What did your grandparents do?

[TREETOAD]

Where did they come from? What did they do during the war?

What did they do for a living? Whatever?

[knotzen]

My maternal grandpa turned 81 last week (the first day of Autumn--that's how I keep track of his birthday), and my maternal grandma, his wife of 63 years, turns 81 in Dec.

 

They met when my grandpa was stationed in New York City, before shipping out to the Pacific. My grandma was one of the girls serving food and drinks at a USO dance, on Staten Island, where she was born and grew up--they met, and shortly after married, before he went out to sea. My mom, their first child, was born while he was on a ship in the Pacific. He didn't see her until she was over a year old.

 

My grandpa was on a ship in the Pacific when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was one of the first to be discharged at the end of the war, because he had seniority, and a newborn baby at home.

 

He has gone to regular reunions on the East Coast of his shipmates over the years; they held the last one a couple of years ago; not enough living to make the reunions worthwhile.

 

I recently read one of his letters to his young wife (they were both 18 when they married), and he wrote to say that he figured he would take to farming when he got home, if that was OK with her, since that was what he knew, and he thought that would be the best thing. He also said he was sorry for "saying those things," and would she forgive him. He had seen some friends die, and he couldn't tell her the details, but he was sorry. The letter didn't indicate what he had said to her.

 

After first living in Tennessee, my grandpa's home place (my grandma told me recently she hated it there--she was a city girl), they eventually settled on a farm in Idaho, growing potatoes, and my grandpa's nickname to friends who knew him back then is still "Spud."

 

He eventually took up bricklaying, and taught my dad the trade, as a young newlywed to my mother. They we all moved out here to WA when I was a baby.

 

My grandma was most effected by the Depression, I think. She buys stuff on sale, by the multiples, even when she doesn't need them. I helped them moved recently, and they must have had 30 cans of pork and beans, at least. I remember going shopping on Saturdays with her, and she would drive clear across town to save on a package of toilet paper. Her parents had divorce, which was exceedingly rare in those days, and money and food was scarce. She remembers her dad bringing by bags of food occasionally.

 

My grandparents are my most favorite relatives! They're supercool. I hope they never die!

[TREETOAD]

Cool story,

I don't know a lot about my grandparents except that my grandpa was in the first world war at 19 and that he was a machinegunner in the Royal Fusiliers. Most of his unit was wiped out in one go and he was shot right through from on side to the other just above his left hip. He dragged himself back to his trench and managed to live through it. He showed me the scar once when I was about ten and it was pretty ugly. He was married after the war and after about ten tears of marriage and four kids got divorced. My grandma was a bit of a tart apparently. She moved to Victoria in the late fourties following my aunty who was a war bride. My Grandpa followed her out here but she married another fellow after that. He was heart broken and never married again. Ain't that the way.

My parents moved to Vancouver Island after living through the blitzkrieg. As my dad was a radio and radar tech in the airforce during the war he decided to go into electronics and radio repair here. My mom worked in a factory in the war operating a huge lathe making spitfire prop assemblies and she also was on a fire squad during the bombing of london. I think she was around 18 years old and she saw some really bad shit. I guess living throught he was made her very thrifty as well and as kids were often exposed to the rationing mentality. When they moved to Port Alberni in 1949 it was very much a frontier town about as far west as you can get and a rough logging town. We have some very good stories of some really wild characters that found their way from all over the world to one of the richest parts of north america at the time.

[knotzen]

It's interesting to hear about the wars from the Canadian perspective. In graduate school I took a seminar that was solely about the effect of WWI on Canada--the country lost a disproportionately large number of men, and appeared to have a profound social effect.

 

Re: WWI, I recently saw a movie called "A Very Long Engagement" (I think it came out last year?), and although it's a bit of a romance and a mystery, it's very much about the war. Some scenes take place in the trenches, and it's pretty horrific. Desperate men would mutilate themselves to be removed from the war, and then sentenced to death if it was determined/discovered that they did it themselves--it was considered being a traitor. Worth watching--an enjoyable film, but also historically enlightening.

[Luna]

Immigrated from Ireland when they were 20, met relatives in NYC, them move to Montauk. Worked on oyster boats and farmed. During WWII welded. Up until two weeks before he died my grand dad rode his bike every day.

[Mal_Con]

Moms folks migrated from Denmark ran a dance hall in Ollah then a Blacksmith in Port Orchard Wobblies. Dads came from Calabria before they cut off Italians hoboed from Pittsburg to here welded battlewagons back ogether during WWII.

[magellan]

My grandma was a rosie riveter at boeing during WWII. My grandpa helped plan and build the fake houses on top of and around boeing field to disguise it from the sky if enemy planes came.

[Doug]

On my mom's side grandpa was killed in a logging accident in 1932 when my mom was 7 years old. They lived in a logging town in the Teanaway called Casland, long gone. They moved to Ellensburg and my grandmother worked as a reporter/editor for the Daily Record until retirement, with a short break in WWII when she did her Rosie the Riveter duty at Boeing.

 

On dad's side, grandpa was a scottish WWI vet on a boat to Australia. When the boat stopped in Hawaii, grandpa said "Hollllly shit, I'm staying here!". Not sure if that was before he met my granmother. They got married and the rest is history. He worked at the Lihue Plantation on Kauai until retirement.

[chirp]

My grandmother still lives with us, 98 years and still taking the bus and shopping at target. IMHO she bitches about prices a bit too much and really clips too many damn coupons.

[fear_and_greed]

My dad who is 78 yrs. old was a jetfighter pilot during the cold war in Europe. Last x-mas we skied into Mt. Assinibone, a 54 km. round trip. He is such an amazing guy and I'm so lucky to have him.

[selkirk]

Can I go back to great-grandparents? Still have 2 above ground, and actually had 5 for most of my life.

1 great grandfather and grandmother lived out in the Owyhee's east of Boise. Mining and ranching mostly, though he used to ride in the rodeo's a bit as well. She taught school in a 1 room school house. My grandad actually rode to school on a horse, with the two little indian girls who lived next door. She eventually decided that her sons were going to get a high school education, so while he was running for sheriff she up and moved to Nampa without telling him He eventually followed. She was one seriously bright tough broad. I remember visiting her when I was in high school, and I never felt like I was 1/2 as informed about what was going on the world as she was. She lived into her early 90's. He actually lived to be 99, and was born in 1899. Best story though was that he punched a car salesman was he 92!!! He told the guy to quit pestering him and he didn't, so smacked him! He actually got his drivers license renewed by mail at 98, when he could only see out of one eye, kind of, and couldn't hear. But damnit he could drive! He actually really liked it when they moved into a retirement home because he has been cooking and taking care of the house on his own for at least 20+ years. Plus he had people to play pool with. Except he was constantly worried people would stop playing with him because he always won. Really neat wonderful people. My grandad ended up serving in Korea, but actually spent most of his life working out at Hanford. He and my grandma are snowbirds now and have more energy than I do. I think they only sleep 5 or 6 hours a night! I think i'd die if I tried that. My grandma's mother actually lived in Grangeville (central Idaho), and we used to go visit her all the time. She was the post-master there for 30 or 40 years, and new everyone. I will never understand how she managed to stockpile so many huckleberries though! Everytime we went to visit my sister and I would end up eating bowls of frozen huckleberries!!!! mmmmmmmmmm, tasty!

 

One of my great grandfathers on my dad's side is actually a Sicilian immigrant, while my great grandma is a half-american indian. He actually worked for the mob running liquor and numbers during prohibition I've heard lots of stories about them bailing out the back of the house when the cops were coming in the front. Finally got out when they were going to send his brother to jail as a sacrificial goat. He said he'd talk, and that was the end of it. Of course it's supposed to be a big dark family secret that none of us great-grandkids know After that he worked for the Teamsters for years. His son (my grandad) served in Korea as well, though i've never really talked to him about it. After coming back to the US he worked in one of the steel mills outside Pittsburgh, eventually worked his way through night school and ended up supervising construction projects in the nuclear industry, and ended up out at Hanford which is where my parents met. His wife (my grandma) is also incredibly sharp. Before they go married (Late 50's) she was actually a rather prestigious vice president of accounting at some firm in the Pittsburgh area. Though after she got married she stayed home, raised the kids and managed to finances. I don't think her father ever forgave my grandad though. From the sounds of it her dad was a rather drunk, belligerant irishman. That set of Great -Grandparents is still alive. We went out to the annual family reunion and visited them last year. (A week long summer binge of golf, food, and video games at a ski-resort in Pennsylvania, where their is always a keg, and people typically start drinking after golf at about 12:00 or 1:00 in the afternoon Great people (all descendands of my great-grandparents, and their siblings) who know how to have fun!)

[bunglehead]

My grandparents were farmers in upstate New York; they used to bring apples, milk and cheese down on the ferry for sale in NYC (Lower East Side) during the Great Depression. They both died in the late 30's, so obviously I never got the chance to know them. Their farm is now part of West Point.

[foraker]

Don't know much of their history but my only living grandparent, my mother's father, kept this great diary when he was in his twenties. He spent on summer chasing hotties around southern California, after having gotten there by riding boxcars from the midwest. Much to the family's chagrin, the diary ended with him leaving some hottie behind and heading out to the South Pacific on a tramp steamer. He never has told us what happened to the girl back on shore....or what he did in South Pacific.

[Dru]

[ScottP]

My grandparents came from Ohio to California in the 20's.

Grandpa worked for Sunoco, Standard Oil and then Mobil.

During the Great Depression, the oil companies didn't want to lose knowledgeable oilmen, but couldn't afford to pay them regularly. To keep them on, they would give them a paycheck every other month and the intervening months, they would give them stock in the company worth equal to what the paycheck should have been. My grandparents were childless at the time, so to help out larger families in need of money, they traded the stock for cash.

My dad still holds all the oil stocks my grandparents bought.

I think he's pretty well off.

[Skeezix]

My grandfather bought coal for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia. My father was in the Army Air Corps in WWII and sold advertising for WRVA television.

Edited October 4, 2005 by Skeezix

[ketch]

Lots of good stories here. I need to follow Selkirks example with Great Grandparents and share a CC.com sort of story. During the prohibition a lot of drink came down through the San Juans from Canada. To beat getting caught they used to stash the bottles in sacks that were filled with a half cork/half salt mix. When they were gettin chased they would pitch the sacks over the side and just come back several hours later when they floated back up. It is my understanding that Great grandad made a fair living rowing out and pickin up trash for while.

[cj001f]

Paternal: Civil Engineer - 2 employers entire career

Maternal: Civil Engineer - 1 employer entire career

Both were more valuable on the homefront so didn't serve in WW2. Granduncle did, served as officer in Europe, wounded in Italy, ended war as G2 to unit serving in Vienna. Daughter occupied crib next to that of Austrian prime minister in hospital.

[espirita]

Curious why you ask, but it’s all really interesting. Are you writing a book?

 

Anyway, my paternal grandparents were from Salem, OR. Their parents emigrated here… not quite sure what they did down in Salem, but by the time they moved to Seattle they owned a hotel and were doing quite well.

 

My maternal grandparents were born in 1890 (grandpa) and 1900 (grandma) – odd, considering I am only 26. They emigrated here and the marriage was arranged. They were farmers, and produced their own labor force… altogether they had 14 children, the last of which was my mother. I guess my grandpa didn’t believe in birth control, either that or they couldn’t afford it.

 

During the war they were all sent first to the Puyallup Fairgrounds, and then to Minidoka in Idaho or Tule Lake in Oregon (for the “really dangerous ones”). Several of my uncles served in the military during the internment period anyway and fought for our country in Italy, which I find to be interesting.

 

I haven’t heard much about what happened after the war, and those that would talk were too young to remember or to really grasp the severity of the situation – that is, completely starting over. When we ask about what happened, no one really says anything, or they start talking about something else. Typical Japanese stoicism.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Paternal: born son of immigrants from Ukraine. Oldest of 10 children. Finished HS and worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania for 47 years. Failed his physical exam in WWII (bad leg). Died at age 89.

Maternal: born son of immigrants from Ukraine as 8th child of 10. Dropped out of school at age 13 to work in the coal mines and help his family. Served in the Pacific Theater in WWII for 4 years. Worked in the mines, and other physical labor until age 62. Still alive (84).

[sobo]

Paternal: Both emigrated from Poland before WWII. Dad's dad was a farmer in International Falls, MN while his mom was mother to 14 kids (my dad being the youngest son). Grandad Soboleski died of TB in the 1950s a few years before I was born. Gramma Sobo died in 1975, just after I met her for the only time at 16 years old. The only English she ever learned to speak was "chicky soup".

 

Maternal: German immigrants in the 1920s who landed in Pennsylvania and became farmers. Grandpa Rust (Roest, actually) died in the early 70s, and Gramma followed him in the mid 1980s. Mom's mom was mother to 13 kids (my mom being the oldest daughter).

 

Both sets of my grandparents were too old to serve in WWII. However, I had uncles who served (and some died) in that war. From my mom's side, Uncle Stanley was a tail gunner in a B-17 group. His plane was shot down on his last mission before he was due to rotate back to the States. The survivors of that crash said he never got out of the turret. He is buried in the American Cemetery at Liege, Belgium. As a child of 12 or so, I held the end of the American flag that flies over that cemetery, while the Honor Guard folded it up into the "Yankee Triangle" at the end of the day, to the tune of Taps. I will never forget that moment; my Mom cried for hours after that.

 

On my Dad's side, I have two uncles (still alive) that served. Uncle Eddie was a Marine in the Pacific Theater who fought on Okinawa and Tarawa. He lied to the enlistment officer about his age (17), he wanted to "get in the fight" so badly. Uncle Frank was in Easy Company of the 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, and fought in Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge (he was in Aldbourne on D-Day, but was held in reserve and was not part of that famous drop). Yes, he was subject matter for Band of Brothers, although he refused to be a part of the HBO series/movies. If you ever wondered, in the episode about crossing the river to snatch German prisoners (The Last Patrol), how the rope got across the river in the first place, that was my uncle who swam the river and secured the rope to the enemy side. Google "Frank Soboleski"; it's all here.

 

My dad was born in 1930, so he never got the chance to serve in WWII. He was in the Army and was stationed in Alaska during the Korean War.

My mom was born in 1923, but I don't really know if/what she did in the war. I figure she must have been in medical school, because she went to Alaska in 1953 as an RN.

[tivoli_mike]

Paternal:

 

Grandfather worked as a baker and a longshoreman in Holland (Rotterdam) as well as in South Africa. Also served aboard several ships (Holland America , when it was still dutch), including fighting in Indonesia after WWII. Grandmother stayed home and emotionally scarred her children causing a diaspora ( my father emigrated to the US, one uncle moved to NZ, aunt moved to South Africa ).

 

He and my grandmother must have moved at least 20 times in their life (emigrating to South Africa after WWII and then back and forth few other times). Died of a heart attack in a train station in Utrecht while looking for a new apartment after their last move back from Kimberly ( he was in his 70s).

Maternal:

 

Grandfather worked for the same banking company in Rotterdam for 50 years, except for a stint during WWII when he was in a camp and then building munitions in one of Speer's slave factories. Near the end of the war, he and his brother ( who was sick with TB) had to make their way back from eastern Germany to Rotterdam mostly by foot. After he retired, he realized he didn't have any hobbies and died after a heart attack in his 70's. That experience haunts me, and has motivated me to try a lot of things and develop activities and interests outside of work...

 

Grandmother was a homemaker ( damn good one ) and still is living ( in her 90s ). Hallo Oma!

[Double_E]

My grandpa was an engineer. During and after the war, he worked in Navy shipyards ... first in Norfolk, VA, then in Pensacola, FL. He helped build the ships that y'alls grandads travelled to war on! Actually earlier in his career, he worked on some dam projects... one of them was on the Don River in Russia. Took the wife over there with him, too... for something like 6 months (?) I think it was. I remember them saying how the USSR was a sad, depressing place in the 1930s (as one might imagine).... everyone seemed so afraid and mistrustful of each other, and especially of foreigners.

 

Grandma was mostly a homemaker, but kept busy with volunteer work and other projects. Then later in life, took up teaching at Jacksonville University.

 

I miss my grandparents .... they were good peoples.... decent Suth'n folk... Grandpa was kinda strict, but also fair and pragmatic... and Grandma was sweet as can be. I'll never forget the last time I went to visit her, before she died. She had arthritis and various other ailments wreaking havoc on her 90-year-old body, but took it all in stride, going through every hour of every day with unwavering grace and optimism.

 

Fun fact: my grandpa and his father were both named Jesse Jackson, actually. And nope, no relation to the Reverend.

 

 

 

So that was all my mom's side. My Dad was never knew his parents well, for various reasons. He was raised in Queens, NY, by his aunt. He was pretty close to his maternal grandparents, though. They, along with certain other relatives, ran a prosperous German delicatessen in Greenwich Village. This was long before GV became all hip and trendy like it is today... mostly just recent immigrants back then.

 

Then in the 1960s, my newlywed parents lived in The Village for a few years, when it was just starting to become hip and trendy. My dad has always said that if any of his kids lived in Greenwich Village, they could boast that they were "Fourth Generation Villagers". I somehow don't ever see it happening, at least not for me.. but it is a cool idea.

[mccallboater]

Mom's side: Both Grandpa and Grandma on my Mom's side grew up next to Rodgers Pass in Montana, cattle ranching within a mile or two of the coldest recorded temperature in the lower 48. They dated for 8 years, during which time Granddad, among other things, drove the stage for tourists in Yellowstone. They finally married after Granddad returned from WW1 with his legs shot up during the battle of Belleu Wood (sp?), where he earned the Croix de Guerre (Belgian medal of honor) for saving his platoon of Montana volunteers from destruction. He worked for Anaconda Copper company for many years, and with a 2nd grade education, retired as an instructor of auto mechanics at Spokane Community College. All four children graduated from college, one with a doctorate. My fathers parents were school teachers in Helena from around 1906 to 1913, married in 1912. My grandfather was also a pool hustler on the side before marraige. Teachers didn't make much then, just as now. They moved to Polson, MT in 1912, where Granddad became high school principal, and eventually superintendant. A move to Bonners Ferry, ID in 1921 was the last until Granddad's death in 1965. He is still honored there as a leader and educator, and master fisherman. By the way, in '38 he wrote a great 12 page thesis for his Master's on managing the fishery in Flathead lake. My grandmothers were powerful women, both physically and mentally. Raised on homesteads, they both were leaders in their communities, stridant supporters of women's sufferage, cooked a mean cookie and canned some great huckleberry jam.

[thatguy]

Grandfather, maternal side, was plattdeutch coming to Biggar, Saskatchewan during the previous set of oughts. Homesteaded growing wheat. My mother still owns a quarter section of the homestead. Grandfather, paternal side was an apple knocker up Flowery Divide in Cashmere. Small ranch. His father drove the counterbalance up Queen Anne Ave.