POSTED 18 September 2017 by Jean

Several of us gathered in Washington DC a week ago today for the funeral of Richard Speaker.  He was burried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on September 11, 2017.  The following family members gathered in his honor: Isolda - his wife, Ruth Speaker Sloan - his sister, Billy Parker - his brother by Nana's (our maternal grandmother Elfrieda Momm Allgor), Francine Speaker and her mother Gloria Miller Speaker (Robert Speaker's first wife and mother of Francine  Speaker - Niece of Richard), and myself (M. Jean Cook Rygg - Richard's youngest 1st cousin) and my husband Darwin Rygg.

Memories of the Shore as told by Ruth Speaker Sloan and Billy F. Parker

Ruth is talking:

Okay we went to the baby parade which was an event every summer in Asbury Park and Joan and Billy and Lois and I Ruth were going to ride the bus down to the boardwalk. Louis and I were told by our mom that we should ride the bus down and we should ride the bus back and should not to talk to anyone else on the way. So the four of us were standing at the bus stop which was 2 blocks from our house and some neighbors of Joan and Billy’s grandparents came along and they said “hi kids, where you going” and we said to the baby parade and they said well we will give you a ride down and save you the bus fare so we said okay and all four got in the car and we went to the baby parade and had our extra dime or whatever it was to ride the bus and had a wonderful time and took the bus home. When we got home our mother knew that we had taken a ride with somebody and even though it was people we knew we were not supposed to and we were all in big trouble

Billy is talking:

When we lived on Wayside Road there was a path in the woods across from our house all the way from Wayside Road over to aunt Doris's and I used to use that path all the time. I guess it was about a mile to go over to their house and my uncle used to set rabbit traps along this path. On my way over to Aunt Doris’s I would check the traps and if there were any rabbits trapped I would either snap their neck to kill them or if they were dead I would release them from the trap and set them on the side of the path to pick up on my way home. My grandmother at times would say well if you're going over there to Doris's here's a bucket, pick some blackberries on your way over and bring them back and I'll make blackberry dumplings. I have to say, they were the most delicious dessert you could ever have. Sure do miss my Grandmother.

Grandma Parker used to make the Blackberry dumplings and they were to die for, and Aunt Doris used to make them also. There were blackberry bushes all over the place so that's where we got our blackberry’s from.

Ruth is talking:

We used to get our rhubarb from plants growing by the garage and we also used to get rhubarb from our elementary school principal who gave Mom some for us.  I picked some rhubarb when I was in NJ this summer for myself and Leslie. I don't know if hers made it or not and she was looking for more when she was at the house this summer that we had right on the side of the house and my grandmother used to go out there and cut it off.

Billy is talking:

Right before I moved to Tennessee I want over to Wayside Road to take a picture of the old house and it was all modified to a modern type of house on the outside, but anyway the owners were sitting outside and I pulled into the driveway and introduced myself and told him that I was born and raised here. The guy said wow do I have a lot of questions to ask you. He asked if I had a few minutes and I said sure. He took me inside to show me the house and it was pretty much the same as when I lived there except they added on a living room in the back. He continued showing me the house and he said that in the basement where the furnace was it was all a dirt floor and they had put concrete for the floor. He wanted to show me and we went down there and when I lived there, we had a goat that we used to eat the all the grass so my grandfather did not have to cut the grass. As we were looking at the difference in the basement from when I lived there I looked over on the wall and there was this collar hanging on a nail, so I said that looks like the collar from the goat that we had and he says it is and he pulled it down to look at the tag on it and sure enough it was from our goat. He said they found it when they were putting the concrete down in the basement. He did not offer it to me and I was too embarrassed to ask for it but as far as I know it's still there. we had the goat back in the early forties.

Ruth is talking:

One of the things Ruth remembers about Wayside Road was the Rose of Sharon bushes in the yard and Elva had lots and lots of them.  And Aunt Gladys loved them and said when I have a daughter I'm going to name her Sharon and she did.

Billy is talking:

Grandpa Fred was a stationary engineer at Steinbeck's Dept. store. I always remember spending time with him and he always shared his skills with me and that's why I think that I ended up as a stationary engineer also plus an Associate degree in Mechanical Engineering mainly because of what I learned from my Grandpa Fred. And also my Grandpop Parker was very good with his hands in regard to woodworking and they taught me everything that I pretty much know now on how to use tools and so it was a great thing that I spent a lot of time with them and of their never ending patience.

Every time I went down to see Grandma Grandpa Allgor, she would always have Hershey’s ice cream for me. She always kept ice cream in the refrigerator if she knew I was coming.

Ruth is talking:

Everybody else in the family called my grandmother Allgor, “Grandma”. Our family called her “Nana”, because that's what we did in our family and everybody else did it differently, but all the men seem to be Grandpa and I remember one time when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old I was down at Nana and Grandpa Fred’s and we were having dinner and I remember Nana saying to me, “Ruthie you used to be such a nice little girl you used to help your mother so much with those little boys and now all you can do is say no and talk back to her and someday you'll thank me for telling you this” and so yes when I was about 45 years old I said thank you Nana you were telling me that I was growing up as a normal child.

Billy is talking:

I've got to say that this was in the early sixties and Grandma and Grandpa Fred came up for a visit when we lived in Irvington and grandma asked me, “Can you take your grandfather out and get him a haircut?”, so I said sure. I'm going to say he was in his eighties and so I took him for a haircut and on the way back we were walking past the Tara Bar. I told Grandpop that this was the local bar that Vera and I go with friends of ours. He said “I haven’t had a glass of beer in ages, sure would be nice to have one”. I said, “sure no problem, come on I’ll get you a beer”. As he was sitting drinking his glass of beer he spotted the cigar display behind the bar and said, “Billy I see those cigars and I sure would like to smoke one”. Again, I responded to his request and got him a cigar. Now he was sitting there drinking his beer and smoking his cigar and you could see he was a happy camper. When he got done with the cigar and snuffed it out we said goodbye and left. We were in the bar about 45 minutes and Grandma wanted to know why it took so long to get a haircut. My being the honest guy I am, I told her about our little side trip to the bar. Needless to say my Mom and Grandma were not happy. But hey Grandpop was.

I would say - By RUTH

Reunions were at the Speaker’s place, mom and dad would put on a family reunion every couple of years and then everybody on Speaker and Parker side of the family came. So we had people like The Parkers and all groups and the Staegers and others of my mom's cousins.  We had lots of food as it was a covered dish thing. We had watermelon and there were sack races, potato and egg races and there were all kinds of stuff and that was from our truck farm of about 7 to 8 acres..  My dad would load up the wagon with people and take a ride with our tractor pulling the wagon. So our place used to be called Speakers Seven Serene Acres or the house on the hill for the mentally ill.

By 11:45 we were on our way to Arlington Cemetery.  After some trial and error we arrived there.  We parked and went into a building where we were greeted by those on staff at the Cemetery.  They were very kind and professional.  Others gathered as well.  Gloria and Francine were there as well as a friend of Richard’s who served with him in Panama, along with his wife.