Chatty Crone

My great great grandfather - John Formes - this is from a newspaper atricle from long ago! It was hard to read so I did my best. It's interesting though. How life can change forever for one simple (wrong) decision.

"This is the story of John Formes and the loss of his substantial fortune through the conversion of American Bank notes to German Marks, six years ago, as related by John Formes, age 73, who has retained a firm of Indianapolis attorneys to recover a part of his lost money.

White haired, tragic eyes, broken, and a hopeless Mr. Formes was sweeping leaves and doing some other minor tasks with his daughter, Mrs. Charlies McLaughlin, 1845 Brookside Avenue. Stories rise to affluence and the loss of his money is stranger than fiction.

"I worked beside Henry Ford - I came to America from Germany when I was about 18", Mr. Formes said, "I learned steel from pattern and model making . I saved and worked and struggled to get ahead and I did. I finally worked up from my little shop to a number of big places that had plants in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and a number of other places. I speculated some and sold my business places for a profit, starting new ones and selling them, until I had accumulated a good size fortune".

"I had always been homesick for the county where I was born and wanted to see the folks I used to know over there, although all my near relatives were gone. So I went to Germany".

"I had been through panics in the United States so I took my money with me. I intended to stay only a few months. I had my money in gold certificates packed in a big box. When I got to Germany I had trouble spending it without converting it to the German Mark. The Mark was not as much for value, but I thought it would work out without being harmed. The bank mentioned I had so much money that there would be no problem".

"The Mark dropped and there was no way to get my money back and I actually had to work digging sewers. There was $75,000 in just one account. All I have now is the bank book for my accounts in Germany. Think with billion of marks I can't even buy a postage stamp! When I think, I feel I cannot stand it!"

Mr. Formes once had in his procession over 1,500,000,000 Marks, his estimate in American money would be $12,000,000. Mr. Formes had three children - Mrs. McLaughlin, Otto Arthur Formes (my grandfather), and Charles Formes. He also has several other children living in the east. (What does that mean?)

And in order of most to least - we were Irish (no wonder St. Pat's day is so popular), Polish, English and Scottish, French (and certain parts of France), American Indian, Russian (and parts of that have changed now) and Dutch, Italian, German, and Swedish, Austrian, ,Czech, and Welsh.

Basically though it is like 'Together We Save' - who cares - we are all one now and 'we should just all get a long' - and here in Blogville I think we do.

Something to think about - being that we are (almost all) mixed - we are all alike in our 'mixness'.

Thanks for sharing.

Happy Birthday to George Harrison- Wikipedia - My second favorite Beatles - Paul was #1.

WHO WAS YOUR FAVORITE BEATLE?

For the most part of the Beatles career, the relationships in the group were extremely close and intimate. According to Hunter Davis, "The Beatles spent their lives not living a communal life, but communally living the same life. They were each other's greatest friends." Harrison's wife Patti Boyd described how the Beatles "all belonged to each other" and admitted, "George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through or even comprehend it."

Ringo Starr also stated, "We really looked out for each other and we had so many laughs together. In the old days we'd have the biggest hotel suites, the whole floor of the hotel, and the four of us would end up in the bathroom, just to be with each other." and added "There were some really loving, caring moments between four people: a hotel room here and there - a really amazing closeness. Just four guys who loved each other. It was pretty sensational."

John Lennon stated that his relationship with George was "one of young follower and older guy." and admitted that "[George] was like a disciple of mine when we started." The two would often go on holiday together throughout the 60s, and George made a tribute to Lennon with his song "All Those Years Ago".

Paul McCartney has often referred to Harrison as his "baby brother", and he did the honours as best man at George's wedding in 1966. The two were the first of the Beatles to meet, having shared a school bus, and would often learn and rehearse new guitar chords together. McCartney stated that he and George usually shared bedrooms together while touring.