The guy
dropped me off right near the express-
way and he slowed down just enough for
me to get off. When I was getting into
a car, they’d slow down just enough so
I’m running along the side of the car just
like you see in the movies. I got a ride
all the way down to Livernois and I told
him he could let me off there because
Ginny lived at 5 mile and Livernois.
When he dropped me off guess what
– there came a bus. Now this was late
at night – probably like 10pm, so if I
miss this bus it’d be another half hour
or better. But the bus stopped, and ser-
vicemen got on for free. So I took the
bus down to Livernois and Fenkell and
got off there and walked to the house
which was only like a block away. When
I got there, there was nobody home.
I thought “now what?!” But I remem-
bered that Ginny wrote in one of her
letters that one of her brothers was hav-
ing an open house. And I said to myself
“I’ll bet you that’s where they’re at” and
I saw that my car was parked outside.
So I went up the stairs in the back of the
apartment building and their kitchen
window was at the top of the stairs, and
they didn’t have it locked – now what’s
the odds of that? So I got in the house
and got our spare set of keys. Then I
drove over to the house and I got there
and rang the doorbell and Ginny was
doing dishes. Someone answered the
door and said “there’s a soldier boy out
here!” Ginny turned around and she flew
out the door and she tackled me onto
the grass. Yeah, that was a good day. “
Yeah, that was
a good day
”
“

8. Seattle

9. Detroit
hour non-
stop drive
miles
35
2,328

11. “When I got to Alaska, I saw that they had a hockey team. I wanted to
join, and they said they needed a few more players. I told the captain that
I played defense and he said that’s what they needed, and the only re-
quirement was that I had my own skates. So Ginny sent me my skates and
I got on the hockey team. The worst part of that was that it was all outside
ice. They had a Quason hut, and that’s where we changed into our hockey
uniforms from our regular clothes. Anyhow, it was cold and there was no
heat in there, so I started looking around and I found that there was a lot
of lint in the lines, so I cleaned that all up, and next thing I know, I have the
heater going. The captain told me that was my job – to get there early and
heat it up since the heat wasn’t on all the time. So, I had to get here early
enoughtoheatuptheQuasonhutenoughsowecouldchangeourclothes.
Even then, there was no plows. We had to take shovels and shovel all the
snow off the ice before we could even skate. We had about 5 shovels and
we would shovel from side to side and dump the snow over the boards.”

12. “When we were in Alaska, me and this guy were walking down
this trail. We walked outside and all of the sudden there was
a moose standing right there. He said, “let’s have some fun
with him” and I said, “what do you mean “fun”?!” So, he picks
up a couple stones and threw them and one of them must’ve
hit the moose. Then the moose ran a few steps and stopped.
Then I said “you go one way and I’ll go the other because we
don’t want to be together or he’ll trample us both” – so I ran to
the left and he ran to the right and the moose turned and ran
after the other guy. The moose must’ve gotten tired or some-
thing but I told him not to mess around with a moose again.”

14. CCottage building commenced in 1960 in Rondeau Park, On-
tario, Canada. My grandpa built it on the weekends with some
friends. He had purchased a “kit” to build the cottage, and it
housed tons of people over the years. He expanded it as our
family got bigger and built multiple sheds for various tools he
used. He also built a ginormous gazebo. When they’d go up
to visit in the winter, the snow would be so crunchy that you
could walk on top of it - and it was 3 to 4 feet high. You could
walk right up to the cottage and put your elbow on the roof.

15. I asked my dad to tell me a sto-
ry he liked from the cottage, and
he said “On August 1, 1967 there
were 6 of us who went on a boat
ride to the edge of the cliffs a little
over 20 miles from the cottage to
have lunch. It was Grandpa, Uncle
Steve and I (my dad), along with
Dr. Prust and his 2 sons, Bob and
Billy (their neighbors). On our way
back from our excursion we got
too close to shore and the mo-
tors propeller hit a boulder in the
water and broke. We were only
about 100 yards from shore and
we paddled in. Uncle Steve who
was about 13 and Billy Prust who
was the same age and I walked
ahead of Grandpa and Dr. Prust
and Bob as they pushed the boat
along the shoreline back towards
the cottage. Uncle Steve and Bil-
ly and I saw this wolf and big dog
fighting on a branch hanging over
the side of a 50-foot-high cliff.
Their weight on the branch made
the branch crack and sent both the
dog and wolf down to the beach
below...where we were. We were
about a hundred yards in front of
them, so we ran and also went
into the water to try to stay out
of there sight and figured if they
were in 3 feet of water we would
have a good chance of being able
to push them away. I believe Uncle
Steve and Billy got some branch-
es that they held until just in case
the dog and wolf came our way.
Luckily, they did not pursue us.
Finally, after walking for about 5
hours and over 20 miles the Police
helicopter that was out searching
for us found us and we were then
taken by car back to the cottage.”

16. I l ov e yo u
grandpa!
GRACE
CHRISTMAS 2018