Let us begin By taking a long look at the below picture which serves as the ‘theme’ picture for this Laubis family website. It was taken in the early 1950’s during a time when all of us in the picture were at the prime times of our lives. It will be used as the ‘starting point’ for this chapter which is appropriately named “All In The Family”. Why, because that was our small happy family at that time.

The first 60 years (1900 – 1960) were relatively easy to tell when I started this project in 2017as my memory was sharper and even though photos were available, there were also family resources still around to tap information from. These last 60 years (1960 – 2020) have an expanded family with a ‘mountain’ of information which will be hard to segment into good logical order but we will attempt to make it entertaining for you, the generations behind us. It can best be told through pictures and comments.

If we look closely at the theme photo center, there stands Rosel and Gus, in their ’50’s standing in pride with those of us whom they raised and took care of up to that point in our lives. Their story throughout their retirement and eventually as they live out their lives will be told partially here in this chapter. From here on, their names are interchangeable with “Oma and Pop“ which is what all us children and grandchildren named them. Their beginnings and the best parts of their lives are told in Chapters 1-6. Please take time to go through them carefully. All of it is our heritage.

We will see more of Oma and Pop as we work our way through this chapter, but first lets introduce the rest of the family. Be sure to have a look as they both move off to retirement.

Moving up to our Lincolndale house! Oma and Pop live out the American dream

Cousin “Gusti”

And on the right of the picture above, we see another “August”, nicknamed “Gusti” which in German means “little Gus”. In total, he is August Eugene Laubis and is my first cousin, son of Pop’s sister Maria whom I never knew. He was already grown and had served his required military duty in the army of is home country Switzerland before arriving at our home. Unbelievably, he arrives in America only to be drafted into the American Army. Because of his language skills, he gets stationed back in Darmstadt Germany. Gusti served from Feb. 1957 thru Feb 1962 in the Army’s 7th Evacuation Hospital there. Not exactly back home in Switzerland but lots of time to be with Yvonne and his sister and other relatives. Gusti, unfortunately at this writing, is no longer with us but his wife “Yvonne” and their children and grandchildren are living all out on Long Island in New York. Yvonne and daughter Christine were in attendance at our 80th surprise birthday party. Even though much of their “All in the Family” story is told in Chapter 6, we are fortunate to have in Gusti’s own words their entire family story in this link Yvonne & Gusti wherein he documents their lives together.

The West Family – My Sister Elizabeth, Daddy Al and Our Lisa

It was really gratifying to find a picture of Elizabeth in a truely happy moment holding Baby Lisa in her lap. Events in life are mainly created by personal decisions, But certainly not all. Picture on right is the only one I have showing ‘Baby Lisa’ with her dad ‘Al’ who was a wonderful guy. One of the events in all their lives which none of us expected was a tragic auto accident which took Al’s life on his way to work one night, specifically December 5, 1969. Elizabeth Theresa “Lisa” was just 8 years old.

Life for all of us, especially sister Elizabeth who was used to creating her own events in life, changed on that day. Oma and Pop, Lynn and I were all deeply involved with the happy “All in the Family” events which were taking place regularly. Lynn, Chris and our story come next. Oma and Pops retirement was already underway. Distraught Elizabeth started a series of unfortunate self created events which, while self imposed, tore her away from the family.

Stability came to Lisa’s life as she became a part of ours along with our Chris and under daily care of Oma & Pop. You will see her as we move through bringing this chapter up to the 21st century just ahead. Lisa has her own story to tell and maybe will in the years ahead. Through Lisa, we know that Elizabeth is still with us at age 87 living in the Crown Hill section of Seattle Washington. As far as we know, she is married to husband ‘John’ who is 88. We wish them well together.

Now lets focus on Hubert and his life with Lynn and Chris.

A lot of information about Hubert growing up is covered in Chapter 6 under any number of blue links but I will summarize them right here for easy access if wish to view the basics before 1960. Some are still current and the career part with IBM will soon be told!

Lifelong friends : The two Bobs, Kaylor and Shea are still with us at this writing and we still keep in touch. Bob Shea and I go back to 3rd grade at Immaculate Conception grammar school. Bob Kaylor as you will learn, was a big part of my teen years. Lots of great stories in those two links. I add a third link telling about the years I was really growing up. Have a look.

“May I have this dance for the rest of my life!”

Those were the words in a song by Anne Murray and I am not sure who said it to who but here we are at age 83 and married for 60 years!

So on February 10, 1962 we tied the knot and became husband and wife and looking forward to having a family of our own. We lived in Stuyvesant Town thanks to Pop’s influence at 321 Avenue C. We were there till Chris joined us and soon after moved to Lincolndale, bought our own home and joined my parents for some more “All in the Family” experiences.