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Sunday, 8 February, 2004
 
I would be Sluggo, if You'll be Nancy.

I feel compelled to say something about this, much as I'd hate to get stuck in a rut. A Bill Griffiths Zippy from last week: in Bushmillerland it says. A picture named ZippyandNancy.jpeg I may have been there, I believe it is right next door to Winsor McKay's Slumberland. And that name, Bushmiller, that sounds awfully familiar.

The Ernie Bushmiller who created and drew the comic strip Nancy was a cousin of my grandfather, Paul Ernest Bushmiller. My great-grandfather also Paul Bushmiller emigrated from Germany (Dusseldorf) in 1888 when he was 18. He had three brothers who also emigrated one by one as they reached conscription age. The Kaiser and Mr. Bismark had themselves an army. It does not seem to have been terribly popular among my family.

Sigfried and Ernst settled in New York City. Sigfried, I think, first went to St Louis but moved after a month or so. One, whose name my father does not know, went to South Africa. There was also a sister Vera who stayed in Germany. Paul the middle brother came after trying Belgium and England first and settled in St Louis. He thought initially that at 5ft 5in. he was under the conscription height for German army, and only moved to the U.S. and away from european extradition agreements when it became clear he was in fugitive status. The cartoonist was the son of the brother Ernst. On a trip to the east coast in 1938 my dad, whose name is Hugh, met the elder Ernie his wife and daughters. My Dad's family moved from St. Louis to Boston in 1940, at that time they also changed the spelling of the family name from Buchmiller to Bushmiller, which the other branches of the family had done years earlier.

My father notes that Ernst, who seems to have been different from the rest of the family, married an Irish women and having learned english quickly and proficiently got a job as an assistant editor for a New York daily newspaper and eventually got his son a job with the paper as well (where he seems to have sat around drawing pictures of his wife which he published as a strip called Fritzi Ritz). My father also relates that Ernst worked as a performer for a German Vaudeville-like circuit in the Bronx when he was still young.

From all this I determine that east coasters like blonds have more fun, take that California I also note that my other great grandfather, Oscar Nutter, who was also a small man seems to have conspired with the original Paul Bushmiller to pass on the shortness genes to me. I hope they're happy.
11:52:44 PM    comment [];trackback [];




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Prolegemma to any future FAQ.

Who are you again?
paul bushmiller
what is it exactly that you do?
at the least, this.
What is this?
it's a weblog.
How long have you been doing it?
3 or 4 years. I used to run it by hand; Radio Userland is more convenient.
Ever been overseas?
yes
Know any foreign languages?
no
Favorite song?
victoria - the kinks
favorite book?
any book I can read in a clean well lighted place
Is this one of those websites with lots of contentious, dogmatic and brittle opinions?
no
What do you expect to accomplish with this?
something