It's sad to say but I didn't know my Uncle Sonny very well. But, I did have a really nice phone conversation with him one time. I was living with my Grandma Phillips and he called late one night and we talked for quite awhile. I was only 17 years old and expecting our oldest son "Jay" and Uncle Sonny asked me if I was going to name him after him! Ha!Ha! I laughed and told him that If I had a boy that I was going to name him after his dad which I did. Johnathan Jason Hillgartner. Our baby's 36 years old now! We also talked some about my dad because he & Uncle Sonny were best of friends, and Rose & my mom were best friends. Mom & Dad, Aunt Rose and Uncle Sonny ran around together so that made their 4 kid's...Ed, John, Judy & Janet mine and Bob's double cousins. So, we were more like brother's & sister's then we ever were cousins. My parents were silly over their kid's. I remember getting very jealous when my mom would love up on them because I was so crazy over my mom. I wanted her all to myself! Ha!Ha! Ed was and always will be my 2nd brother. We were so close growing up. Bobby was much closer to John. We will always think the world of all 4 of Sonny & Rose's kid's. Bob always said that John was the brother he never had. My dad had nicknames for all of us kid's. Mine was "Punky the Monkey", Bob's was "Rubie Ann" Ed's was "Edna", John's was "Joanne", Janet's was "Fats". I never did remember hearing what his nickname was for Judy. I'm sure that she had one though because my dad had a nickname for everybody. He called Aunt Janette "Nick Nack Nut"! Ha!Ha! My dad had a great sense of humor and so did Uncle Sonny. You can tell that by the some of the picture's from the Land picnic's! Ha!Ha! I love that picture of him at one of the picnic's where he's in front of Grandma Mellinger with his mouth wide open. Aunt Carole's definitely get a charge out of whatever it was that he must have said. Ha!Ha! That's also a funny picture where he & Uncle John are pretending to throw Tina in the water. I was there that year and can still remember that incident. Debbie must have really adored her Uncle Sonny by the looks of that picture where he's sitting on the ground at a picnic and she's got her arm around him when she was a little girl. John & I always enjoyed attending the Land Reunions. Bernard & Alice always did a great job. I know Grandma Mellinger absolutely loved the big family Re-unions. I think the whole family looked forward to them every year. It was always so much fun! Those were the good old day's. Memories that we'll always cherish for a lifetime.