"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
02/20/2016 at 11:40 • Filed to: TWMG
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"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
02/20/2016 at 11:40 • Filed to: TWMG | 5
| 5 |
I’m visiting my Grandfather today to try to distract him from some stress. Obviously, this led to story telling...and these are good ones. Posting from my phone with poor reception so no images.
I mentioned that I realized that my grandmother was born in 1932 and he was in the 1920's. They’ve seen so much over the years. His response:
“I grew up in Chelsea...went to school in this big building. Two city blocks easily. I must have been in about 4th grade or so when we were sitting in class when our teacher said to get up, we are going outside. So we walk outside to the school yard and look up at this very big derigible. It was the Hindenburg flying over Boston on it’s way South. We watched it fly overhead on what would be its last trip. It blew up after I saw it, you know? I have a picture somewhere of it flying over capital hill I think. No idea where it is though...maybe you’ll find it one day.”
Yup. He’s old.
Then we were sitting here and he has a show on reporting about the 1960 Thresher submarine disaster. That, of course, led to another story:
“I was working in a facility [didn’t remember what company he said] in Boston, second job as a security guard. It was an overnight shift and typically those that show up were scientists who needed to check on things late at night or early in the morning. Now, the Thresher submarine investigation was going on. The Navy was looking into it by using their deep water subs. This night, a guy shows up accompanied by Navy officers. They needed to go to the warehouse and get some bulbs for the subs...the ones they had blew out.”
At this point, Grandpa looks up with a smile.
“That’s right, I played a part in the discovery of the Thresher.”
He then sat there chuckling for a bit. I love his stories.
Now, more than ever, I’m realizing how precious these stories are. Call the oldest person in your family and say hi. You never know when it’ll be too late.
FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem
> cazzyodo
02/20/2016 at 12:00 |
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I sure should have spent more time with my grandfather. He’s seen and been through much. He was born in 1932 in Germany, one year before Hitler was elected. So he grew up during war and lost his father in WWII.
JGrabowMSt
> cazzyodo
02/20/2016 at 12:15 |
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I never met him because he passed quite some time before I was born, but my grandfather on my mother’s side was one of the engineers that worked on the SSN-571 (Nautilus), which was the first Nuclear Submarine. The year the Thresher was launched was when the Nautilus reached the North Pole in submerged transit. Not bad, right?
Just think, it’s entirely possible our grandfathers met at some point.
shop-teacher
> cazzyodo
02/20/2016 at 13:17 |
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That’s great that you’ve realized that. Many don’t until it’s too late. My grandfather was a hell of a story teller, and I hung on his every word. I miss him, such a good guy :)
DipodomysDeserti
> cazzyodo
02/20/2016 at 13:45 |
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Try to get some recordings of your grandfather telling stories. My grandma and her sisters recorded my great grandfather telling stories before he died back in the ‘90s. He lived till 102 years old, and left his family’s farm in Italy when he was 16. Ended up sailing around the world on a destroyer during WWI. Boy did he have some cool stories. I got to show my kids a video of him talking about sailing around the world at the beginning of the 20th century which was awesome.
Chariotoflove
> cazzyodo
02/20/2016 at 14:31 |
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I love listening to old stories. My parents have a bunch, and now I'm realizing that I have a few!