https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIveh5n1DWo

Ahhh, the good old days

I'll post the photo of my moonshiner grandfather when I get home

Got it from my iPhone

1930. My paternal grandfather @ 18. Upper left hand corner.

^ ^ ^

^^^^^^^^




No shit!

My grandfather was a Samurai. Swords and everything.

Great Great Grandpa. He built, owned and Captained ships on lake Erie in the mid-late 1800's. As a widower in his 70's he built a house boat and cruised the Mississippi with his brother. They finally got bored, sold it in Nola and went home

Not too exciting, but mine spent 35 years on the Chicago Fire Department ('30-'65). A big man and tough as nails. Hands the size of baseball mitts.

One day, at 93, he sat down on the couch to watch Wheel of Fortune. Took a nap and didn't wake up.

I never knew either grandfather. My paternal grandfather died in an accident before my father was born. My maternal grandfather died of the effects of radiation exposure induced cancer (he was an early practitioner of radiology).

My paternal grandfather died in 1959 when my dad was not quite 16, from a massive heart attack at age 45 from they believe at the time an embolism from his days as a hard hat diver in the Navy. He quit high school at 17 in 1930 and joined up. Did 8 years then re-joined the day after Christmas 1941. A few mo the later he was at treasure island in the SF bay cutting a training pilot out of a plane that had gone down in the bay and the fuselage rolled back over on him. They brought him up too fast and he got the bends and likely what led to the embolism. He told my uncle he bled from every orifice.

My other grandpa was another interesting guy. Rode his fixed gear bicycle from CA to NY in 30 days when he was 20 in 1934 because he wanted to go on an adventure and riding 100 miles a day had become too easy for him. Eventually he became a pharmacist, did national guard work in a medical unit during WWII and had a good career as a druggist. I lived just a few miles from him growing up and spent lots of time with him almost weekly from childhood until he passed away at 97 a few years ago. Even at 92 he was still putting on his wetsuit and getting abalone with us in the cold frigid northern CA ocean waters.

Thankfully I live about an hour from each of their graves so I can visit them

There are three people in this photo who have not had their image redacted.

The extremely handsome one up front is me. Back row right needs no introduction. Back row left is my Grandfather. He was a Marine prior to WW2 and a Soldier during. He also along with my grandmother worked in the White House for many years.

My Grandfather on my mothers side fought in WW1 as a foot soldier and his stories about it were horrifying. My fathers father was just a laborer and heavy drinker who died when my father was 12.

Jim

My dad. Don't know if it was in WW2 or Korea, he served in both.

My Maternal GF was also a WWI Vet. Mail carrier (on foot) for 30 + years.
No real recall of my Paternal GPs.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
My grandfather was a Samurai. Swords and everything.

That is so very cool, friend

Did you know him ?

My mother's father passed away when she was young. I really would have liked to have known him.

quote:

Originally posted by ersatzknarf:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
My grandfather was a Samurai. Swords and everything.

That is so very cool, friend

Did you know him ?

Thank you. I did, though not well. I spoke no Japanese at the time. We would visit him sometimes in Hawaii. I would see a samurai sword in the corner of the room.

We figured out that he must have been born sometime around 1868, the year of the Meiji Restoration. The Samurai class was completely abolished not long after. He was literally (one of) the Last Samurai. He didn't have my dad until his mid-30s.

He was known as being a very gruff character (almost killed his own brother with a saw once). But he was always very gentle with his grandchildren. You haven't lived until you see a Samurai warrior put on a little baby bonnet just to see his grandchildren laugh.

That's wonderful.

Yes, that would indeed have been a sight to behold.

I'm so glad you got to know him, even just a bit.

Thanks for sharing

My paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Norway, and started work as a lumberjack at about age 14 in about 1910. Got married, had kids, etc, and they divorced in the 1930's (!). Then they REMARRIED (!!), and stayed together until she died.

My maternal grandfather lost his farm in Nebraska in the dustbowl, moved alone out to the Washington state to find work. When he found work, he wrote back to have Grandma bring the family out. She'd never driven a car in her life, but got one from somewhere, loaded it up with kids etc, and drove out to Washington.

Even the women had balls then.

My fraternal grandfather was a Navy Corpsman in the pacific in WWII. My maternal grandfather was Infantry in Europe, same war.

My father flew Wild Weasel missions in an F4 in Vietnam.

I make pretty charts and graphs for clients.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kenpoist,