As Thankful poured us some tea, I ran back out to the car to get my tape recorder and some tapes. When I came back in...she was applying bright red lipstick. I clicked on the record button. She then lit a cigar and said,"Where were we yesterday...oh yes...mum's New Years party."
She snuggled back in her chair and said,"Mum was good at dropping things like husbands out of her mind...not from her heart though...I think she did love old A.J...he left her with money and a few smiles...I'm sure...anyway...mum hired a small band to play music and had food brought in by the Timmin's restaurant....she didn't get any booze though...she knew the men would have plenty in their flasks."
"What a party" she said,"bringing in the year of 1899....1898 was a bad year with the Spanish American War...I hate war...any war...well now...back to the story...mum had invited friends and some of the local...what I called Stiffies...you know...politicians, businessmen and such. Mum even had two baseball players show up...I think their names were Robert Alen and Abe Stewart....nice boys."
She giggled and then said,"James Whitcomb Riley even showed up...the Mayor introduced him to mum and I but at the time we had no idea how famous he was. We met many writing folks and theatrical alike....some famous and some to be famous...I think most were there for the free food.....didn't have a crumb left over"
Thankful sipped her tea and went on,"Mum and I both met our new future husbands at the party. Mum met George Landen...a local saw mill owner and I met Freddy...oh my Freddy...he was a looker....a bit younger than me too...within a month we were married and I became Mrs. Fredrick Gansin."
Freddy wanted to be a professional actor. He wanted to go to New York and perform at the Grand Theater in Buffalo and then to the New Your City theaters. He had worked at B.F. Keith's Theater in Boston. He started out with Joe Keaton here in the mid west."
I said, Keaton...I have heard that name too." Thankful laughed and said,"He was Buster Keaton's dad...Freddy liked Joe but told me that he drank far too much....I was introduced to the Vaudeville life and mum stayed in Indianapolis."
She went on,"Freddy worked me into his act...I danced around him as he juggled our shoes and told corny jokes....it was a tough life on the road...I was hungry quite a few times but Freddy always came through before it got really bad....I met the likes of Harry Houdini, Frank Butler, Annie Oakley...we traveled with the Wild West show a while."
She added,"Cinema came along and all but smothered out Vaudeville...things always change...something different comes along and you either change with it or suffer the upstream of life."
After 14 long years of traveling...Freddy just up and joined the Army....a Captain friend of his convinced him that at least he would have a steady pay and we wouldn't go hungry again....Freddy realized he would always be a second class act. Freddy went to the Army and I went back to Indianapolis to stay with mum and George...I was 34 and Freddy was 32 years old."
She took a bite of cupcake, a sip of tea and spoke softly,"Freddy was a man who first made me feel how much fun making love could be...I think that's why I put up with that horrid lifestyle for so long..he was very good with his hands...juggler ya know."
