Was your Grandpa cool ?

[Dan]

Very cool story Buzzard!

Not knowing the exact year, I am guessing $50 would be around 3 or 5 months pay for an average worker. Rough guess, a lil over 10 grand in todays economy" That is a big thank you. And an even better tale to hear or read. I think it is really great he brought them some food. Old world class and had to be a good guy.

 

[Buzzard]

Dan He was a young man probably in his teens when he came to the USA. Frank and Jessie were Confederate veterans and the war had been over for years. That had to make it in the 1870s, $50 in gold was an awesome sum in that time period. People weren't even working for $1 a day at that time. I never met the man myself only the stories that my Dad and Uncle told me and they're now both gone. I tried hard one time to find his citizenship papers but they must have got lost in the family shuffles at one time or another. But I thought it was very interesting and was trying to do the best I could to keep the story going.

 

[2door]

What a great thread...
Thanks again Lefty for starting it. I only wish more folks would share their stories of these wonderful people who were most certainly the Pillars of the Earth. The foundations on which we all live today. Keep them coming guys.
Tom

 

[weekend-fun]

hes still alive and HECK YEEEEAAA!!!!

he helped me with my projects, and even picked up a bike for me\


old people rock

 

[Dan]

hes still alive and HECK YEEEEAAA!!!!

he helped me with my projects, and even picked up a bike for me\


old people rock

Please, please trust me Weekend. Print that and give it to him. You will see a grin like you wouldn't believe and more importantly, he deserves to know that not only how highly you think of him and thank him. Also that you are a good enough person to share it. Really cool little brother!

Your so right, Gray hairs rock. They all got some great stories and information. Soak it up! (just my HO)

 

[leftywoody]

My Grandpa on my mom's side was a message courier in WW1 . He rode a cycle and even jumped trenches with it . He was a great fellow but I only knew him from brief visits to are home .He died young at 65 from liver cancer . If only he had gotten his gall bladder removed when it got infected he would have lived much longer . He was a drafting engineer for most of his adult life . Pic is of an army cycle used for courier service .

 

[weekend-fun]

in 15-20 yrs, I hope at least 1 of my granddaughters is making a post in this thread

lol and ill be the 50 yr man blabbing away

 

[noco]

my father's father died when i was 3....his funeral is my first memory in life....my mothers father passed away 3 years ago...he probably still owes speeding tickets

 

[leftywoody]

Thought of trying this again for any new members that could share some stories . Or any members that didn't catch this the first time .

 

[Dan]

Man! I forgot about this thread. Thanks Lefty. Is a great one.

 

[Thud]

Awsome thread!
I never met my fathers father as he died in a car accident when my father 5 years old. but the stories my father & uncles told of leroy Lane clearing the swamp out around the old dairy farm with dynamite & draft horses are pricless. I did know my step grandfather quite well, grama sold the dairy to be a school teacher in Bigrapids michigan & married the local shopkeeper/widower. He was a genuine nice guy & loved to fish & tell storries on how he tamed the 4 "corncob savages" that were his step sons LOL!

Gandfather on mothers side was a true craftsman, made his own fishing gear, cabnetry, gentlman farmer & worked in the foundrys around BigRapids. WW1 vet. I have his GI .45cal long colt single action side arm. He never talked about the war even when asked.
I spent every summer vacation between those two houses & learned everything these old men would teach me. how to dry a fish head, making rafts, gardening,hunting,fishing,& lots more about life in general.
they are all long gone now...Dad too.
thanks for the walk down nostalgia lane. I think I'll go fishing with the grand son this weekend (he's not quite 2 yet LOL)
T

 

[Elmo]

My grampa was an old man when I was born, 75 years old. He was the most honest man I ever knew and one of the physically strongest. Even in his 80's he could move anything that he took hold of. He had absolutely no nonsense about him and would not tolerate any in anyone else. He still rode a bicycle in his early 80's. He gave it to me when he could no longer hear the traffic coming behind him. He had some wonderful stories about cattle driving and life in the old days. He was the major influence in shaping my character as I was growing up. He farmed 40 acres with a horse and a mule all his life and raised 4 kids that way. When he was 85 he still worked about 15 acres with his plow mule. Way before my time one of his part time help was arrested on a trumped up charge and he took his sawed off double barrel shotgun ( I still have it and it is legal with 18 1/4" barrels) and went in the court and took his friend and part time hand back home. He kept it loaded beside his bed and I asked him why. He said that it was for the man who had arrested his friend and if he ever showed his face on his property he would get what was in it.There was never any repercussions either! He passed away when I was 14 and I still miss him.

 

[Mike B]

Gramps on my dads side was dead before I was born.

Gramps on my ma's side was sick and died when I was 5.

Got no gramps stories.

 

[2door]

Without a doubt, bar none, the best thread we've ever had on this forum. My thanks to all of you who have contributed and especially to Leftywoody for starting it.
Thanks guys, beautiful, interesting ,heartwarming and love filled posts.
Tom

 

[oldtimer54]

My grandfather is the reason I got into motorized bicycles. As long as I can remember he told me about his motorized indian bicycle (1906-1908 cant remember?). I always wanted to ride it. He rode half way across the country to the back of Mt Shasta where he built himself a log cabin. He was alway telling me about the Mountan Men living in caves on the back of the Mountan. He told me they where 7 feet tall with long red hair like mine. He was one for telling tall tales and 7 feet is tall to me.

 

[Allen_Wrench]

My grandfather on my dad's side died when I was very little. I never saw much of my other grandfather. My great-uncle Ray took their place, in a way. He was an inventor. He held a few patents. He invented a steam engine where two pistons come at each other from either end of one cylinder, with twin crankshafts. It was powerful and nearly vibrationless.
He also patented a long-bed metal lathe. It used multiple ball-bearing races and a special clamping design which placed the stock under tension rather than compression. He said that if you turn a very long piece under compression, it could start "jump-roping" (his term). If under tension, pulled taught, it remained straight and you could turn steel stock up to ten feet long. And he did.
He also patented the little plastic splash governor that Briggs uses in its lawnmower engines. It's just a little geared wheel with fins that splash in the crankcase oil and are slowed by it, in turn regulating engine speed. Not an earth-shaking invention, perhaps, but it is my Uncle Ray's. So if anyone was wondering why their lawnmower kept a constant speed so well, thank my late great-uncle Ray.

 

[mrleo]

my grandfathre never drove a car walked to work in the brick yard in Minnsota. He met my grandmother at Elis iland.

 

[Fulltimer]

I never saw my dads father. He died when my dad was young. On my mothers side I was lucky. Grandpa lived with us until he died at age 78. In his working days he worked in a bank, doing what I don't know. He was a guy that would waste nothing. When I was a little kid I used to set in the basement with him and in between us was a bucked full of bent nails. I would give him one and he would use a hammer/anvil to make them straight again so we could use them.

Another fond memory was in the morning when us 4 kids got up Grandpa always had a pot of oatmeal ready for us. EVERY DAY! It was good though because we put maple syrup on it that we made from the trees in our yard. He did that too.

Back to my dads father. He too was in one of the old Cavalry units working with the horses as a veterinarian. I think he was just a horse doctor. This would have been probably pre WW1. When I was drafted into the army I was eventually assigned to....The First Cavalry Division! That division was made up of all the old cavalry units in the past. Custards 7th. Cavalry was in it along with all the others. I was in the 8th. Calvary which fought the Indians out west most of the time.

At any rate, Grandma was just so excited that I was in the Cavalry. I don't know how many times I heard her say " You know your Grandpa was in the Calvary!"

My grandparents, like a lot of others, saw so many changes in the world. They personally knew Civil War veterans. They lived before TV. They remembered the thrill of getting electric in the house, and indoor plumbing. Then the dawn of the space age!

Terry

 

[rustycase]

Well thanks for the Grandpa stories, guys!
The one I did know was a mean old cuss, but I can barely recall a little bit of humor, now and then. I did meet his brother, who must have been the fun one.
Good to hear of people with good experiences with the old Granpas.
rc

 

[GAS+RIDEZ]

My grampa from father side died before I was born and my grampa from my mothers side was a very hard worker, was mecanic of the old trains,he now have Alzheimer but for some reason he remember many of the stories from that days ,and always count them to me,my grampa and grandma for me are the example of true love, have been married for 71 year,this is not seen in this days no more.THE END