Siblings - My Brother

 

Edward William Kludt

         My brother, Edward William Kludt, nicknamed “Eddie Bill” or “Eddie” and later “Ed”, was born 24 March 1964 in Centralia, Lewis County, Washington to William Edward Kludt and Joycelyn Bea Keesee.  At the time of his birth, we were living on a dairy farm in Rochester on Browne Road (now Applegate).

I have a memory of when we brought him home from the hospital (this was the old Centralia General Hospital located on North Iron Street).  We parked across the street from the hospital and waited for mom to come out (I don’t remember who was in the car with me – I was only 4 years old).

Mom said that he became my “living doll”.  I would dress him up in my doll clothes (I had a really big doll).  I can remember a time when we stayed with Papa and Grandma Kludt and Grandma kept calling him “her little stink pot”.  She was changing his dirty diaper.  Mom would always rock him to sleep, and Grandma refused.  So, he cried a lot when we were there.  The reason mom rocked him was that when he was first born, they discovered he had a hernia.  They had to wait until he was a few months old before operating.  So, he wasn’t allowed to cry.

         When he was about three years old, he wandered away without telling anybody.  Mom asked me if I knew where he was, and I said no.  She called his name and searched all over the house and around it.  Then she went down to the barns and started calling his name.  She was so afraid that he might have fallen into the open malt pit we had next to the barn and milking parlor.  Suddenly, I said, “Mom, is that him way over there?” pointing across the road where we had a very huge pasture.  I can see this orange hat bobbing up and down.  She hollered at him, and he came back.  She told him to never wander away again without anybody with him.  His reply, “I wasn’t by myself.  I had the dog(s) with me.”

         As we were the only kids, we played together a lot.  I remember one time when we were playing a game outside.  I can’t remember if we were fighting or not.  But we were running around the exterior of the house.  He was chasing me.  When, suddenly, I heard this cry.  I went back and discovered he had fallen, hitting his nose on the concrete slab that was holding the hinges to the door covering the stairwell into the underground root cellar (mom stored all her canned goods and root vegetables).  I think he had broken his nose.  There was a lot of blood.  After that incident, it didn’t take much for him to get bloody noses – especially in the summer.

         The summer of 1967, we moved from Rochester back to the family farm in Zenkner Valley (just north of the city limits of Centralia).  We still played a lot by ourselves.  But we also had a couple of neighbors (about a half mile away) that we played with as well.

         Ed started school in the Fall of 1969 at Logan School.  Centralia School District had this as the Kindergarten Center for everyone.  Then from 1970 to 1973, he attended Fords Prairie Elementary School for Grades 1-3.  This is because in the fall of 1970, Centralia School District decided to have the elementary schools be partnered – one school will have Grades 1-3 while the other school will have Grades 4-6.  There was one school that had all six grades.  Because of that, we were never in the same school at the same time.  From 1973 to 1976, he was at Oakview Elementary School for Grades 4-6.  Junior High covered Grades 7 & 8 and the High School had 9^th through 12^th.  He graduated in 1982.  He attended L H Bates Technical School out of Tacoma to earn his diesel mechanic’s certificate.  He finished his coursework early, completed his internship and received his certificate in March 1985.

         Ed was smart.  He could, if he wanted to, be a 4.0 student.  Actually, he did when he was in college.  There’s a story my mom tells about him when he was in the 5^th grade.  She was volunteering at the school and his teacher saw her in the hall way and approached her.  He said he was concerned about Ed failing math.  Mom looked at him and said that it couldn’t be possible, that he was doing his sister’s 9^th grade math (that would have been algebra).  Mr Bower (nicknamed Frosty) wouldn’t believe her until about a month later.  This was about the time when schools administered the Iowa Skills test; the results came back – Ed tested out at 9^th Grade math!  When Frosty saw mom in the hallways again, he apologized.  The problem – Ed wasn’t being challenged; therefore, he didn’t turn in his work!

         Ed’s extracurricular activities included Scouting, Band, and Wrestling.  He started his Scouting career as a Cub Scout in the second grade (Wolf).  I can remember him working on his Pinewood Derby cars, but I never went to any of his pack meetings (which is a shame as it is a family meeting).  He earned his Eagle Scout in 1976.  At that time, he was the  youngest Scout to earn Eagle in the Council.  His project was clean-up of a local cemetery along with his best friend.  I remember going to his Court of Honor after I got off work.  He was also involved with Explorer Search & Rescue, first as our subject/victim (he was too young to join), then as a regular member. Explorers are for ages 14-20.

         He started band when he was in the 5^th Grade.  He played trombone.  This was where they learned how to play the instruments and read the music.  It was held during lunch hour.  When he went to Junior High, he was in a regular band class.  What was interesting is that our dad was also in band during his high school years playing the trombone.  I can remember one time when we had our cousins visiting that he got out his trombone to show them what he can do.  When he finished playing, he removed the mouthpiece, and he had blood all around his mouth.  Oh, and there was another time that we attended a concert at the Junior High School.  This would have been when he was in the 8^th grade.  After his concert, he joined us in the stands while watching the 7^th grade.  Mom & I asked him about a person in that band, we both thought it was a relative of ours (nephew/cousin).  His reply was, “that is Pete Eddings”, which was not the name we were thinking of.  However, we found out later that it was the same person, he was adopted by his stepfather.

         Ed married Rose Ellen Tiller on the 19^th of November 1983 at Free United Methodist Church in Centralia.  Rose was still attending high school at the time.  They lived in a trailer house on her mother’s property in Grand Mound.  I’m not sure exactly how they met or how long they dated before getting married.  There are a couple of stories that Mom tells about Rose when they were dating.  One of the stories is that Rose was at the house up in the valley and they were playing pool in the basement.  Mom asked if Rose was staying for dinner.  Response was “yes”.  Then Ed asked what was for dinner and mom replied, “your favorite”.  When mom hollered that dinner was ready, only Ed came up the stairs.  Rose decided to leave after hearing what Ed’s favorite dish was.  So, next time, mom decided to do a sneaky thing – she didn’t say what was for dinner.  She just cut up the meat and put it on the serving tray.  By the time it got to Rose, it was gone.  She knew she couldn’t go back into the kitchen to slice up more as that would give it away.  You know, I don’t think Rose ever tried it.  What was the favorite dish,  you ask?  It was beef tongue.  Not one of my favorites either.

         Ed passed away on 31 March 1985 as a result of a drunk-driving car accident.  He was with a couple of friends as well as Rose and a girlfriend of one of the friends, celebrating 21’s (Ed and his two buddies all had birthdays at the same time of the year).  Rose and the girl friend had stayed behind while the guys were taking one of the friend’s home.  The driver lost control of the car and crashed.  Only one survived (he was thrown clear due to being asleep in the back seat).  The sad part, Rose & Ed just discovered that she was pregnant.  Candace Lee Kludt was born nine months later on the 5^th of December 1985.