I’ve never been particularly good at keeping track of extended family. Partly because I have so many of them!
My mother was oldest of ten children, while my father is second oldest of six. So, I had a lot of aunts and uncles, which means a whole lot of cousins!
But the fact is that my mother’s father (my grandfather, Tandy Stroud) was one of eleven children. So, I also had a whole lot of great-aunts and great-uncles — mostly living in Colorado — who I never did manage to get straight in my mind.
Well, come to find out that one of my cousins is in the process of making a movie about my great-uncle, Kelley “Dolphus” Stroud, an aspiring Olympic athlete who had to travel from Colorado Springs to the Olympic trials in Boston on foot when he was denied funding to travel by train due to his race. It’s really quite a fascinating story, as detailed in this article and in the video below.
Making a movie is an expensive proposition. I’ve made a small donation, but I’m mostly doing my part by helping to spread the word.