Tell Me About Your Grandfather

[tbradsim1]

Great Grandfather on my Grand Mother’s side, wealthy, lots of land, top mule breeder, people came from Texas to buy his mules. My Grandfather On Dads side was a big German, hands wouldn’t fit in large gloves. Shrewd, in the fifties Oil Company started a pipeline on the western edge of his land. Neighbor said do they know it’s not the right land, Grandpaw said no they don’t and you’d better not tell them. Finishing Grandpaw got in his 40 Ford truck, informed the Foreman they put the pipeline on the wrong land, they offered him 10,000$, he got a lawyer and got 100,000$. I could do no wrong with him, I was the only boy grandchild. My Mother’s Dad Family cane from England, Granger’s, he was a farmer, mild happy man, could hoe 2 rows of cotton to his sons one. Could pick over 300 lbs of cotton in a day. Out of 55 Grandchild I was the only one that had twins, he’d had 2 sets of twins, came to Baton Rouge to see them, they never traveled so it was a big deal for them. I’m lucky I had a good family.

 

[cigrmaster]

My grandfather on my mothers side was my favorite. He taught me how to play tennis which I became very good at. He was a pipe smoker and I would sit at his feet while he smoked away. He was a gentleman and never raised his voice. In the mid 50's he moved my mother and his son to Bay Harbor Island which was close to the hospital he worked at. He was an anesthesiologist and loved playing tennis and golf and loved the warm weather. Bay Harbor Island is right next to Bal Harbor and very close to Collins ave. on Miami Beach. He got a cabana at the Americana hotel which was maybe a 2 mile walk from his home. He bought a 4 unit apartment complex, rented 3 lived in one and did pretty good for himself. My mothers brother was 15 years older than my mom and he acted like she was the mother. I know he didn't like that as years later when I got into my teens I would ask him and he said he hated that shhit when she trird to boss him around. He also became a doctor and they became closer after that.

My dad's father was an attorney who started his own office and then when my dad came in with his masters degree in taxation, it was turned into a corporate tax law office which my dad ran for over 40 years till he passed away in 1997. My dad had a brother who was also an attorney but he wasn't in my dads league when it came to smarts. I used to party with my uncle when I was older and in a lot of ways closer to him than my dad. We came to Florida on all vacations and any time my mother wanted to bring us kids to visit her parents. We played golf and tennis and spent a lot of time at the beach. It was a lot of fun. I even got pretty good at shuffle board. lol.

The desire to move to Florida was ingrained into my life when I was young as I loved Florida and I eventually got to move here full time in 2003.

In 1998 after my dad died, my mother, sister and I bought a vacation home in Venice FL on the west side of the state. I finally got to move here full time in 2003 when I bought my second home in Sarasota. Hell I had my golf membership at the TPC at Prestancia before I closed on my house.

 

[username]

Neither of my grandparents smoked a pipe and they quit cigarettes before I was born. However my grandpa on my fathers side played the bagpipes.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

My grandfather grew up in south Alabama, during the great depression. He was a short man, probably due to a lack of nutrition. His dad, my great grandfather was a share cropper. They say my great grandfather was a very nice man... and the landowner he worked for was not. My grandad carried a chip on his shoulder for sure, I was told it was due to the way his dad was treated. He raised 5 children as a carpenter, who walked to work everyday. He was a hell of a man.. He raised chickens and hogs, along with a complete garden, to feed his wife and five kids. He was a great fisherman, a deadly hunter and could build anything with wood. He didnt smoke a pipe but he rolled PA in cigarette papers, until he decided smoking was a sin.. Haha. An old school simple man, he would hardly ever compliment you or show any emotion.. but I could feel his love just the same. I don't know how much school he attended.. I'd say very little. He didn't read well, but was a wise man. His Superstitions were taken very seriously, almost like a guide through any situation. He died in 2008 and I was able to spend a few full days with him right before he passed. We laughed and he told stories of Hank Williams before he was famous, along with other tales of women and moonshine. A few days after that he died in the home he built himself, and on own his terms.

 

[mikethompson]

Not having any grandfathers in my life makes me work even harder to be the best grandfather for my two grandsons.

Scott, from what you have told me about your grandkids, I'd say you are on the right track.

claimed that her father only smoked matches since he was forever relighting his pipe

ha! That sounds like me!

He taught me ... how to become a man.

Great story, and great reflections on his life.

My uncle Max used to organize a card game with the other workers every week, right after they received their pay packets, and fleece them out of a proportion of their earnings which went back into the business. This continued until the workers wives started showing up to grab the pay packet before their husbands could gamble it away.

Ha! I can see why the wives would show up on payday! Great story.

 

[mikethompson]

I met my maternal grandfather only once when I was about 3 or so. My parents took me to Austria for a visit. I don't have much recollection of him, but he was a butcher and I do have a picture of him showing me one of his trucks. I would like to have known him, but he passed away when I was 5.

My paternal grandfather led an interesting life. When he was young he caught polio and as a result one of his legs had less muscle mass than the other. This didn't stop him from becoming a great swimmer, and it was at the pool that he met my grandmother.

During WWII he served as a motorcycle courier in England, as he was too big to fit in the bomber cockpits. When the war ended he returned home, got married, and had two sons.

He worked as a motorcycle police officer in the OPP, a steelworker, owner and operator of a barbershop, a pipe organ salesman, professional wrestler, motivational speaker, and in his later years a hynotherapist.

I have many fond memories of him, and miss a great deal.

An screenshot of a Rochester newspaper from 1950 with his picture in the wrestling pages:



And his trading card, of which i have an original

 

[bnichols23]

My dad's father I didn't know; died in '50 before I was born. Maternal though, I knew well. High school football coach, city schools superintendent for 30 years, drove nothing but Buicks. Grand old gentleman, born in 1884 in VA, died in '73. Presbyterian elder. Mowed the yard in long sleeves & tie. My grade school was named for him. Almost as big an influence on me as my father. I get what's left of my hair from him.

 

[trouttimes]

Both grandfathers were from Georgia. Both grew up on farms and both became military men. One Navy and one Marine. After service they both went back to the farm were one became a chain gang prison warden. The other got into politics on a state level. He became a state senator. Both smoked pipes like a smokestack. Prince Albert was their tobacco of choice.

 

[ssjones]

@ bnichols, When they name a school after you, that says something.

 

[bnichols23]

@ bnichols, When they name a school after you, that says something.

Agreed. He was one heck of a guy. Not a pipe smoker, unfortunately.

 

[Old School 3319]

View attachment 52829
Great Grandfather on my Grand Mother’s side, wealthy, lots of land, top mule breeder, people came from Texas to buy his mules. My Grandfather On Dads side was a big German, hands wouldn’t fit in large gloves. Shrewd, in the fifties Oil Company started a pipeline on the western edge of his land. Neighbor said do they know it’s not the right land, Grandpaw said no they don’t and you’d better not tell them. Finishing Grandpaw got in his 40 Ford truck, informed the Foreman they put the pipeline on the wrong land, they offered him 10,000$, he got a lawyer and got 100,000$. I could do no wrong with him, I was the only boy grandchild. My Mother’s Dad Family cane from England, Granger’s, he was a farmer, mild happy man, could hoe 2 rows of cotton to his sons one. Could pick over 300 lbs of cotton in a day. Out of 55 Grandchild I was the only one that had twins, he’d had 2 sets of twins, came to Baton Rouge to see them, they never traveled so it was a big deal for them. I’m lucky I had a good family.

Striking resemblance

 

[Old School 3319]

My maternal grandfather was an onry little man that worked construction after WWII. He always had a story. My favorite memory was when he went to the doctor. He had to give a urine sample every time he went, so one time he snuck a baby food jar filled with Apple juice in his coat pocket when the nurse came back in to retrieve the sample he went to hand it to her and said wait looks a little cloudy better run it thru again and swallowed it down the nurse almost past out

 

[tfdickson]

My mother’s father was born in 1893 and served in WWI as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He would have been 85 when I was born but he passed in 1967. He smoked Lucky Strikes and but no pipes as far as I‘ve been told. His brother, my great uncle, however was an avid pipe smoker. Here is a picture of him in a promotional shot for his business.

 

[puffy]

My grand father was a farmer here in N.Carolina..He was the the first person that I remember seeing smoke a pipe..I spent many days as a kid fishing with him.He smoked his pipe as we fished.He was born in 1880 He used to tell me stories of what life was like before electricity and cars..I still miss him after all these years.

 

[ashdigger]

My maternal grandfather smoked cigarettes from the age of 13 to when he passed away at 87. He was a mechanic, but before then he was a bus driver. He did whatever it took to put food on the table. I lived with him during my 12, 13, 14 and 15 th summer vacations. He owned gas stations on Route 66, before I-40. Learned a lot from that man. Mainly the value of hard work.

My paternal grandfather smoked a pipe starting in WW2. He was a cook and was in the third wave at Iwo Jima. He rarely spoke about his service but he was extremely proud of the photo of him smoking a pipe in the field kitchen. He started smoking cigarettes at a young age and when he was leaving boot camp the base had a table set up with Kaywoodie pipes for $1 and cloth sacks of tobacco for free. He said it was an easy decision. After the war he transferred from the Navy to the newly formed Air Force and that brought him from Wisconsin to Las Vegas. He was an extremely kind soul. I still have some of the fishing poles and fly rods he made as a hobby.

 

[musicman]

Like many of you, I never knew either of my Grandfathers, as both died before I was born.

My Dad's dad was an oil roughneck, and not the nicest guy around. He was a womanizer and walked out while my grandmother was pregnant with my dad. As soon as the work would dry up in an area, he'd just move on to another area in the south where he could find work, family be damned. I have one half-aunt because of him, and my dad's pretty sure he probably has other half-siblings he hasn't even met. When my dad was 11, his mom died, and after spending a few years living with an aunt he was sent to live with his dad in Texas. His dad had been a real drinker but had gotten clean, but his (granddad's) girlfriend at the time was currently drinking. One night my granddad, fed up with his girlfriend's drinking, decided to show her what a fool she was apparently being, and did this by drinking every last beer left in the house, throwing the empty bottles out the window. And that was apparently the sort of guy my paternal grand-dad was. I always think it's amazing my dad has accomplished what he has. He was born into abject poverty in Southern MS to a single mom who died when he was 11, and managed to get himself through college and graduate school and have a very successful career as an economist and professor. Truly a self-made man.

My Mom's dad is apparently the grand-dad I would have wanted to hang out with. My Mom talks about him glowingly, and apparently he was into fine dining, good wine, good literature, and good music. He was a good looking guy, and I've seen at least one picture of him smoking a pipe. He also smoked cigarettes, and died with one in his hand in the hospital. He'd had a heart attack, and asked for a smoke in his hospital room (this was the 70s when one could smoke pretty much anywhere), and had another heart attack while smoking that last cigarette.

 

[rajangan]

My 'grandfather' was the man who took care of my grandmother when she fled my abusive grandpa after mom got married and moved out.

He was from Ternopol, Carpathia. He dropped out of school in grade 4 to apprentice as a cordwainer. When Germany took over, he was conscripted, carried a rifle he never used, and fixed boots in the war for them.

After the war, his fellow shoe maker friend and him were sleeping in a German barn and got arrested by the Soviets and imprisoned. The two eventually escaped, wandered for two months, and turned themselves into the western allies.

Papa eventually came to Alberta to work on the railroad in exchange for citizenship. Him and his friend started a shoe shop where he met my grandmother. He loved her dearly, and she died young, in her early 60s. Papa was the only grandparent who lived long enough to meet my wife, on his deathbed.

He was the kind of guy who would put secret compartments in his boots. The hipsters would have loved him.

 

[alsatmem]

Never knew any grandparents or father. Stole a pack of Lucky Strikes when I was 7 from an uncle I met once. Smoked all of them. said “f... everyone“ and left at 14. finished raising myself. Now 51. and been smoking ever since those lucky strikes. I like tobacco In all legal forms.

 

[bent1]

Musicman, quite a story, and an amazing father.

 

[bent1]

I had two truly wonderful grandfathers, I’ll write about them soon. But I want to write about my Great Great Grandfather. He was born in Chicago, his father was a shop keeper, mother a home maker. He was a bright fellow, studied mechanical engineering.

He moved to Pennsylvania & worked as a coal mine engineer. When the gold rush hit in 1848, he decided to go west. During the trip out west, the wagon train he was traveling with was attacked by an Indian tribe. He managed to escape, and met up with another wagon train a week later. Made his way to San Francisco, spent time looking for work.

He worked for a gold mining company in the San Juinata Mine. He developed a process called hydraulic fracturing rock to keep from dynamite usage. He moved up to Mine Superentendent, hit it big. He returned to Pennsylvania, married his highschool sweetheart, and opened the largest greenhouse east of the Mississipi.

His greenhouse was a success. After the civil war, he bought 20 acres of land on the outskirts of town, built homes for freed slaves, and gave them homes, and jobs in the greenhouse.