Our Other Grandpa

I've written several times about my dad here, but today is dedicated to our other Grandpa. Today CoolGuy's dad would have been 100 years old. Happy Birthday to him.

You may be doing the math and thinking, "Wait, CoolGuy is a geezer?" Not exactly...he was a caboose. His parents were grandparents already, about to enjoy their empty nest as their third son was set to graduate from high school, when---SURPRISE! Another little boy was born. CoolGuy was an uncle before he existed.

Grandpa was married just six months before the Great Depression was officially kicked off with the stock market crash of 1929. He and his dear little wife actually lived their first few months in a teepee in a sheep camp. By winter they'd moved into a house and they had three boys in the 1930's. He worked hard at whatever jobs he could get and taught his sons to be hard workers. All of them have been successful in their careers.

CoolGuy was almost 12 when his mom died. It was a really tough time for all of them. His dad remarried about two and half years later, and she has been a really fabulous Grandma for our kids. She also took good care of his dad as he got old and sick and nursed him well until he died about 20 years ago.

Here are some great photos of their family:

This is the "honeymoon teepee."

CoolGuy's talent with the internal combustion engine is an inherited trait. His dad had motor oil in his veins, too. He was once a mechanic for the Army.

This is CoolGuy and Grandpa with the packhorse string on a trailride. This was a family business from the 1960's in which they would take (rich) people, mainly from the East Coast, for a two-week long camping trip in the wilderness area around Yellowstone Park. It was a tremendous amount of work requiring experienced trail hands who could pack up the camp and move it to the next stop before the trailriders would arrive in the late afternoon. Of course, the camp couldn't be moved until breakfast had been cooked and served, all the lunches packed and the riders sent off. Then camp was broke, packed, hauled to the new stop, (on a shortcut trail to get around the paying riders) unpacked and set up again, in time to cook that night's supper. Whew. At least they would keep that camp for a few days before the marathon started again. CoolGuy is eight years old in this photo and on his first trailride with his dad. His mom worked as a telephone operator.

So, we salute our other Grandpa in this, his centennial year. The life his grandchildren live is so incredibly different from his hard-scrabble world. They've traveled all over the world and live in big cities. He lived so much of his life up in the mountains and really didn't like big cities. But he was a kind and gentle good man, and that trait has come down through the generations pure and clear. Thanks for the inheritance.