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This past Tuesday, May 21, my Grandfather passed away at the age of 105.  While he was never a railroader, he was a railroad customer.  Long before my time he ran a chicken hatchery.  He would occasionally buy a boxcar load of chicken feed.  The feed came in burlap bags.  He often talked about how once the boxcar was spotted on the siding, he would unload the car by himself.  He would move the bags to his pickup truck and take them to the hatchery where he would unload and stack them.  He repeated this process until the car was empty, usually within a couple of days after arrival.  He eventually quit the hatchery business to farm full time.  After his retirement from farming one of his "hobbies" was cutting firewood.  He would hook an old manure spreader up to his Farmall and head for the woods and cut all day.  I often joked that if his barn ever caught on fire it would burn for a month because of all of the firewood he had stacked inside.

When I built my train layout I constructed a vignette depicting Grandpa cutting firewood.  I even included the Farmall and manure spreader.  Every time I run my trains I will have fond memories of my Grandfather and all that he taught me.

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Tom

 

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I'm sorry for your loss Tom. The loss of my Grandparents was very hard to take.  They highlighted my life in ways nobody else could touch, including my parents.

  So much to be learned from them it was simply amazing.  I think those that lived the depression and the big wars ended up wiser than we will be again for a long while. (e.g. Is it always hording? Or simply being prepared ?

  A nice tribute.

  Mine is the grandfather that had my first train waiting for me at birth. A paratrooper endlessly floating above the layout so he he can enjoy a layout again as well. He made 8 jumps into battle, 101st/82cnd, a ******* of Bastonge, 32nd° Mason, Shiner, honorary KofC (rare to be both KofC & Mason both. At least back then.) VFW activities, Moose, TTOS, LCCA, TCA, local train clubs, etc, etc. etc.... I never could keep up with him. A far better man than I am in that respect I must admit.

It sounds like your Gramps was hard to keep up with as well; admirable   

Tom,

My grandfather was 80 when he passed, as a young man, his family cut firewood for a living in rural Missouri. He had pictures of an old steam tractor pulling several wagons loaded with the days firewood. (Sadly, when he passed my uncle kept all items from his house and did not share any with family, and says he has no idea where they are now). He often told stories of leaving before dawn and coming home near dark, and how the steam tractor was like a mule, it pulled a ton of wood but was stubborn as hell. He worked heavy construction his whole life, never really retiring.

Your tribute has sparked a similar desire in me, if I can find a steam tractor in scale, it will become a vignette for my grandfather.

 

Thank you for sharing Tom.

 

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I also very much enjoyed reading about your grandfather, Tom. It sounds like he was a very hard working man. I wonder if all of that physically hard work contributed to him having such a long and healthy life.

I wondered the same thing.

To all those who've contributed anecdotes of your own grandfathers, I say: Be glad you were able to spend time with them.  One of my grandfathers died before I was born, and the other when I was three years old.  I barely remember him, but I recall enough to know that I would have loved to have known him better.

What a great topic.  Today, in our society it is rare for tributes to be made for our dads and granddads and that is what makes this topic so refreshing.  Those who have had the opportunity to truly enjoy their grandfathers are very, very fortunate.  My Grandfathers did not live as long as I would have liked, my grandfather on my Dad's side passed when I was nine and my grandfather on my mom's side died when I was twelve; nevertheless I learned a great deal about trains from both of them as well as a great deal about life.   Both men have been gone now for over 60 years but not a day goes by that I do not think of them and the things they taught me.  I must tell them that when I see them. 

My paternal grandfather died before I was born. My parents were 42 years old when I was born. My maternal grandfather died when I was about 5 years old and I hardly new him.

But my Dad was awesome: handsome, smelled of cedar, loved to play baseball, golf, tennis, Lionel trains under the Christmas tree and then trains on a beautiful layout with trestle on a 4×8 board in the basement on top of saw horses.

My favorite thing to do when I was a kid was to have a catch with him, and I was in my glory as a pitcher in the Little League, Pony League and high school baseball team.

Here we are having a catch on my layout:20190520_174338

I bet many of you folks, like me, would give anything to have a catch again with your father or grandfather. Arnold 

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