Tom

My father's father was Tom, but he was known to every one in the family as Pap. Tom was a master mechanic and worked for many years for the local Ford dealership. It was said the he assembled the first motel T in the county.In those days they shipped cars by train to the dealers in crates and local assembly was required. He walked across town to work and back with his lunch in a tin lunch pail. When he came home in the evening, he was usually covered with grease and oil.  He would spend as long as it took in the bathroom to come to dinner in a clean shirt,shaved and completely scrubbed of any trace of the garage. I remember his long leather strop for his pair of beautiful pearl handled straight razors. His long cleanup sessions were a constant annoyance to my grandmother, Nettie. But there was nothing that would speed his arrival at dinner until he was ready.
Tom was a baseball fan and listened to every game on the radio. He died too young (in his late 60s), probably as a result of breathing unvented exhaust fumes for many years.

Good people

GOOD PEOPLE
 I was lucky to grow up in the company of all four of my grand parents. With my father absent, they became, along with my mother and brothers, my immediate family. All four were born around 1900, give or take a few years. They married and had children in the 1920's, lived through the Great Depression in the 30's and sent their sons to the World War in the 1940's.  The Depression and the War had a deep and lasting influence and by the 1950's they were old by the standard of the times. My mother's parents lived in the country and fared somewhat better than my father's parents who live in the city. It was a good time to have a small farm. Although I didn't realize it at the time, we were all rather poor. For all of their problems I don't ever recall any anger or unhappy times with the grandparents. They were the most consistently positive people I have ever known. They along with a large group of aunts, uncles, cousins and neighbors lived their lives and were for the most part generous and warm and happy. They were the best people I was ever to know. They were good people.

There is no hope

There is no hope

The other day I was in line at the market and as always I read the covers of the magazines. I have over time lost all comprehension of what most of the stories are about. On several covers the headline was "Two Kardashian marriages on the rocks". Believing that anything about the Kardashians is a joke, I made a comment to the clerk and bagger. To my surprise they both knew all about the Kardashians marital problems and were very well informed about many other details of their lives.

There is no hope

Figs

Figs

Yesterday was a record day for fig production. I collected 10 big ripe figs from our Brown turkey tree, from which I produced the most lovely jam.

10 large ripe figs

 half a cup of sugar

pinch of salt

chop figs; simmer with sugar for 30 minutes (stir )

add off heat  1 tbls lemon juice and 1 tbls port wine

cool and eat

Enjoy

Music Man Murry

Murry Gershenz

Murry Gershenz died this week in LA. He was 91. At 80 he started an acting career. His credits include several dozen movies and TV shows. His most well know role was his nude scene in "The Hangover".

But most of his life was devoted to music. He loved good music, and collected 3 or 4 hundred thousand records. He was a singer and a cantor. Earlier this year he sold his collection.

There is a 22-minute movie "Music Man Murry"that you can connect to on the internet. It is well worth watching. He does a rendition of "Brother can you spare a dime?" that will make you weep. 

The LA Times obit has a link to the movie.

RIP Murry

garden in summer

The garden in summer

tiger lilly

cooking

The Lamb Shawarma
The ingredients

And the meal

lotus

The Lotus pond

Looking Back

I have been thinking of the past recently. Over 75 years much has happened. The things that make an impression are not always the most important. I decided to write some of these memories so they are not lost forever.
My mother's family was large (10 children). My father's was smaller (4). All of the male members were drafted during the Second World War.
Uncle John flew the hump in India to Burma.
Uncle Leo survived hand to hand combat in a trench in Europe.
My Dad spent several weeks in the swamps of New Guinea, living on Hersey bars and bananas.
Back home : the family would gather and pray for 30 minutes or so every evening.
All of the men came home. Some were permanently changed by the experience. But they all came home.
I have a vivid memory of V E Day., standing on the curb while a parade went by. I was beating on one of my grandmother's pots with a wooden spoon. There was universal joy in the crowd.
The returning relatives never said much about their experiences. I pieced their stories together over the years from others in the family.

My brief political career

My Brief Political Career
The party approached me to run for city council.I told them that I was 75 years old and did not have an excess money, but if they needed me I would run. And so I became a canidate.
The idea was that in an off year election there would be very little public interest. I would be unopposed in the primary.Since the mayor's race would likely not be contested there would be even less interest and a small percentage of the qualified voters might be enough to win.
I was of course running against a 4-term incumbent, but not to worry, I might be able to pull off an upset.
A week later the picture changed completely. The incumbent decided to retire and several people were now interested in the job. Amoung them was a very good canidate with money and experience.This would mean that I would have to win a tough primary fight and then the general.Facing superior forces, I chose the intelligent path and decided to retire.
several people have done some serious work for my campaign and I appreciate the confidence that they had in me, Thank you very much!
Several people made finiancial contributions to the campaign and that is also much appreciated. I have destroyed any checks that I received. Thank you very much!
Inthe shortest political career in history, I have not come away with any deep or important thoughts. I did find out who my friends are, which is worth a lot.
The Republic willjust have to survive with out my piublic service.
On balance, I am sure itis for the best and the Republic will be just fine.