To all the GGK's (Great great grandkids.

As I write this there are none of you GGK's are old enough to read it. It is my hope that someday you will.

I have been thinking of my Great grand father recently. His name was John Wesley Collier. He would be your GGGG grandfather. He was born in March 1855 in southern Missouri. I have been thinking how great it would be to read something he wrote when he was my age (74). That would have been written in 1929 which was quite a historic year in U.S. history. What would he have said about his life, about the kind of work he did or what did he enjoy doing just for fun

He would have been 6 years old at the start of the civil war so he probably would not have known much about that. I was 6 years old at the beginning of WWII. I don't remember much about the war but I do remember selling newspapers on the corner of Page Ave. and Pennsylvania Ave. in Pagedale Mo. and shouting out something like "War ends, Japan surrenders". I would have been 10 years old. Thats the way you sold newspapers at that time. You shouted out the headlines and people would stop their car and buy a newspaper.

Anyway back to GGP John. I have done some genealogy work but I do not know when he died. I believe he lived in Maries County MO. Some material I have gathered from the Library at St. James MO. I have more info for anyone who is reading this now and would like to pursue the Collier family line.

John was married to Louise Crabtree who I believe was at least part Cherokee Indian if not full blooded. I can remember many years ago seeing a picture belonging to one of my aunts and uncles of a full blooded Indian who was a member of the family.

It really is to bad that I did not get to know my GGF. I did not know my GF either as he was killed when I was one year old. Right now all 10 of you are very young. Do to the distance we live apart from one another it is likely we will not see much of each other. I hope that if the good Lord should see fit for me to hang around for another 15 or 20 years we can have some time together. There will be so many changes that I do not have any idea how you receive this information

If GGP John had did what I am doing right now he would probably have written it by hand, then it would have been typed on a typewriter. transferred to a 8 or 16mm film, then to a cassette tape, then to a CD then to a computer. There are probably some steps in between that I have missed.

It has always been my intention to pass some things along for you to know what it was like during the last half of the 20Th century. I am going to make a serious effort to continue to do this. In the meantime remember to

LAUGH OFTEN, LIVE LONG and LOVE MUCH.