In the realm of people providing positive influence on one’s life, a primary source of my inspiration is my grandfather. Grampop lived next door to our house and was my mother’s Dad. He helped my parents, when they were a young married couple after the war, helping them to settle in and grow our family. My grandparents were ever present, a short walk to visit them and hostng a regular event for all the holidays, be it winter or summer.
When not in school or playing with friends, I knew that there was a relaxing, safe, and comfortable space for me at Grampop’s. I enjoyed sitting in their easy chair and reading the many magazines that he got after he retired from a life’s work at the Zinc Co. and the mines. Life, Look, Newsweek, and US News and World Report were magazines pored over by me during a typical trip next door. I cold ingest knowledge of the world’s current events with a visit to his house.
Grampop’s real contribution to my life was our one-on-one relationship. He was eager to answer questions that I would have about the ways of the world. He would also tell me things I couldn’t fathom to ask; some of the basics of engineering—how a mechanical pencil and slide rule worked, and the use of a French Curve. He showed me the uses of a compass and how it could create a compass rose. He spoke about the Old Country—the land of his youth which was Cornwall. This place across the broad Atlantic had tin mines where Cornish learned the trade of hard rock mining with deep tunnels. This was the reason he came to America and worked in the zinc mines here. There were the Cornish crosses, mysterious Christian and Druid vestiges of times long ago, and the likenesses to that compass rose he showed me to create. A wonderful experiment included communicating with a can and string on my end and on his end where we could talk via the vibrations from my basement in our identical company houses to his. This led me later into childhood amateur radio which led me to obtain the degree in electrical engineering and build a career that has been valuable all through my life.
There are some outstanding qualities that Grampop had for which I can paint a Portrait of his Character, those qualities that convey a positive influence. As a whole, he “was there.” He spent time with me during my childhood. He was kind, ready to drop some task so as to be with me. He was patient, continuing to respond to my many follow up questions when being befuddled. He was always cheerful, with a positive spin on everything. Even though he lived the life of an immigrant and working in the mines, bringing up a family with a wife who died when the kids were small and enduring the Depression, even then a favorite expression of his that he was remembered through others by was “Better Days are Coming.” Grampop was not someone to be trampled by problems, he would overcome them, and do so with a great positive attitude and a sense of “fun” while performing the remedy. Grampop conveyed a love for me that has been there through my life, a firm foundation, providing a broad knowledge base, and a strong “can do” sense that also pervaded the mining town in which we lived.
Thank you Grampop.