GERVAIS RICHARD CUSHING (Dick) was born in 1908. He married Clara Petshow. They had seven children, five boys and two girls. Dick had a well-developed sense of humor and took greta delight in a good joke. On one occaision, his daughter-in-law (Jim's wife) neede a match but couldn't find one. She asked Dick for one, but he didn't have any. Sometime there after, Dick presented Glenda with a sack full of match books. She thought that this supply would last her a long time...until she examined the matchbooks more closely. Each matchbook had only one match in it. Dick had used all but one of the matches in each book, then set it aside. When he had several books, he packaged them and gave them to Glenda.
One Sunday, Dick placed a wager with his son, Jim on the score of a football game that they planned to watch on T.V. later that afternoon. While he knew that the Sunday show was a rebroadcast of a game which had taken place on the previous day, no one had watched it. It proved to be an exciting game and the score was just as Dick had predicted. Jim was poorer by $5.00. It wasn't until later that Dick admitted, with a grin, that he had listened to the game on the radio the night before.
Dick was a good loser too. He played cribbage with his boys, and sometimes he played pitch with his children. The fellows usually wone, but one evening the ladies won - and Dick had the score pad which documented the event framed and mounted as a reminder of feminine superiority!
Dick passed away on October 26, 1982. Clara continues to attend the reunions - both Cushing and Petshow - as her health allows. She celebrated her 100th birthday recently.
