Happy Birthday, Grandfather, February 27 .... who lived a physical, rugged, stoic life within a life, and who never found the end of the rainbow.
My grandfather, the one I was close to, was a German. His mother made him take piano and violin lessons when he was a boy. He preferred working with and riding horses, swimming and reading, but at times, decades later, when I knew him, after drinking a few beers he would open the case to the violin of his boyhood and test his hands and his memory with a piece of music.
He worked at the same job for thirty-nine years.
He had a vegetable garden every summer. During dry times, he carried water in two sprinkler buckets from a lake about two blocks distant to ensure his crops prospered.
My favorite memory of him is as an old man, sitting outside in a rocking chair in the shade of a tree in Sunday, summer heat, listening to music and reading novels.
Here are some German "boys" of a different generation to provide birthday music for him while I fade back into the shadows beyond the blogs, leaving my alter ego behind to keep an eye on things here .... be back .... eventually ....
22 comments:
Hello Fram!such a nice post about your grandfather.May be you have got some of those great qualities in your self.You are very very lucky to have such memories.
Great post Fram and its very good to see you.I have missed you.
Greetings Anita
Happy birthday to your granddad. That was such an enjoyable post. you have a rich history. Thanks for sharing it. :-)
Greetings from London.
Well, I never have had an interest in gardening, Anita, but my grandfather probably is the origin of my reading habit. I believe he read for a while -- books, magazines, newspapers -- almost every day of his adult life. He certainly did during the time I knew him, and I do the same.
I might also mention that this grandfather was my mother's father, and passed the love of books on to her. My earliest memories of her are reading bedtime stories to me.
By the way, I have barely gotten into "Bitter Lemons," and am reading only a chapter a day. Lawrence Durrell is difficult to fully absorb without absolute concentration, I think. He paints with words. He is like many British writers in that his stories often are mundane, but reading him is like reading poetry and his "portraits" are stunning in a literary and visual way. He allows the reader to see what he is seeing and to feel what he is feeling.
And, this post is just an interlude. I am not back to my blog yet. Sooner or later ....
Thank you, CiL, for the birthday wish for my grandfather.
He had a tendency to open his gifts, eat a piece of cake -- maybe, two pieces -- and then adjourn to another room to resume his reading. He was not much for counting years or for celebrating at birthday parties if his was the birthday being observed. I adhere to his style and his mannerisms in that regard: Run, until the road ends.
I did have a great childhood, and it is fun to recall it and to talk about it.
Where are you then Fram?
i love your stories!
BTW.Yes.you have to read his book quietly.I read it in english and made me very happy.Probably because i did understand what he wrote about since i have been all the places he talks about.
Iam reading old norwegian stuff.From before and after ww2.Interesting.
hope you do fine!Iwonder what you do?Have you married or something !
Well.Happy week Fram!Glad you wrote back:))))
Where am I, she asks?
Well, if you wish to find me you must travel to the second star to the right, and straight on till morning, making sure you arrive at the time of sunrise.
She wonders what I do.
Well, as I have told to some, I need to return to being a Spartan for a while, and that is not something I can become in a few weeks. I need to grow into it a hop, skip and a jump at a time through a daily, disciplined routine of physical work, mental focus and daily reading.
She inquires if I am "married or something."
Well, neither, Anita. In fact, I have become accustomed to living alone and I actually have abandoned the idea getting married again.
By the way, in respect to your current reading, I saw a television program not long ago about the Norwegian underground during World War II and its combined operations with the British to sabotage Nazi efforts to create "heavy water" for nuclear weapon development. Fascinating stuff ....
Yes yes that one.Gunnarside operation!!!and heavy waters at Rukjan..or into the white!!Many good movies and books and true folk stories.
I have to laugh about you comment..so..iam supposed to be sort of star trek to know your way..hahhahaha..but very nice told though.You one told me you was a writer..did you begin the book about your life?
Strange a good man like you ae not captured.It is very nice to see your words again.I see you smile a bit to.The music and photo are very nice Fram.By the way.What war was you into?
Que termines bien Febrero e inicies bien Marzo, saludos amigo.
Thank you, Anita. It is March now, and time for me to return to Neverland.
Greetings, Boris, my poet friend.
February departs with snow for me, and March will arrive with more snow for me, it would seem. As a contemporary of William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, wrote a few hundred years ago: "I would chuse [sic] March, for I would come in like a Lion ...."
Thank you, for your visit.
Oi Fram?
Desculpa-me pela demora em aparecer para ler sua postagem, estava no sitio e lá a net é bem precária no smartphone.
História muito bonita a do teu avô. Uma trajetória de vida admirável. Conhecedor de música, grandioso isso que ele fez, ele ainda menino dar aula de piano e violino.
Devia gostar muito de leitura e música.
Parabéns pelo teu avô!
A foto é bem curiosa, e são essas pequenas relíquias que nós faz recordar de pessoas querida, nossos antepassados.
Adoro as musica do Scorpions , The Best Is Yet To Come é muito linda. Gosto bastante. O dois vídeo é bem bacana.
Adorei a postagem Fram!
Desejo um ótimo final de semana pra você!
Aqui ainda muito calor, ao contrario dai que é só frio, risos.
Devo atualizar meu blog por esses dias.
Abraços!
Smareis
There she is ....
I was beginning to wonder about you, Smareis. Your appearances on the sea of blogs have been few in recent months, and, yes, you are overdue to publish another post yourself.
Thank you, for the compliments regarding my post and my grandfather. He was a very quiet man and rarely spoke unless spoken to first. I do not think he was a happy man in most ways, and I do think some of his melancholy has been passed along to me. He had an identical twin brother, and when the twin died at age forty-six, I feel my grandfather never really recovered from the loss. I was leaving the region the last time I saw my grandfather. I took him to a bar, and we talked while we drank two beers each. We both had a fine time. He was laughing and happy. He died eight months later.
The photograph was taken from a third-floor apartment overlooking Castle Square and across the square from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. I rented the apartment during the few months I lived in Warsaw. There was nothing special about the night the photograph was taken, but hundreds of people -- probably a few thousand -- were coming and going during the evening while it was snowing. Then, suddenly, the people were gone and the square was empty -- except for their footprints.
Thank you, again, this time for coming to visit me and for leaving your words for me, Smareis. I think, maybe, Spring is coming. The last heavy snow stayed south of me and the temperatures are not so frigid. I hope your weekend will be everything you wish it to be, too ....
Gracias amigo por siempre comentar en mi blog, saludos.
And, I offer my thank you to you, Boris, for your visits and your words at my blog. I enjoy reading what you write, and I am glad our paths have crossed.
Thanx Fram for comments on my blog!I appreciate it:)
Hope u are doing fine
Hugs!
Yes, I appreciate your visits and your comments, too, Anita. Thank you, very much.
As for me, personally, I am almost always fine. Fram Actual also is Fram the Fortunate, you might remember. To make things better, Daylight Savings Time began in the U.S. last night and, being a person who prefers the shadows of evening to the glare of morning, that always makes me happy.
I hope life is treating you well, too.
Because of busy times and virusses I haven't been very active on my blog and the blogs of others last few weeks. I am sorry for that :-)
You posted some nice work lately! I enjoyed reading your posts. And I want to thank you for your comments on my blog!! :-)
Greetings from the Netherlands! ;-)
Gert Jan Hermus
dzjiedzjee.blogspot.com
As the saying goes, you were conspicuous by your absence, Gert Jan. I am glad to have you and your photographs back and I am happy to learn that you have sent the viruses which troubled you on their way.
Thank you, for your compliment about my posts. I enjoy your visits here and I am pleased when you leave a comment for me.
ihad to laugh about you comment Fram..whers the Norse ducks??If u was on -facbooka i d show u..hihihi
Nevermind..Yes..love is in the air in ourtown everhere i loook around theres kissing andhugging and ll kind of thinhgs--makes me happy vibrations:)))))And thats not strange when we have about 300 days of rain in the year..can belive iam staying around this place..Well--happy weekend fram..am so glad you are fine and good..for me..am very sad of the killing of that swedish reporter in Kabul..I thinnk Afganis the worst town ever to stay in..fullof bandits and terrorist..
ok.i shall have a good nap..read a little and then to work..3 nightshifs!
See you:))
As I have said many times, ducks are my favorite birds and, as I have said a few times, I would like to have a duck as a pet. Someday, maybe, I will have a pet duck and we will fly south every autumn to bask on a sunny beach while drinking a few too many daiquiris ....
Thank you, for another visit and another comment, Anita, and I hope all goes well for you during your three nights of work.
Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.
Thank you, Andrew, for your visit and your words ....
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