Person:Paul Merrell (1)

WINF: Y

Paul Uhrig Merrell Memories By Baby Sister - Cora Lee Merrell Morris As I was 10 years younger than Paul, I do not recall a lot about his younger days, so I'll let the older brothers and sisters tell those stories. I do recall lots of baseball games played in the front yard of the brick house in Marshall, Mo. Also, nearly every night in the summer time making homemade ice-cream - the boys had to turn the crank on the freezer and us girls sat on it so it wouldn't move - I usually sat on it first as I wasn't heavy enough when the ice cream got hard. When the interstates were first built with the cloverleaf exits, Paul was coming to our house in Kansas City and at North Kansas City, he looped up, down, and around the cloverleaf several times. Lost Again! At Lake Viking - Gallatin, Mo. - we gave Paul directions on how to get to our house. He ended up across the lake - could see us and our house but didn't know how to get there. They finally made it. One time, he came up late at night - about midnight - went out on the dock, asked Gene how deep the water was - took off his clothes and dove in (skinny dipped). Gene & I owned a restaurant (The Koffee Kup) at Gallatin, Mo. Our cook was going on vacation so we needed some help. We called Paul & Dorothy in Florida and asked if Dorothy (Dodo) would come up and help cook. We would pay her and Paul could tag along. They came up in their Airstream trailer and parked in our back driveway. Paul said they were world famous Chefs as they were called to come from Florida. Paul was a great PR person with the customers. He loved to visit with them, but kept a cloth with him to wipe off tables - he would sit and visit and tell the customers to let him know if Gene was looking his way as he had to look busy! We called him Apostle Paul, the man of the cloth. He ate all of our mistakes! Once in a while he would help in the kitchen. If we had more than one order, he would say, "The Pressure's On". One day he was fixing a grilled ham & cheese sandwich, buttered the bread, put it on the grill , when the bread was toasted, he slapped the two slices together, put it in the window - No Ham or Cheese!! Great help?? While helping us at the restaurant, we would get up early (4:30 am) go to work about 5:30 am and get through about 4:00 pm. We would go back to the Lake, Paul & Dodo would take about a half hour nap then get up and go fishing. We had a paddle boat & they would go out in that and go along the shoreline and catch crappie. One day they had so many fish that I had to go on our jet ski and get the ones they had on the stringer, so the game warden wouldn't catch them for having too many fish. Then Gene & Paul would work for an hour or so filleting them. Paul & Dorothy both loved to fish. Gene and I enjoyed the two weeks they spent with us very much. Lots of laughs. When Paul and Dodo lived at Pomme de Terre Lake, we went down with our purple jet boat. Paul wanted to water ski, so we started pulling him, he kept motioning to "Go Faster". When Gene was afraid to pull him any faster, we slowed up. Paul said he was hanging on for dear life - he would try anything! Gene and I had the pleasure of seeing Paul 3 weeks before he passed away. All our brothers and sisters were there along with nieces, nephews, inlaws and outlaws. Ray filled Paul's plate for him and I filled Bea's. I put baked beans on Bea's plate and Paul didn't have any. He said "Get me some beans". That is the last time I'll get to do anything for him. It was an honor I'll never forget. What wonderful memories of a great brother and his family. He was so lucky to have such a great family and wonderful daughter-in-laws. He was so proud of them.

1.   John Merrill. Merrill Family. (Downloaded from ancestry.com).