Jimmy Carter was the President at the time of this visit. Iran had taken the U.S. Embassy hostage, and a rescue operation had failed. The day after the mission failed, James Dad decided to join the military to see if he could help out. James Grandma thought it might be a nice trip to fly into Washington for a weekend so we ventured off to the capital of the United States for a weekend excursion. The vacation included several bus tours which were nice and informative, but depending on what side of the bus you were sitting on you really could not take it all in. Most of the free time we had was spent at the Smithsonian or visiting the monuments and we found out we did much better on our own than with the tour, although the tour kind of gave us direction to where we wanted to go.

Continue reading “Washington DC 1980” →

Lots of people do not realize the Grandma (Loretta) Kleiber almost became a nun as she came from a very religious family. Well one member of her family did become a nun, we just referred to her as “Sister” (actually she was Aunt Cil’s sister which makes her a cousin). She would show up at almost all our family events and was a lot of fun to be around. She always wore her habit, which is Catholic Nun traditional outfit. Nuns, Monks, Religious Sisters and Brothers wear Habits as an outward sign of their devotion to giving their entire life to God and Jesus. Older type habits that covered the head and body were adapted from Medieval dress and clerical and academic attire.

Unfortunately James Dad was in the military at this time so he missed the festivities, however he heard all about the party via letters and such as it was a very big success.

Continue reading “Sister Evarista Retirement Birthday Party 1980” →

James Dad had just started College when he decided to take Halloween decorating to the next level. In the past, the house had always been decorated for Halloween but the decorations amounted to paper decorations hung on doors and windows, nothing really 3 dimensional. This year using whatever items he could find including an old electric weight loss machine and an old adjustable sewing mannequin along with some cheap Halloween masks and made a pretty decent Halloween display at a fraction of the cost for current animatronics. Most of the items moved, including the guitar player, a guy stirring a cauldron made from a laundry basket, Frankenstein arms went up, etc. This was Dads first attempt at a large Halloween display, but it certainly would not be his last.

Continue reading “Halloween 1979” →

James’ Dad graduated high school way back in 1979, he remembers walking almost a mile to class most days until he got his drivers license and car, then his first speeding ticket in that order. In his senior year, James’ Dad would open up “Leo’s Fruit Market” on Van Born road each morning at 6am, then go to gym class which he arranged to be his first class so he could shower after work.

Many great times at this school, working on floats, going to football games (our team was 1-10 senior year or something like that), and of course learning. Dad took his first electricity class while at Annapolis which would end up being his chosen field (sort of, actually electronics engineer but in order to do electronics you have to do electricity first) during the military and civilian life.

Continue reading “Charles J Kleiber (James Dad) Graduates High School” →

The seventies were without a doubt the year of Disneyland vacations as I think nearly every family member made the two hour Delta flight once or twice during the decade. James Dad got to visit Disneyland twice, both times with his Mom and sister Peg. The first time was at the Polynesian hotel and the second one was at the golf resort (even though no one golfed, it was a pretty decent hotel as were they all at Disneyworld).

This was the era of the E tickets which were used for the most popular rides at Disneyworld. The E ticket could get you into the haunted mansion or the pirates of the Caribbean, basically the best rides at Disneyland. The tickets came in a pack that you tore off and only a few were E tickets, others were various letters for various other rides.

I wish we had taken more pictures of our time here, but we were busy having a lot of fun. In addition to the rides, James dad enjoyed the shops on main street especially the two magic shops. Aunt Peg loved the “its a small world” ride, and Loretta enjoyed the floral decorations throughout the park. At twilight an electric parade on the lake would go by the hotels and entertain the guests. What more could you expect from the happiest place on earth.

According to our ancestry.com account (which is run by her second cousin James), Natalie Marie Dunberger was born in 1979, the daughter of Pat and Mark. She married William Arthur Kelly on November 5, 2000, in Clark, Nevada. They had three children during their marriage. She has one brother and one sister.

Natalie served in the military as well, her path was a little different because she went to the Marines (I think everyone else was army, guess thats why they call them “the few”). We are all very proud of Natalie and her service to this country, especially during a war.

Natalie was married while in the service but unfortunately her husband was killed in a traffic accident (non military related). This was a shock for everyone to attend a funeral for someone so young. Natalie currently is going to school part time while supporting her family as well.

Continue reading “Natalie Dunberger Born 1979” →

This Christmas was a little different because Kathy was going to sing in the Christmas Choir this year, so after everyone opened gifts and had a super Christmas dinner, there was a journey to hear Kathy and the choir singing at St Tim’s Church. The choir sounded great and everyone was proud to have a family member in the choir. Once the service was over the card games began, pinocle of course.

Aunt Terese showed up along with Sandy and Little Joe which added to the festivities. Criss and Danny were also there so it was a full house in Trenton this Christmas.

Gifts were plentiful as one might expect, without a doubt the toy phone Renee was using was one of the highlights of the day as she took plenty of incoming calls from various people.

Continue reading “Christmas 1978” →

Eight years after their trip to the Bahamas, Aunt Peg and Grandma (from James persepective) once again ventured out on a major trip, this time to Hawaii.

Now they stayed pretty busy with trips in these intervening years, including two trips to Disney World with James Dad in tow, but the Bahama trip and Hawaii trip were special as they were a mother daughter thing.

The photograph to the left was taken at Jack Cione’s lavish South Sea stage revue … with the music of Jack Demello … as part of the exciting Follies Polynesia, a unique show in Hawaii with beautiful girls, lavish costumes, and memorable music.

The photo was taken by Kahala Kai Photo Service.

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When Charles Joseph Kleiber was born in 1960 in Detroit, Michigan, his father, Charles, was 43 and his mother, Loretta, was 40. He married Mary Elizabeth Landis on September 5, 2002, in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. They have one child James Raymond Kleiber. He has two sisters, Christine Louise and Margaret Ann (aka Peg).

Chuck was in the service from 1980 until 1984 including one year overseas in Korea and TDY in Alaska and Japan. After the military he furthered his education and then in 1986 went to work for a NY based company and has been with them ever since. Currently the designer of this website and several others that you may run across on your internet adventures, perhaps his best contribution on the web was designing a field website for his company which won him an award from his company earlier in the nineties.

Continue reading “Chuck Kleiber Adulthood 1978” →

These are Jame’s great grandparents who unfortunately passed away long before he was born. We don’t have a lot of pictures of them so if anyone can help please send some pics this way.

I remember my family going to see a movie called “Dr Strangelove” and I was too young, so Grandpa had to take care of me for a few hours. We had a great time and he cooked me some popcorn which might not sound like much but this was before the microwave era. when I was about 8 I remember my bicycle getting stolen (from in front of St. Albert Church no less) and my Grandma Millie calling me and offering to buy me a new bike.

They were both great grandparents and I am sure they would have loved to have met james.

Continue reading “Tribute to Ben and Millie Kleiber 1894 – 1977” →