Grandpa

[Lionel]

Never knew either one of my two grandpaws. Both having met their reward well before my birth. Mom's dad was a distinguished Midwestern attorney. Handling wills and family law. Contracts. Boring stuff for me but necessary. And Dad's paw was a professional cornetist and farmer. No foolin! I have a picture of him from 1906 or maybe earlier. Playing his cornet in a working band. They must have pulled one nighters on horse and buggy.

My guess would be that he probably spoke in a mild brogue although he was born in the New World.

Grandpa travelled maybe a dozen years with his brothers in a six piece orchestra. Of Irish origin they travelled with a real harp of course. There was a trombone next to grandpappy's cornet. And a clarinet. So what does that make the band? Lemme see... Harp, 2 brass, clarinet and probably a fiddle. Five piece. I must be missing a member. For more than a dozen years on the road. Longer than my own career back in the 1970's.

But gradually their wives needed them back on the farm. What with more and more children. No doubt grandpaw received an automatic pass on WW I. Due to having a family to support. But even before the Great War started the band dissolved. Too many rows to plow, too many mouths to feed. When the harp shattered one day? It foreshadowed the end of a fine band and many good times. Lotsa hooch too.

All went well after disbanding. Well comparatively speaking. Hard workers all of them. Including my paw born in 1915. No doubt the GreatDepression made life really hard. So hard that grandpaw was forced to cut firewood to put food on the Iowa winter dinner table. To feed the eight kids. Cutting the wood with a primitive and dangerous mill motor and blade.

Then a couple days before the US entrance into the second world war a mooring line holding down the saw motor failed. The saw flew through the air at maybe 90 miles per hour. And that was the end of grandpaw. Violent death. At least he never had to see his own six sons off to a foreign war. Although poor grandma did. She I knew well.

After grandpaw was laid to rest his oldest brother finished the gruesome task of cutting the rest of the firewood. So my own paw and his brothers wouldn't have to stand in the dried blood of their own father... Great uncle Pat I think it was. And he died six months later himself. Troopers. All of them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gonna go visit my only grandchild Saturday. My daughter's daughter. Pretty 8 month old little thing. Lucky girl as her mom and dad are the perfect parents. Heck, at least she gets to know both her grandpaws.
_________________
"Check me if I'm wrong Sandy but if I kill all the golfers they're gonna lock me up & throw away the key"!

Carl Spackler (aka Bill Murray, 1980).

[Comeback]

Yeah, never knew my grandfathers either. You, however, know lots more about yours than I do!

I think now and then about how different life is for our three adult sons, family men all, and our seven grandchildren. All of them have known or presently know all of their grandparents and have spent significant meaningful time with them.

Jim

[Robert Rowe]

I am of Eastern European heritage. My grandparents came to this country as hostilities were breaking out, just prior to The Great War.

My one surviving grandfather informed that HIS grandfather was a Russian Cossack.

Hmmm ... . Likely, explains my prejudice toward stupid people.


~ r2 ~
deplorable horn player
_________________
~ Love animals ... don't eat them. ~

I miss Genghis Khan ....

[LaTrompeta]

My grandfather also left Europe during the most intense time of Soviet Oppression. He has some incredible stories to tell. Unfortunately, I don't speak with him much (he's alive and well at my parents' house) because both he and I are rather anti-social. I guess it runs in the family.
_________________
Please join me as well at:
https://trumpetboards.com