I decided to look up a few details about Suzanne Wells, the birthday girl of the previous story.

As it turns out, she was born in January of 1950, so that means that her birthday party was in January of 1957.

Also, when I checked the 1950 census, I saw that she was only child, so it couldn’t have been her older brother who came up behind me.

Her parents were Eugene and Mabel Wells, and they had just gotten wed in 1948. He was 38 and she was 42, so Mabel was about 44 when Suzanne was born. Sadly, Mabel died in 1951 of a cerebral hemorrhage, so Suzanne never got to know her mother.

More interesting still, her father Eugene, who was born in Missouri, according to his obituary was for a time a professor of chemistry at Buena Vista College in Iowa. He went on to work at the Food and Drug Administration, and in 1945 became the director of quality control at Sterling Drug Company in Myerstown, retiring in 1974. My mother went to work there in 1964 and was there for about ten years, and during her last few years there she worked as an inspector, so she must surely have known Eugene Wells. Small world, isn’t it?

The obit (he died in 1991 at 82, apparently still living at that Womelsdorf RD 1 address in that Great Stone House) mentions that he had a second wife named Lillian who survived him along with his two daughters, Suzanne and Katherine.

And he had a son named Thomas Stewart.

Hmm.

His first wife’s previous last name was Stewart. Her marriage to Eugene was her second marriage.

That sent me back to the 1950 census.

Yes, it’s there. Right below Suzanne’s name are Kathryn and Thomas Stewart. Thomas was 14 in 1950, so in January 1957 he would have been 20 or 21.

So Thomas may very well have been the fellow who unfairly grabbed me from behind. His address in the obit is Yokohama, Japan. Let’s see, if he’s still alive, he’s about 13 years older than I am. That would make him 88. Payback time? Happily I don’t hold a grudge.

Or do I?