All of my life I have been teased about my red hair. No one else in my family has red hair. My parents and sister all started out as blond children and then their hair got darker as they got older. None of my aunts or uncles or cousins look anything like me. I was teased about being the red-headed step-child, or the milkman’s kid. Even my eyes don’t match. My mom and sister both have blue eyes, mine are brown. In that respect, even other red-heads don’t look like me. It is more normal to have green eyes with red hair, second most common is blue. I always just figured it was because I’m so mixed up. I’m Scottish, Irish, English, Dutch, Welsh, German, Norwegian, and Bohemian. (The Bohemian part is the Vlach part)
Once when I was about 12 years old, we were at my Grandma Vlach’s house. Everyone was teasing me with the normal “The milkman’s your real father” “Maybe it was the mailman.” And it wasn’t just the kids, sister and cousins, the adults were doing it too. When my Grandma came into the room and heard them she got really mad. Over reaction mad. She started yelling at everyone for making fun of me. She yelled, “She is Not the milkman’s kid, she looks just like my sister Hazel!”
It never actually bothered me to be teased, so I thought that Grandma was going a bit overboard because she yelled at everyone for a couple of minutes. Then my uncle Larry agreed that I looked like Hazel and not only that but took after her personality wise too. Then he told me that in our family back in Wisconsin, every family has at least one red-head in every generation. Well, my Grandma was the oldest of 11 kids, and my Grandpa was the middle of 12 kids, so my Dad and his brothers have 106 first cousins. In contrast, my Mom is an only child and my Dad has two brothers and one sister, I have 5 cousins. I know all of my cousins. My Dad does not know most of his.
So, last weekend my uncle Larry turned 60 along with 2 of his cousins who have also moved out west. So there was a birthday party. The only people that I knew at the party were my Dad and sister, my uncle Larry and aunt Karen. All of the rest were complete strangers to me and all of them looked EXACTLY like me! (Well, except for the ones who had married into the family, there were a few of those.) It was so bizarre! A whole room full of people with red hair and brown eyes. Not only that but my nose and cheeks too! And I finally met my great-aunt Hazel; she’s 85 years old. I was talking to her and she said, “You kind of remind me of myself.” I said,
“I’ve heard that before!”
Here's Hazel, Me, my kids Rachael & Rebecca, my sister Gwen, and her daughter Sydney.
It's KATCH Auction time and on behalf of the class of '87, we've chosen two items to donate to the auction.
The second item is a Breakfast In Bed basket from Wine Country Gift Baskets.
“I’ve heard that before!”
This is odd for me. I'm 7k miles away from everyone. I've emailed more than 15 people since I got wind of "myevent." Yet, I lived in Seattle for 4 years (2001-2005) and I don't think I ever talked to more than 10 people I graduated with in those years.The weirdness is that when I lived in Seattle, I was too busy with Sailors, Tri-training or my desk to see the people around Seattle.When I was in the "Sandbox" I would tell my Sailors "Remember the people back home, there is your motivation to do your best." Irony was that I didn't see the people back home as much as I should have. I didn't know about any of the activities around the area with my fellow Alumni. And I lived in Kent.
For those of you who went, consider yourselves lucky. Your Celebration was a success and I am extremely happy for all those who attended.
Still in the Navy. Married the love of my life and have a kick-a$$ son. Finished Ironman, climbed Mount Fuji. Love my Harley. Been to the Middle East as a Commanding Officer, thank God no one got killed. Finished an BBA and MBA, but waiting to be (RET)ired. 
