Walter Lenz - Morrellville - My Grandfather

Happy Birthday - Walter Lenz - my grandfather - he was born January 27, 1904 in Johnstown.

The son of John Henry Lenz and Rosa (Baum) Lenz. He lived his entire life in Morrellville.

Here he is standing along Virginia Avenue in 1919. It's a treat to see him in these images healthy - because later in life he was crippled and along with becoming deaf.

Here he is with my mother Gail (Patsy) Lenz Cacicia about 1942.

Here he is with Emery Kasterko - also from around the Virginia Avenue area - on a trip they made to Pittsburgh August 22, 1926. At this time - he was working as a Johnstown garbage man. Thanks to him - most of what you see on this site - is stuff he saved from his family scrapbooks and the garbage cans of Morrellville. Years later, I was able to save most of it from being thrown away again - when my grandmother (who threw everything out) was cleaning his stuff out after he died in 1979. I saved what I could - and there are still items in his collection that I have yet to scan.

But this picture is how I best remember him. He is standing with his sister Margaret (Lenz) Thompson Adams at her home in Nanty Glo. To this day - he impacts my life - because of him - anyone that knows me personally - knows how much I walk - most weeks it's around 40 miles - no matter what the weather - hot or cold - rain or shine - doesn't matter much to me. I have done this since I was a teenager - it doesn't help matters that later on - both my mother and grandmother ended up in wheelchairs. So if you see me wandering the streets of Morrellville and Cambria City or the nearby woods of Lower Yoder - stop and say hello. So how will you recognize me - why I am the one that looks like a nutcase - dressed like a bum - listening to my NPR and talking back to the radio.