I remember this Christmas very well because in the summer someone stole my bicycle. Now you might say to yourself what does a stolen bicycle in summer have to do with Christmas Eve at Grandmas? Well after my bike was stolen I was really dejected. When you are ten years old your bike is your main transportation to anything away from home, even if it was just next door. On this particular day my Mom (Loretta) was doing work at the Altar Society and asked me to stop by to help her take some measurements (hold the tape measure basically). Well I stopped in, held the tape measure, then went outside the Church to find someone had stolen my bike…from a Church.

Needless to say my faith in humanity was gone and even my faith in God was in question. How could God let someone steal my bike while I was inside the Church helping his altar get the right measurements?

Well God works in mysterious ways, I got a phone call that evening from Grandma who said she was sorry to hear about my bike and wanted to buy me a new one. I was really surprised since I knew they lived on a fixed income pension and could not really afford to spend too much extra on things, but yet they were willing to spend what money they did have on me to get a new bike. I thanked her very much but said I was ok without the bike but that I really appreciated the offer…and I did.

I was so touched by her offer that the pain of the bike was completely gone and I hoped that someday I would be like her. Up until now as a ten year old I was very selfish and my allowance went to baseball cards, candy, and pop. That changed that summer as I actually saved up my allowance to get Grandma something really nice for Christmas. I think it was the first time I actually bought a gift for someone that was out of my own money and when I gave it to Grandma I felt great, much better than I felt receiving a gift.

This was also the last time I would see my grandma as she died in spring of the next year, but she passed along a huge lesson in humanity to a very selfish ten year old boy (probably not the easiest thing to do).

Continue reading “Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Kleibers 1971” →

Mom was in the hospital for an operation on her thyroid gland. Dad, Peg and I, were almost starved to death while she was in the hospital, he was in the “let’s make dinner in the blender” stage. YUCK!

He put eggs, catsup, vegetables and all kinds of stuff in it that I don’t even remember and no way were we going to drink that stuff, we were young but not that stupid.

Peg tried making hamburgers in the frying pan, don’t know why but she took the hot pan over to the sink after taking the hamburgers out (hell,she could of left them in there for all I know.lol) she turned on the faucet on as hard as it would go to put water in the skillet, don’t think she had the grease out of it because the kitchen curtains caught on fire and all I heard was her calling for Dad. Now you know you have to have almost lost your mind to call Dad to a fire. lol

You know how he was about fires and the house burning down.

He comes in and the curtains were all a blaze, I don’t remember what he said or yelled, I think I blocked that out of my mind. I am sure Peg would remember what he said, think I ran out of the room to a safe area. lol

According to our sources at Ancestry.com (currently worked by her nephew James) when Cristine Louise Kleiber was born on August 20, 1950, her father, Charles, was 33, and her mother, Loretta, was 30. She married Kenny Selvia in 1987 and has one brother (Charles Joseph) and one sister (Margaret Ann).

Christine held many jobs but two really stand out in my mind. The first was as a sales person at Montgomery Ward. This lead to her family buying some high end products (at the time) including a keyboard synthesizer and a Captain Fantastic Pinball Machine. Both these products provided years of fun to the Kleiber family, especially the Captain Fantastic pinball machine (we included a picture of it from the seventies in the gallery).

The other job that really stands out is her work as a nurse with Doctor Joshowitz. The office was on Outer Drive near Southfield so it was very close to most of the family. One year she had a guillotine in the office with a sign saying “we now do vasectomies” which gives you an idea of the fun place it was, or at least as fun as a doctors office can be. We have also included a picture of the guillotine in this gallery.

Continue reading “Christine Kleiber 21 Birthday (Adulthood Pics) 1971” →

Loretta and Peg decided to take a little vacation and head to Louisiana to visit the city of New Orleans. The enjoyed the wonderful food that the city has to offer including a visit to Antoines, a very popular restaurant recognized nationally for their cuisine as they visited many points in the city including the Legendary French Quarter. If you would like to see what the Antoine menu looked like in 1971 in pdf format click the link below.

Restaurant Antoine Menu 1971

They also managed to find time to visit the above ground city of the dead. Early settlers in the area struggled with different methods to bury the dead. Burial plots are shallow in New Orleans because the water table is very high. Dig a few feet down, and the grave becomes soggy, filling with water. The casket will literally float. You just can’t keep a good person down! The early settlers tried placing stones in and on top of coffins to weigh them down and keep them underground. Unfortunately, after a rainstorm, the rising water table would literally pop the airtight coffins out of the ground. To this day, unpredictable flooding still lifts the occasional coffin out of the ground in areas above the water table, generally considered safe from flooding.

Continue reading “New Orleans 1971” →

Every Christmas eve we would go to Grandma and Grandpa Kleibers and celebrate Christmas Eve. Aunt Ginny was always there (she was sort of the caretaker of the two) and usually we would see Uncle Dons family (Uncle Don, Aunt Maryann, Mike, Bruce, and Sandy) along with Cousin Barbara and her family (Barb, husband Joe, and the twins, and sometimes Aunt Dorothy). From our family we had Criss, Peg, Chuckie, Loretta and Charles.

Each year we would get pizza and it was always awesome. I think the pizza was better in the sixties and seventies because they heaped on the grease and butter without health concerns. After the pizza we would open gifts and everyone had a great time.

Sometimes this was the only time we would get this side of the family all together, but it was always an annual event and at least we got together once a year.

James Aunt Peg and Grandma embarked on a short vacation during the heart of winter to the tropical paradise of the Bahamas. The entire event was set up by St Alberts and a good size group of parishioners took advantage of the group rate. The mother and daughter team had an incredible time and recommended the trip to everyone.

James Dad remembers going to the St Albert meeting room that winter where the parishioners met and were given instructions for the trip such as required documentation and such.

Continue reading “Bahama Trip 1970” →

Every year in the heart of the Michigan winter we would go to the Flower show at Cobo Hall in Detroit MI. It was always alot of fun for the family as there was really not alot to do in Michigan this time of the year. The picture here is of James Dad at one of those flower shows. He was always fascinated with the new devices and electronics that would be on display at this show, but never really had any interest in all the flowers. Never the less, it was a fun family tradition.

Ron was actually born in Germany while his Dad (Mark Dunberger) was in the military. Ron is Mark and Kathy’s son, Renee’s brother, Louise’s Grandson and Natalie’s half brother and James 2nd Cousin.

Growing up Ron was a child of the Star Wars generation and a big fan. For years people would try and find new Star Wars gifts for him for Birthdays and Christmas. Fortunately Star Wars was a big franchise and there were always more Star War toys to buy in the seventies. Ron goes all out for the holidays, especially Halloween and Christmas and you will see a lot of his work in these pictures throughout this blog.

Ron is an awesome cook, while in College he took some cooking classes and makes some pretty great dishes. His lasagna is so good that everyone agrees its the best that they ever tasted.

Ron and his friend Jordan have appeared in a few television shows during his time out in Hollywood and I believe Ron has done some voice work in Hollywood as well.

Continue reading “Ron Dunberger Born 1969” →

James Dad second grade pic at St. Alberts

Peg flew out to California to be with her boyfriend Richard Turowski who lived there. While out there, they decided to get married and Peg became Peg Turowski.

Unfortunately the marriage did not work out for Peg and she returned back to Michigan with her mother who flew out to California to help her drive her car home.

While Peg did have the marriage annulled in the Catholic church, she never legally divorced Richard and so she remained Peg Turowski (in name only) for the rest of her life.

Richard Turowski died around the turn of the century which technically made Peg a widow…after about thirty years.

Continue reading “Peg Gets Married 1968” →