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Diaryland
Mom's father 2003-11-10 @ 1:59 p.m.
My mom's father's name is Kenneth; Ken or Kenny to his wife and friends and Papa to me. My middle name is Kenneth in honor my grandfather as well. Papa's ethnic background is Irish Catholic, although some of his grandparents became members of the Mormon church. Papa's father, my great-grandfather, left home fairly early on and never spoke about what happened to him to his children. Our family thinks he was likely abused. From my work on our family tree, I think what happened is that his father died and his mother remarried a man in the Mormon church with a bunch of children. Even if his stepfather hadn't abused him, I think my great-grandfather would likely have been ostracized by his step-family.
My papa grew up in Ogden, Utah and came to California eventually. When World War II broke out, he and his buddies decided that enlisting in the Navy would be a better option than getting drafted into the army, and so he ended up serving in the Pacific. I'm not sure if its a touchy subject for him or everybody was too nervous to ask him about it, but I don't remember Papa ever discussed his war experience with our family. Maybe I'll ask him about it.
Through the Navy, Papa did a lot of travelling and training around America and the Pacific. He's very sharp and loves to learn, so he's ended up becoming a jack of all trades in many respects - he's really got that Sagittarius streak going on. He is still an avid reader at his current age. He attended chiropractor school and I think he had a practice for a little while - I don't remember why he opted out of it. He ended up joining the Tracy police department and serving with them for many years. He has a lot of wonderful stories to tell from that time.
His wife's father, my great grandparents on my nana's side, decided at that time that they needed to move to British Columbia to continue ranching. California was becoming less and less conducive to it from what I understand. They convinced nana and papa to bring my mom and my aunts and move up there with them. There was going to be a brand new school opening there for them to attend. So they opted to join them and moved to BC. Unfortunately, a lot of things went wrong. The school my mom and my aunts were going to attend had to shut down because there wasn't enough students in the area registered, which meant a long, long drive to the nearest school. There was a real culture shock and lifestyle change that they may not have been prepared for. Also, from what I understand, my great-grandfather and my papa had never gotten along that well to begin with and feuded over various things. My grandparents ended up deciding to move back to California after losing a lot of money and giving up the potential benefits that Papa would have eventually received had he stayed with the Tracy Police Department for a few more years.
So my grandparents and my mom and aunts moved back to California, this time to the other side of the Altamont Pass to a little town called Livermore. The government had built a giant nuclear laboratory there and Papa found employment as a security guard. He worked there through the 60's and no doubt had numerous encounters with hippies from Berkeley coming over to protest activities at the lab. Hmm... I wonder if that's why he's suspicious of liberals... can't be the only reason though. He has a lot of fun stories from this time to tell as well - we really ought to write things down as we are liable to forget them if we don't.
My grandfather has always been crazy about me and perhaps he's given me some special attention in that regard. I am his first grandchild and a guy, so I can understand how having all girls as kids he would have been excited when I came along. I have always loved him and looked up to him in many ways, but there's been a couple times when I feel like I couldn't live up to his expectations for me. He had more traditional ideas about what men are supposed to be like, and his ideas intimidated me when I was younger. He wanted me to get involved with sports and weight lifting and such, which have always kind of turned me off. In the last few years, he's let me know in many ways both subtle and obvious that he loves me unconditionally and he's happy that I am doing my own thing. He still makes pot shots at liberals though.
"Details in the Fabric" - May 31, 2009
Not So Quick Questions - April 6, 2009
The Morning Stars - Lords of the 15 - April 9, 2009
Sincerity and Faith in Magic - April 10, 2009
Not So Quick Questions (2) - April 14, 2009
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