Edward Smolinski (1910-1972)
Ed Smolinski and his wife, Sally, had four children, Thomas, Sandra, Linda and Kathleen. Ed was considered the family handyman. With a little help from relatives, he set out to build his own home at 101 Tarolli Drive., Solvay. It was a work in progress for several years because Ed never ran out of ideas for a little change here, another change there.

One of my favorite memories of Uncle Ed involves a change he made in a family room that originally had been what some call a "mud room" between the garage and the kitchen. He figured, as a family room, something was missing, so he did a slight renovation so that he could put a keg in the garage and have beer on tap on the other side of the wall, by his favorite chair. It was the quintessential Ed.

So was the day he and his older brother Bill teamed up to install my mother's gas dryer. They approached projects differently – Ed relied on instinct, Bill on written instructions – and when they did things together, especially if they had imbibed a bit, the result was as entertaining as a classic comedy routine.

It may seem strange to remember a relative because he bought beer by the keg instead of the case, but that was just another reminder that Eddie Smolinski was an innovator, a person who could do more things than most, but a person who liked doing them his way. Without him, my mother's family wouldn't have been so interesting.

Such a person needs a patient, understanding and loving mate, and Eddie had one in wife Sally, whose name could finish that well-known commercial jingle line that begins, "Nobody doesn't like ... "

PS: A year or so after Olinda and were married she took me and my first two children to where her mother had grown up, on a dairy farm in York, a small town near Geneseo, New York. One of Linda's cousins, Bruce Donnan, has three sons involved in the operation of the farm. It's hard work, but as I soon learned, the Donnans also play hard.

When I got my first look at Bruce's place ... well, it was a wonderful sight. On his front porch was an old refrigerator, and built into its door was a beer keg. And I knew immediately my wife's relatives were going to make me feel at home.