Henry Small Rosensteel

  General Notes:

About the time I was born, Uncle Henry had been drafted into the United States Army to serve his country during World War II. During that time, he sent me a postcard from New Zealand, which is included in my scrapbook photo album. He was stationed in faraway places of the country but mostly in New Guinea, New Zealand, the South Pacific, and the Hell Hole of the World - Guadal Canal. He saw action in Guadal Canal, an experience he really never liked to discuss. He was a handsome soldier in his uniform, a John Wayne look-a-like.
At the end of the War, he came back home and married a Greensburg girl, Mazli Ann Deibler. They had their first son, Martin Deibler Rosensteel, on August 29, 1952. The twins, David Henry and Michael Henry followed on August 1, 1955. When the boys were small, Carol and I would baby sit them. It was good to have a two to three ratio where boys were concerned.
Henry worked for the A&P Company for many years, serving as the manager for the dairy products section.
Following his retirement from the A&P in 1977, he and Aunt Mazli sold their home in Southwest Greensburg and relocated to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where they lived for twenty-two years. His favorite pastimes were raising orchids, cooking, and he was an avid fisherman. He knew more poems, rhymes, anecdotes, ditties, and jokes than anyone I ever knew. He could keep you entertained for hours.
I visited them in Myrtle Beach, and one evening the three of us went to Briarcliffe Mall for dinner, which was next door to their condo. We stopped to browse in a bookstore. On the checkout counter, there was a stack of books entitled "Hormones from Hell." Uncle Henry asked the young male clerk, -- "Do you know how to make a hormone?" When the young fellow shrugged his shoulder in doubt, Uncle Henry said -- "It's when you don't pay them!" I nearly fell on the floor laughing just as Aunt Mazli walked back into the book store. She knew from the look on my face, Henry had said something. It is a story we have talked about many times.
Aunt Mazli had a name for Henry, which we would call him when I visited them. We called him YERL, and he loved it!
Uncle Henry died on January 23, 1999, in Myrtle Beach; and his ashes were thrown from Apache Pier.

Henry married Mazli Ann Deibler.