What did your Grandparents Do?

[Jstpssng]

My mother's father was a local cop for a while, before going to work for the phone company. My other grandparents were farmers, then opened a flower shop/greenhouse on land which has been in the family for several generations. During the Depression he used to take a wagon to the Poland Spring House Hotel and haul garbage back for the pigs. We used a ladle and a few other utensils which came back with the load; a while back when downsizing my mother brought them back to the former hotel's museum. If I looked hard enough I could probably still find shards of dishware out where the old pigpen used to be, although it's long been grown back into field.

 

[mcfarmall]

Paternal grandfather was a general contractor in Chicago and built many apartment buildings up to 3 floors. The Great Depression destroyed the business and he became a raging alcoholic.

Maternal grandfather was a farmer. I have the Farmall C that he bought a few years before he died. My mother still lives on a 40 acre parcel that is left of the original farm. I have the original sales receipt for the Farmall with my grandpas signature on it.

Granny's were homemakers.

 

[Bird]

As with most women of their generation, both of my grandmothers were homemakers.

My maternal grandfather had driven a gasoline delivery truck in his earlier days, I was told. But from the time I was big enough to know him, he was a bookkeeper (before they started calling them accountants).

My paternal grandfather was a farmer until I was 3 years old when he started a contract job of hauling the mail between the post office and train station, meeting 6 trains every 24 hours, got up twice at night to go meet the train, a job he held until trains quit hauling mail.

 

[RickB]

Farmers on both sides.

 

[mddorange]

My dad's father was a farmer and Highway Supervisor for Montgomery County, TN. My Dad's Mother was a homemaker and raised 13 children. The farm was in New Providence and the city house was in Clarksville near Austin Peay State College. My grandmother's maiden name was Franklin and a direct descendant of the Franklin's in Boston MA. (Yes, a relative of Benjamin Franklin)

My mother's father was a share crop farmer. My mother's mother maiden name was Winchester. (Yes, of the Winchester Rifle family)

 

[oosik]

Grandparents on mother's side - farmers in Norway. Grandparents on fathers side - iron worker.

 

[Kernopelli]

Dad's father was a school teacher/coach/ district superintendent. Grandma stayed home and raised 7 kids.

Mom's father farmed, bred mules and horses and was an underground coal miner for 40+ yrs. He was inolved in and survived: The Herrin Massacre Herrin massacre - Wikipedia and 2 seperate mine roof collapses ( lost an eye in the second one). He was gentle yet a man's man in every aspect, a loving husband, a great father/ grandfather and loved the Lord. Granny was a stay at home wife and the love of his life. He's been gone 52 yrs and she's been gone 43 yrs now and it still moves me greatly when I think of them! I have searched and searched to no avail and would give my hind teeth to have his old Allis Chalmers!!

 

[ultrarunner]

I do think a lot of my Grandfather... I was 12 when he passed... even decades later I still run into people and ask if I am related... says something about character when you leave a positive legacy.

He would always answer any question I had and we talked about cars all the time... he was in the car business selling Model T's... He made one trip to visit his extended family and very much wanted me to come and I very much wanted to go... Grandma and my folks said next time as I was a little too young...

That was a missed opportunity for sure... because I would have soaked up every bit of family history on Dad's side...

One common thread I found is men tended to marry much later age wise than women... at least from those I have researched... Grandmother was 18 and Grandfather 28... he said a man couldn't think about settling down until he had proven he could be provider... times sure are different today!

For kids the farm side was always fun... and so very different than growing up in the city... still remember being fascinated by Grandmother's Wedgewood stove... she cooked with wood just about every day...

 

[ruffdog]

Auto mechanic, building maintenance, shoe factory worker, clothes tailor for retail stores. All 4 worked.

 

[dnw64]

I could add: my maternal great-grandfather was the first person in Canton, PA to get his drivers' license. He was a "mechanic" before the term meant one working on automobiles. As far as I know there is only one photograph of him - he was very self-conscious of a facial abnormality. Probably a tumor of some sort, he died of complications related to such at a relatively young age.