Herbert E. Pianka

When I was a kid back in the 1940s and 1950s, I always looked forward to my birthday card from Uncle Herb, which always included a mint $5 bill. That was an enormous amount of money back then, enough to buy me a hundred candy bars (they were only 5 cents then!). A nickel was a lot of money. Herb came to visit me once when I was in College in Minnesota in the early 1960s. We were not allowed to have cars and he had a brand new Pontiac. He took me out for a ride, pulled over, and offered me the driver's seat of his fancy new car. I was cautious, driving fairly slowly, but Herb said "give it some gas and see what it can do." Here is an old family photo of Johann, Anna, and their 5 kids (Herb is on the left in the back row and my Dad Walter in in the middle). These were some staunch hardworking German immigrants!