Grandfather sees that very few folks build their own houses anymore. But Grandfather says he thinks the increasing concentration of US housing in the hands of wealthy owners, who then effectively control them as rentals, may make some of you ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: The Benefits of DIY Housing
Grandfather Says: The Story of Emile and Mollie
Grandfather fondly remembers Emile and Molly.
Grandfather first came to know Emile when he was Grandfather's supervisor at the US Patent Office.
Emile and his wife Mollie were Jewish; Mollie from Chicago and Emile from Eastern Europe. He had ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: The Story of Emile and Mollie
Grandfather Says: Impressions In Charcoal
Grandfather says nowadays, illustrations in printed publications are mostly done with photo-processors. In the 1940s, they were done by commercial artists.
In his teens, Grandfather studied to become one, at Cass Technical High School in ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Impressions In Charcoal
Grandfather Says: Eulogy for a Friend
Grandfather says he has seen most of his friends buried in recent years. Here is a eulogy that Grandfather delivered for a very dear friend at his memorial service, shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center in NYC:
Wayne Cowder leaves ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Eulogy for a Friend
Grandfather Says: Spelling Bee
Grandfather says he is blessed with a good memory and enough self-assurance that it's not a curse; little things from long ago come to mind.
When he was six years old, Grandfather learned to read by the phonic method: "sound it out."
Well, ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Spelling Bee
Grandfather Says: My First Job as a Newspaper Boy
Grandfather says when he was 13 or so, he got his first job: a newspaper boy for the Detroit Free Press. They distributed newspapers to homes through the 1950s.
Each boy had his own route, about a mile along a street, and his papers were delivered ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: My First Job as a Newspaper Boy
Grandfather Says: Happiness and Living in the Right Mold
How do you fit your mold?
Grandfather says life can be thought of as a mold, different for each of us, but constraining, whether we like it or not.
The key to happiness, in his opinion, is to live in the right mold.
Grandfather's mold is ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Happiness and Living in the Right Mold
Grandfather Says: A Chicken Run for the Henhouse
Grandfather says when he got engaged to be married in 2008, his bride-to-be insisted on bringing her cat and chickens with her. Well, housing the cat required no special arrangement, but the chickens were another matter.
Grandfather says he ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: A Chicken Run for the Henhouse
Grandfather Says: Memories of a Budding Shipwright
Grandfather has written before about stone and wood -- this one's about water. Specifically, bodies of water and how he's enjoyed them over the years.
Described earlier were Cape Hatteras on the shores of the Atlantic; the Lynn canal between ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Memories of a Budding Shipwright
Grandfather Says: A Trophy for the Natural
When Grandfather was 13 or so, playground baseball/softball -- it just depended who showed up with what kind of ball and bat -- began to invade his young life.
He remembers one of his novice catastrophes: a baseball went right over his glove and ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: A Trophy for the Natural
Grandfather Says: Preparing for Hard Times
Grandfather says he thinks there are some tough years ahead.
He says be creative and live better as those years go by.
B F Goodrich & Co. built a specialty rubber plant here, fabricating mostly aircraft and military equipment, about 50 ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Preparing for Hard Times
Grandfather Says: There Is No Escape From the Present
It's highly unfashionable -- if not downright politically incorrect -- to live in the past, but Grandfather doesn't think so.
He believes US civilization reached its zenith in the third quarter of the twentieth century, when the nation was unified ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: There Is No Escape From the Present
Grandfather Says: Some Thoughts on Building a Life-Long Homestead
Grandfather would like, first off, to do his best to convince young people that they can put their life, fortune and sacred honor into their life-long homestead. It's a state of mind which was the norm as the settlers expanded West in the 19th ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Some Thoughts on Building a Life-Long Homestead
Grandfather Says: Remembering Grandfather’s Father
Grandfather says his father has been departed for more than 60 years now (may God rest his soul), but Grandfather well remembers him. He was an honor student in high school and continued that way later, at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Remembering Grandfather’s Father
Grandfather Says: Western Civilization Is Out of Fashion
Western civilization seems unfashionable in most colleges these days. "Diversity" is now the revealed truth.
Anyway, Grandfather trotted out an old college textbook of his, Readings in Western Civilization, Knoles and Snyder, J.B. Lippincott 1951, ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Western Civilization Is Out of Fashion
Grandfather Says: A Few Words on Our Nation’s Travails
Len has asked me to write about what I see as the prospects for our nation. If I were a believer in "credentials" I would desist, but I'm not. What I am is a man who has lived his life as independently of current fashion as possible and does not care ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: A Few Words on Our Nation’s Travails
Grandfather Says: Musings on an Old-Time Liberal Education
An early 19th century liberal education mandated studies in classical literature, now abandoned -- and sometimes scorned -- in most "universities."
Grandfathers Father, Ralph the First, studied for the ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Musings on an Old-Time Liberal Education
Grandfather Says: A Personal Portrait of My Time In Bergamo, Italy
He remembers Bergamo, Italy. It's in the mountainous North of Italy, just South of the Swiss border and about midway between Maranello, where the incomparable Ferrari automobiles are manufactured and Milan, home of the La Scalla opera house, where ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: A Personal Portrait of My Time In Bergamo, Italy
Grandfather Says: The Boy Is ‘Just Who He Is’
Grandfather says his preparing for retirement boiled down to supporting and, to the extent needed, enabling the family members (particularly the wife -- permanent fixture -- kids, temporary) to live the lives they wanted to live in their best ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: The Boy Is ‘Just Who He Is’
Grandfather Says: Grandfather’s Puppy
About a year and a half ago, Grandfather got himself a puppy! A companion for him as he enters his dotage.
The little guy is a Maltese.
Clyde is a great little guy. Maltese are very small; four to seven pounds is the normal weight in ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: Grandfather’s Puppy
