Born November 25, 1960 in Great Bend, Kansas. 
     
The good Lord blessed us with great parents.  Their love for us was unspoken, we just knew.  I can only hope my children and grand children will feel the same about Deb and me.

Being the youngest of a large Catholic family had its benefits.  I got to see what NOT to do to make mom and dad mad!  It worked for the most part but I did have my moments.  I also got to wear everyone’s hand me down’s.  Underwear included.  That includes jocks too!

Ok, where do I start?  Everyone else has covered just about everything in our family.  I guess the one huge part of our family that no one has touched on yet is Father Clumpny.  He was such a big part of our family.  Paul and I would stop at his house after school and watch Major Astro and other cartoons until it was time to take us home.  He would make a detour some times and take us to Eddies for a candy bar.  He let me serve mass at the age of five when all the other kids had to wait until they made their first communion.  I thought I was big stuff!  Father loved photography.  He took lots of pictures of our family which I still have a few.  His green house was a big deal too.  Paul and I got to go in and help water plants.  We also got to mow his yard.  That was cool because he paid better than anyone in town!  He would take Paul and me to LaCrosse on Saturday mornings and give us a dollar to spend and the five and dime store.  He was always there for us at Christmas.  I know there were times he saved Christmas for mom, dad and us kids.  He was at our house so much that I would accidentally call him grandpa!  He would laugh and say “That’s OK”.  Father Clumpny was a great man and will always be remembered as being a part of the Erb family.

Going to Grandpa Herman’s (Erb) house was also a treat for us.  He always had a Dr. Pepper or 7-up in the fridge for us.  He taught us how to play rummy.  We played almost every time we went to his house.  He used to take us to Eddie’s and we got to watch him play pitch with the local guys.  That was very competitive group!  Words would fly if someone played the wrong card.

Summer trips to Springfield to see all of our Smith family.  Eating Uncle Paul’s water melon, playing baseball.  Sister getting mad if we didn’t throw the ball hard when she hit.  Aunt Fanny was the coolest.  Making homemade ice cream on the back steps. We had so much fun in Springfield.  You can’t talk about the Smith family without mentioning George and Roger coming out to hunt every November.  They will bring Danny and Steve sometimes too.  We always have a good time when they show up!  

Riding our horses and riding motorcycles along the railroad tracks was the coolest.  Playing baseball, basketball and football with the other kids in town was always fun. 

I probably made going to school a lot harder than it should have been.  It didn’t come easy and I wasn’t quite motivated enough to get those “good” grades so my salvation in school was sports.   I had to be passing all my classes to keep playing.  The best part of my high school years was being able to play football, basketball, track and baseball with Paul.  How cool was that to play side by side with your brother.  I had a blast playing aside Paul.  It got pretty competitive sometimes which only made us better.   I think all of the boys were lucky enough to play with a sibling for a year or two.

Here is some trivia for you.  Who is the only sibling to marry someone from Timken?   That would be me!  Timken only produced one in-law to our large family.  Timken was a great place to live and raise a family. 

I got married in 1980 to a girl from the “north” side of the tracks.  Deb Pechanec and I have three beautiful children.  Sarah, Kate and Dan.  Sarah is a Doctor of Physical Therapy.  She has given us four beautiful grand children, Ethan, Brady, Elle and Brooke.  Kate is a volleyball coach and photographer.  She also played junior college basketball at Cloud County.  She has given us three beautiful grand children, Owen, Kylee and Gavin.  Dan is a business teacher and basketball coach.  He too played college basketball at McPherson College.  He was just married on July 30th 2011.  Our kids were blessed to grow up in Timken too.  Mom and dad were there for us when we needed and I believe we were there for them.  They loved our kids and wanted to be a part of their lives.  I thank God for mom teaching and showing them our Catholic faith and for dad, teaching them how to be patriotic and to be a hard worker.  

I was the only sibling to be Mayor of Timken too.  Ok, that wasn’t too hard to do.  Nobody wanted the job and I said I would try!  We lived in Timken from 1982 to 1996.  I was a city councilman or mayor that entire time.  Dad and Uncle Art served too.  That was kind of cool, learning from them.  In 1996 we moved to the Henry Pechanec farm, two miles east of town.  The Sand Creek and the Walnut Creek meet in our back yard.  It’s a pretty neat place to live!

 How about some names of people and places to jog everyone’s memories:

TIMKEN, KS 67582

ELL-2040       the old phone number.

Chink and Francie. 

Holy Trinity Church

Eddie Spicka.  Had the best store in town!

Mrs. Nichol, telephone switchboard operator.  Mom said she would cut our ear off if we played on the phone.

Elton (Poots) Nichol, town drunk, lived in a dinky trailer next to our house. Mrs. Nichol’s son.

Cy Pololek.  Died in house fire that we watched for the sun porch.

Fritz and Ida Smrcka.  Good neighbors.

Mrs. Holopirek.  Best darn popcorn balls for Halloween was just three houses east!

Lester and Florence Dirks.  More good neighbors.

Helen Oliverius.  Post master.  Always had more rain than anyone else!

Helen Kriasinger.  Wrote the Timken News column in the county paper.  This page looks a lot like one of her columns!  All over the place!  Her columns were fun though.

None of us will ever forget Ida Mae, Vernon (PeeWee), Bieber and their kids Jane & Mike; Epp and Thelma Fiala; Art and LaVerne Erb.  These guys were always with us at family gatherings!  Love them all.

Chink was Dad’s nickname.  He got that when he was young because folks thought he looked like a Chinaman when he smiled.  It stuck with him to his grave. 

Francie wasn’t really a nickname, just a term of endearment that only Mom’s closest friend would refer to her.

I would like to end this page with some Chink and Francie-ism’s:

“My dad raised smarter kids than I did”

“Oh my god in hemal”

“Philip, Irvin, John, Paul,…..DONALD!”

“Keep your mouth shut and nose clean.”

“What the hell’s the matter with you?”          Maybe that was just to me?!

“I’d drop you like a hot potato.”  Quote from dad after I passed gas in front of Deb.

“I’m going to blister your butt.”

“Sugar”           Mom’s name for kids.

“You little stink.”

“You need a physic.”

“Some bozo forgot to pick us up.”  Ok, that was Kate telling dad he forgot to pick them up from school.  Dad laughed for days and told everyone.

“You boys better behave or I’ll tell Dad when he gets home!”   She must have been prejudiced against us boys because I don’t recall her ever saying it to the girls...  J

More quotes to come…..Feel free to add to these quotes!