Recovered original email from Peter Zeimet. Body preserved verbatim.
Original subject: the odd fact about many Zeimets not marrying/having childgen
From: <renobassoon@pyramid.net>
Date: April 13, 2007
First of all, there is an odd fact. Do you know there is not ONE and NOT ONE male Zeimet namesake that is not adopted? NOPE..........not one. Some of the female Zeimet girls had kids....not huge familes but they did have kids. Of myself, Patrick, Michael, Floyd, Frances, Charlie and even Tommy and Stevie Jewitt, none of us had children. To my knowledge, Johnny and Mike Sprung have not either. If they have, it has been in the last few years and I have not been aprised of it. Patrick married to a lady with existing children and adopted them. Mike Zeimet did the same, but I do not believe he legally adopted any of them. Tommy did the same and Steve tried to have children but none were ever born alive.
HOW ODD IS THAT? Most of the girls had a child or three. Katie Zeimet had married a man from Africa and was nearly 40 by the time she had a child. I am not sure if it had anything to do with the inter-racial situation or not. Her husband is named Ozzie and they now live in New York. He is a college professor and she is a faculty adminisytrator or something in a fancy college.
Now, as I said there the old maids. Well, there was 4 but it decreased to three. Leah was romancing Earl Giles for many many years.........like 15 or so and then he ran away with Inice. I mentioned she had 3 abortions. Well, if she had carried one of those children, it would have been the first grandchild. Because the fact the 5 oldest Zeimet children never married (Uncle Bud did not, either), Lani was the first to arrive..............already walking and talking. The fact Inice had termed the babies, was a strike against Lani, too. It should not have been, but unfortunately was. Les Seney was born shortly after Lani appeared and they sort of coveted on her. I would have to double check the marriage date and Les's birthday but even if it was a few months either way, she was a newborn and Lani was a walking talking dynamo. She was almost 4 years younger but only 3 in school class years. So, here were these people approaching or OVER 40 that all glammed onto little Les or ESSIE ANN as they called her like she was the promised child. It was sort of a natural occurence when you think about it because they never had a baby. Newborns are very curious little creatures and everyone is enamoured with them. Well, Les and your mom were on the ranch together and they got along very well, but when other new babies. The 4 old maids really doted on their unmarried brothers for quite a few years with making sure they had lunches, altered clothes, darned socks, etc. It was the continuation of their "little house on the almost prairie".
Ida was 10 years older than my dad and so she was like 42 or so when my parents married. Jim, Dave,Dona, Bonnie and Inice all wed at about the same time.......within a couple year period. Leah ended up moving from Igloo back to the store in Pringle. Uncle Bud (Mike, Jr..) passed away with pneumonia and then Uncle Pete (my great grandfather's brother moved into the store) as he had nowhere to go and no money and HE WAS NEVER MARRIED. Poor grandma.........she was an old lady and still had all these KIDS around, which sort of included Uncle Pete, too. Her first child probably did not get married until she was about 60 and then the grand children started appearing like guppies. She died at almost 80 and only had Les and Lani that were "grown up" and out of high school. Her husband had died many years back and she raised them all by herself. That is likely whey they were so clannish.
Verna Grace Stutsmann-Zeimet was a pretty nice old gal. She could not possibly care for all those kids on the little homestead (that was Aunt Ida and Mary's CABIN) so she managed to get a little store opened in Pringle in a ramshackled building with ONE ROOM on the back of it for a living/sleeping area. They eventually added on some little rooms but that was much later. So, these all grown up children were living at the store or coming back every weekend until they were ALL over 30 and some in their 40's. They just sat and kept living their childhood until approximately your age now for an average. They were too old to play with toys, so they just ate what grandma and the girls cooked and STARED at each other. TV did not appear in SD until about 55 or so and they JUST SAT AND relived the old days staring at each other. So, after the FLURRY/FRENZY of marriages to the boys and some sisters all in a row, the old maids had no one to dote on. Oddly, when every new baby was born, the maid would dote on that one and then move onto the next new baby.
When you said Jo was accepting your kids, IT WAS NO SURPRISE TO ME. It is another repeat of the Zeimet scenario. I have thought a great deal about that in the last couple days. I know that they did not miss a marriage or funeral and always prized little babies.........but just as you stated Jo was tight as a clam, so were they and a virtual chorus line of them existed. Perhaps it was more a line comparable to the GERMAN FRONT in WWII or the WALL OF CHINA . Remember, these old gals sat around and henpecked everything - stuck their noses in everyone's business and sort of all had power struggles with each other to get attention. Well, that is very similar to what Jo went through with your mother. Because the maids virtually did not recognize your grandmother or your mother, within our household, Lani was the star. She danced, had worked like a man on the ranch, was pretty smart in school, taught dancing to everyone in the county, played in band and twirled to the delight of all who saw her on the street, was homecoming queen and prom queen, etc. THAT IS A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW. Jo was competing with her when she was in grade school. She learned to play the clarinet before she was in music lessons and also learned the violin like a pro when she was very young. She worked like a demon to dance and was a straight A+ scholar. It was a pretty wicked competition. Well, Jo was in the 5th grade and your mom was a beautiful young woman. I think that is where your Aunt Jo got soooooooooo ego oriented and she bonded heavily with the old maids. They really adored her. The babies were almost of the cute diaper stage and Jo jumped into first place in the popularity contest. I alway sat on the sidelines with your grandma sort of staring in amazement. I was not a cute baby .........I was sick ALL THE TIME and screamed a lot. The doting phase sort of did not happen. Well, the old maids just kept getting older and more PROTECTIVE of their siblings. This caused tremendous clashes with all the in-laws. So, the division grew with all the cousins, uncles and aunts.
I will say this, and it actually is a repeat. Peter W. Zeimet made every attempt to be special to Lani because of this. That just made Jo WANT your grandfather even more. Well, she did NOT go without him. He was great with her, too but she always kept striving for more recognition.
When grandmother Zeimet died in the late 60's, Leah took over as the new monarch. We jokingly called her MOMMA-LEAH holding services in a mountain monastary. I remember Jo and I talking about it once and laughing that it sounded like some Tibetan Monk or Lama..........Momma-Lama /Momma Leah holding servies in the mountain store. Well, they just kept right on with the family stare-fests and it did not change.
I never tried and your grandmother gave up in even being civil to them. She would be there and sort of shut her mouth and that did not come easily with her.
But, ok -------that situation was what it was. They all stayed brother and sister more than wives/husbands/parents. I think their main loyalty always was a battle in their own minds whether to be a sibling or a family person first. There were certainly enough old maids to keep dragging them back over the line.
So why did so many of the grandchildren not really have a family, either? As I stated earlier, there is NOT ONE grandchild with the name Zeimet that is not adopted. I am proud they did adopt them, but only the girls had kids. In a Custer county where the name Zeimet was like Smith or Jones, it is sort of a paradox.
Even the boys with other names did not have children, either; unless it has happened in the last couple years and I have not been told. But even then, they would have to be in their late 40's when they had one. Baby Charlie is the youngest and he is about 38 or so now. He was a caboose baby as the rest of us were all in high school when he was born.
So, you can see where the "odd traits" from the Zeimet side were passed on, as well. Again, I will state the Zeimets were good and honest people. The only bad bad bad boy was Cyril Fuller who left your grandmother almost emotionally a cripple. But, she married into this bizarre group of people that stayed little kids making mudpies together on the homestead in their hearts. I am not aware of a single one that ever harmed their children or were obcessive or mean. They just stayed staring at each other. Eventually, they all died.......or most of them. Your grandmother really did enjoy you guys and her later years because of this final disconnect. I think she was happy when Australia and Honolulu were happening, too. She was on her own and LOVED IT. She told me how style was important to her. She always had fashionable and trendy clothes. She traveled and had quite a fabulous time. She pushed your mother to be a STAR...........and jo competed like an olympic athlete against her..........and maybe still is. I just sat on the sidelines totally amazed not really fitting into school or the family. I know this left me socially backwards for a very long time. I changed and grew up after hitting Alaska. In some ways, it was very difficult to return. The parents started passing away and the OLD problems were there like the german battlefront with the old maids just repositioned into a different group of people. It was more formidable than you may think. So, I jumped in (to an extent) and started repeating all the same stuff. Well, for myself; stopping and ending it alll is very important. Perhaps the peace your grandmother found is similar to what I lived in Alaska. OH.........please do not think it is becaus people are dying off..........oh no no no. It is just because there is no reason to continue it. The ranch will sell eventually if not this round and then and NOW we should all start living and getting along. That damn Pringle connection will be gone. It was a big intensive high pressure area. I like changes in weather, myself - pete Z.
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