The Grandfather Appreciation Post
DOR
Two Ron Toe 9,902 Posts
So, my Gramps just had major surgery a few dayz back. He's now on the road to recovery. But I was a lil worried for a bit, cause he's been the biggest influence in my life. Gramps pretty much built our cottage on his own. Even at the age of 86, he's still moves boulders working on a rock staircase up there.He also bought me my first record player... And I can still remember when I was about 13 and played Run DMC on the way up to the cottage he told me to turn it up!Wish you all the best and get well soon Gramps!Feel free to REP ur Grandparents...
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Much love to pop's everywhere.
with any luck we'll be able to pass it along to our g-kids one day
aprecia-love them while they are here
still miss mine after a decade
but i'm thankfull for all the gifts &
very happy i could take those 700 mile round trips
every couple of months to see him
the last few years when that parkinson was slowly working on him
it was the least i could do to pay him back, he got a kick outa seeing his grtgrnd dawta too
(f-bush & rt wingers for that stem cell ban)
now you got me all misty
better go yank paychecks' chain again to lighten up
or just light de f up
I never had a father figure up until my teens. Gramps was the one taking me to my hockey games at 5am!
Anyone else got a story to share?
Ha, I forgot... My Gramps also hooked me up with a d00d selling a collection once! I bought him shoes as a thank you!
Believe it or not he receintly began giving me drum lessions. He is 85 and still holds it down. He was a drummer during the big band era and just gave me his 1936 Leedy snare drum (the only surviving piece from his kit). I built a kit around it and while I play funk breaks, he shows me up with all sorts of old school rim shots and hi-hat tricks (ala buddy rich, gene krupa).
Last week I was playing some records for him. And man did his ears perk up when Idris or Bernard let loose. I even played him Malcolm Catto's 'rock' and he got the gasface! "(nodding to the beat)...thats too hard to start with son, stay away from that!"
looks just like this one, at around 9" deep it has a very unique sound compared to a modern snare.
I came to appreciate my grandpa after his death, and now see him as one of the biggest positive influences in my life. As I've stated on here before I grew up rather poor. My grandpa lived 3000 miles away from me in Miami. Our interactions were not many, usually one visit a year in which My mom, Dad, Brother, and I were flown out to stay with him and my Grandma. He did however pay for my private schooling and made sure that I was taught my Jewish history as well as the hebrew language. I have somewhat vague memories of our times together but I do remember speaking to him on the phone once my sophmore year of highschool while working on a report about the holocaust. He told me about life in Krakow, Poland and about losing his entire family...really heavy stuff for a 80 year old man to be dropping on a 15 year old. The thing is he knew I had to know and he made sure it was instilled in me.
My grandfather died a year later and I didn't cry. I mean I knew he was a nice guy and I cared for him but I just didn't feel that sene of loss, after I turned 18 I was told he left me a trust fund that was specifically set up to help me go to college. That fund helped pay for my years at UNLV and while at the school I got a trip to Israel. It was in the country that I came to realize how great my grandfather really was. I mean here I was on a college trip speaking the native language and knowing the history of the area and all of that was given to me by this man I had only seen a handful of times.
Benjamin Gutstein, you are loved and appreciated so much right now and missed incredibly. Thank you for all you've done.
-Adam
Great thread btw.
My grandfather passed away in January and I often think how different my life would have been if I hadn't had him in there.
He was very creative: he painted canvases, ran a printing press, was a great photographer and filmmaker, loved the outdoors... I remember being very young, visiting him at the printing press and he'd always encouarge me to carry on making my stickers/fanzines/pictures. Without his enthusiasm and help throughout my life I doubt I'd be so interested in creativity now.
He loved music as well, sitting in his chair playing crazy Austrian music for hours... yodelling.. all kinds of madness.
I miss ya, buddy.
Same. both were dude, and had hella life stories.
My grandfather (the one I knew the most) passed away valentine's day in 1993. I always remember him as a big man with an even bigger heart. He was a vet like probably many of our grandfathers. Served in WW2 as a CB for the Navy. The coolest thing I inherited from him was when Grandma gave me his duffel bags from the Navy. There was a large green one with his name stamped all over it and a white one with a quarter of the Japanese flag stenciled on it. Those items are probably my favorite things I've ever had.
For a long with he worked in a stone mill in PA. Only one person ever tried to pick a fight with him. My grandfater was about 6' 5" and solid muscle at the time. He picked up a sledgehammer by the END of the handle and raised it straight OUTWARD from his body. He sat it back down on the ground and told the guy, "when you can do that, then we'll talk." My grandfather always had a way to diffuse a situation. He got diagnosed with cancer and told he had about a year to live. He beat it for 10 more years and then finally gave up. Left my grandma with a house paid off, a car paid off, excellent credit, and an incredible legacy of how he lived his life and was kind to everyone he met.
I still call my grandma every valentine's day that I can.
Don't remember my grandfather on my Dad's side... he died when I was about 4 or 5.
My grandfather on my Mom's side was a great man. Raised a family of 13[/b] kids!! Poor as fuck, but kept shit together. That kind of stress I can't even fathom. I didn't know him extremely well, mostly due to distance, and the fact that I was one of over two dozen grandchildren! So we we're really close. Most of my memories of him involve the anual family 'corn roast' parties he'd throw. The whole fam would get together at his house and basically have a bbq with a HUGE cauldron of corn cooking over a fire. He also helped teach me how to play Euchre. Died about ten years ago. I wish I had known him better, more intimately, but he's still very missed.
Peace out to grandfathers everywhere! I can't wait to (try to) be an awesome grandfather.
Yo Guzzo... that story about your gramps is really touching. I hope I can give something like that to my grandkids.
my grandma is
My other grandfather, Grandpa Joe lived to be 93. He was an iron-willed artist, doctor, and family man. He also shared a similar spirit of carrying on family tradition as Guzzo's grandfather and gave everything he earned back to his family. He spent his free time making music (played the cello and piano), smoking Turkish cigarettes (one a day for 50 years), and working on his art - sandblasting and engraving amazing, intricate icons and portraits in glass. He helped my cousins and I pay for school, and was continually self-educating. He was an inspiring man, could speak English, Hebrew, and Yiddish fluently, and loved life to fullest. His spirit lives on.
she died 11 years ago. i miss her presence in my life something fierce. i miss their ranch. i miss going into "town" to go to church with her. i remember this one time she took me on a trip to oregon. just me and her. kicking it. and somewhere at a central oregon gas station some little guzzo's were calling us chinks and nips all "chinese japanese indian chief" and shit and grandma just turned to me
and smiled. like a smile that made me feel safe. like that shit solved all my problems right there. i mean, now, in hindsight, just thinking about what that woman had to endure to be able to create a smile like that. one that could speak volumes without saying a goddamn thing. i got nothing but love for her. my bachan.
Greatest Grampa pic evar:
Left to right:
In the 3 piece suit with the butterfly collar and cigarette: My mother's father Frank "Choch" Harris, grew up and lived most of his life in Brooklyn, played trumpet and led a wedding/bar mitvah band for 50 years and drove a cab. Rumored to have been in the Jewish Mafia at one time. Smoked 2 packs a day, eventually that's what did him in. They say he hated walking and would drive everywhere, like even one block down the street to get some milk. Lived in CA in his later years, so I didn't get to see him too much before he passed in '86. He gave me two trumpets while he was still alive, and I got his 3rd after he died.
Middle: My older brother Dave, he was probably 5 or so, this was around 1978. Read all about his various speculations about Bananaman at http://www.newjerseywhitetrash.blogspot.com/
In the suede jacket and funky shirt with a cigar and a bum leg: My father's father Benjamin Hoffman (Grampa)
He was the man. He lived in the Bronx his whole life, until his time came in 1998, so I was much closer to him. Came to Ellis Island (his boat and passenger list is on www.ellisisland.org) from Austria in 1914 at the age of 3 with his parents. Had an antiques shop specializing in silver on University Place, and then on 2nd ave on the upper east side, worked as an auctioneer in his later years. When he would visit friends and relatives houses, he would leave little antiques on their shelves without telling them. Got a standing O at my brothers bar mitzvah. He was a great natural musician and the harmonica was his axe. He didn't do much with his talent but he was alway singing and humming and I like to think I got something from him and my other grandfather (I certainly didn't get anything musical from my parents).
He showed me what unconditional love is. He would have "man-to-man" talks with me and tell me things like "always be your own man" and "never do anything just for the money". I always think of him when I smell a cigar.
My grandfather will survive and continue on, though, because he is an amazingly strong man.
Here is a story printed in the Oregonian about him.
Grandpa #2 was a classic Depression-era schemer. He played banjo, did slight-of-hand tricks, wrote limmericks, built dollhouses, etc. to make money in the absence of steady work. He never told anyone in his family where he immigrated from, but said that he was desended from royalty. His biggest brush with fame and success was when he briefly convinced a struggling Laurel & Hardy that they needed a manager. They agreed, then quickly found one who actually had experience.
He was an actor and movie director in the Philippines in the '30s (called the "Rudolf Valentino of the Philippines"). He married his leading lady, my grandma (R.I.P., "Mom"). During WWII, while Manila was being continuously bombed, he joined the guerrillas in the hills. He was later captured by the Japanese. He was imprisoned at Fort Santiago -- a hell hole wherein thousands of civilians and guerrillas died in the infamous dungeon cells which lie below sea level, leaving no room for escape at high tide. (Philippine national hero Jose Rizal was executed there for inciting people to revolt against the Spanish.) My grandfather survived, but my aunt said, "When he was released, we could not recognize him with his beard and unkempt rags hanging from his emaciated body. He looked like a walking skeleton but thank God he was alive." He was never the same. He tried unsuccessfully to direct more films. He passed away at age 48. At one time, he was the highest paid movie director in Philippine movies. But he died destitute.
Until just last year, our family thought that all of my grandparents' films had been destroyed in the war. But one of his films, "Zamboanga," was found at the Library of Congress and featured in a film festival in Manila: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/feb/09/yehey/enter/20040209ent1.html
Florence & Marvin Gardner
(Screen names: Rita Rika & Eduardo de Castro)
i lost my grandfather in 2000 when he was run down by a truck while riding his bicycle. my family has no idea that i go to his gravesite every month and clean around it. my wife doesnt even know... its one of the worst feelings and something i dont know if ill ever get over.
so get to know those family members that are (or should be) important to you. get to know their stories of how they grew up, what they did in their lives, etc....
you may never get another chance.
Sorry for your lost. All the best to you & yours...
Hey Stef,
That's great about the film being found. I hope somehow your family can get a copy of it. Very interesting the story of your Grandfather!
Jix74,
I hate the way some family members act. My family is going though kinda the same deal. Keeping some members away never is a good move IMO.
Thx for sharing everyone!
Side note: My Grandfather is back in the hospital again. I hope he stays strong.
Peace y'all
Thanks, we did get copies! I also found the daughter of a former actress that he did a movie with and she sent lots of photos of the film shoot. I'm going to make a movie poster out of one of them. So thankful to have this stuff.
Peace to all the lolos, papas, grandpas and granddaddies out there.
Here's some artifacts I have from my gramps...he was a Goan that travelled the world on a ship and would pen his own tunes...he was also a fan of burt bacharach and the beatles (i know this cause he had their songbooks) and apparently he had a record cut once but someone "borrowed" it back in the day. but basically the dude was ill, taught himself like 7 languages and played tons of instruments (he was nicknamed "tum tum pappa" because they'd describe his love for piano as playing keys making the sound of "tum tum".
i never really got to know him much as my parents immigrated to canada and he was back in india. but that didnt stop him from connecting, what does he do? tum tum pappa makes me a relgious mix tape of goan choir songs and ships that ish to canada! back in 1984!!! the cassette is in the pic below(i could be possibly the only person in the world to own these tunes right now):
(also pictured is his band's business card and his old skool zippo, u can't mess with that!)
i also have some of his original sheet music (written in ink dipped parker pen):
oh yeah, here's his intro to the mixtape he made for me, i took his voice and just made some background audio to it, nothing special, its just the love in his voice that kills me (that and the content, which makes the dopest sample for a mixtape!)...oh and i'm "babba shawn" that he's refering to:
http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0FOW31LPOZ3BB3F3ZVRPQZCB3O
RIP Tum Tum Pappa
-babba shawn
Thx for doing what you did during WWII. I Appreciate everything.
Billy
Side note: To everyone else that has/had family that served. Thank you.
true
Weird that this thread resurfaced now. I was just thinking about my grandfather yesterday, and, well:
And also:
And also:
Thanks for showing me how a good person acts and for being the living definition of the term "quiet dignity." I'm always working to live up to the example that you set without even trying.