If every child could have an Uncle Bill like mine, the world would be a happier place. Uncle Bill loved to have fun and play and he loved children! He could get down to a child's level and he always had something fun to do, say or sing. When I was about 3 yrs. old, Uncle Bill took me East of the mountains with him in his truck to pick up fruit for his fruit stand. As we were going over the pass I said. "Uncle Bill .... who made the mountains?" He said, "Well God made them." I said, "He sure was a busy fella." He loved to tell that story and it became a family classic. Another time when I was older, he was going into the hospital to have gallstones removed. I was fascinated and had many questions. A little while later a box arrived. It was full of candy rocks with a note from U.B. saying that these were his gallstones and he thought I'd like to have them. There was mulberry bush outside their kitchen window and so of course every morning we had to join hands and sing, "Here we go round the mulberry bush" every morning before breakfast. In later years when they moved to The Beach (or "Uncle Bills Beach") I spent a lot of time staying with them and U.B. would always make things fun. He knew how to call seagulls, dig clams, ride in his motor boat, find shells, he had a real Indian canoe, and I learned to love the beach. U.B. would make 7up floats, and fires in the fireplace and best of all he could pull candy out of your nose. After a big fan-fare all of a sudden candy would fly out of your nose, and of course we knew that U.B. was magic. I could play on the beach by myself as long as I wanted, which was usually all day. Auntie Hazel did not suffer fools easily and being quick and smart went a long way in her book. So lucky for me I was a precocious child and this seemed to get me by. When I was an adult we loved to come from CA and stay at The Beach. I have lots of fond memories of Uncle Bill and "The Beach." Uncle Bill was special!

Stacey Family Memorial