Family

My great grandfather had his bike repaired by the Wright Brothers when he lived in Ohio. Simon Sinek tells a great story about them here. My great grandfather managed musicians and had a string of radio stations in the USA. On Sundays the radio stations would all play the same piece of classical music at the same time. I know that evokes a “so what?” At the time there were not satellites or this Internet thing. He had 78 RPM records produced. 78 RPM records have great fidelity but the play time is short. The other challenge was the fidelity on the outside track of the record was much better than the inside track. This is not a big deal if over the course of 10 minutes the sound quality degrades just a bit. But f you suddenly switch from playing the inside track of one record to playing the outside track of another record it is very grating. So on the odd side (sides 1,3,5..) the label sad play from outside in. On the even sides (2,4,6…) it said play from the inside out.

Francis , great grandad, was asked by Truman to give his daughter an audition so she could do opera. Well let’s say Francis was a very direct person and President Truman’s daughter was not up to snuff. (gee, glad I didn’t inherit that trait! lol) Every year thereafter my great grandfather got audited by the IRS. They never found anything wrong with his books. When he died he did form a foundation to support the arts.

That is the warm up. I really wanted to tell you about my grandfather. He had a fastener business and small machine shop. During WWII one of the things he produced was a dish shaped space heater. Nowadays OHSA would have a fit with the exposed electric coils etc. Anyway, he had employees. I really cannot tell you how big the business was because I was very young. One of his employees died in a car crash. The employee had a wife and 2 daughters. My grandfather made sure they had enough food, and money for rent and he put them through a good (1st – 12th grade) private schools and college. I finally met them when they came to my grandfather’s funeral.

My grandfather, grandmother, and mother were of the Quaker tradition. I found the services an interesting format. whether it was for a funeral or a Sunday meeting the format was the same. Unlike most Christian Churches there is no alter or “front: of the church. All the pews or chairs or benches are in a square facing a center. There isn’t anything in the center. There is sort of a “host” for the meeting. They explain that at anytime if you feel you would like to say something just get up and speak. You can speak or read from something whatever. There isn’t any singing or leader. When no one has anything more to say the service or meeting ends.

So at my mother’s funeral I did get to tell a funny story about my mom and dad. My niece got up and said what she wanted to say – very sweet. It lasted about 45 minutes.

My mom was always generous and my grandfather went above and beyond his obligation. I think Simon makes some good points especially about humanity and friendship.