What does an Elephant have to do with a Veteran? I certainliy didn’t think the answer to this question was anything at all. I was scanning the photos out of Cousin Jean Bourscheidt’s scrapbook. It’s slow work and i needed to be careful. I had to remove the delicate photographs carefully, scan them and then return them carefully. Cousin Jean did a wonderful job documenting the photograps. She wrote in the scrapbook and also on the backs of the photos. Since i was scanning them to review later, I wasn’t really prepared for what popped up next.

As the photo uploaded to my computer, I read Lucas Chelikas, Died in the Last War. I don’t even think I saved the photo, I just got up and told Cris I was going to take a break and we were going to get some ice cream.

I haven’t been able to find any records for Lucas but I did find one for Victor. A newspaper article from 1933 in which, he and his brother Robert, had gone fishing and died in floodwaters. Three men tried to rescue them, but where unscuccessful.

Tomorrow, as we remember Veterans of today and yesterday, may you think of these two boys, elephants in their Kindergarten Circus and later as a fisherman and a solider. May they continue to be remembered not just by us but by their families. Gone but remembered.

Here’s some more circus performers in Cousin Jean’s Kindergarten Circus 1928