More than two decades ago I got to do some fitness training with a 95 year-old man. I mentioned that he was almost as old as the airplane, had lived to see the moon shot, and watched a sattelite TV signal on the treadmill. He replied with the hour and day and circumstances that he had first laid eyes on a real airplane. He was almost my exact same age at the time.
Such a fun, interesting read. Off the top of my head, my great grandfather fought in the Civil War, and I believe he was the last Washington to live at Mt. Vernon.
I'd mentioned a great-great grandmother whose life spanned the 1840s into the 1930s and the collection of photographs we have of her showing the astounding changes in women's fashion across her life, paralleling the rapid changes of her world. I wonder what she thought of it all? Based on other things we know of her, she probably heartily disapproved. People generally do and thus the movie, No Place for Old Men.
My father (born 1948) likes to talk of his paternal grandfather who he was close to (born in 1877, youngest of a large Victorian family, passing away in 1972). Two things clearly stood out about his grandfather, he was proud of a favorite aunt who attended a ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where a passing president gave a short speech in 1863, and he also apparently never quite recovered from Franklin Roosevelt's presidency (FDR's impact on America can be reasonably compared to Attlee's Labour government).
There are people who must feel they outlived an era and live in a world that no longer makes sense to them. I suppose we may be passing through such a phase, unexpectedly for the most part.
The ultimate long duree view of history!
More than two decades ago I got to do some fitness training with a 95 year-old man. I mentioned that he was almost as old as the airplane, had lived to see the moon shot, and watched a sattelite TV signal on the treadmill. He replied with the hour and day and circumstances that he had first laid eyes on a real airplane. He was almost my exact same age at the time.
Such a fun, interesting read. Off the top of my head, my great grandfather fought in the Civil War, and I believe he was the last Washington to live at Mt. Vernon.
the Kerensky one just does my head in. I think we all miss the USSR.
The beginning of a book, hopefully?
I'd mentioned a great-great grandmother whose life spanned the 1840s into the 1930s and the collection of photographs we have of her showing the astounding changes in women's fashion across her life, paralleling the rapid changes of her world. I wonder what she thought of it all? Based on other things we know of her, she probably heartily disapproved. People generally do and thus the movie, No Place for Old Men.
My father (born 1948) likes to talk of his paternal grandfather who he was close to (born in 1877, youngest of a large Victorian family, passing away in 1972). Two things clearly stood out about his grandfather, he was proud of a favorite aunt who attended a ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where a passing president gave a short speech in 1863, and he also apparently never quite recovered from Franklin Roosevelt's presidency (FDR's impact on America can be reasonably compared to Attlee's Labour government).
There are people who must feel they outlived an era and live in a world that no longer makes sense to them. I suppose we may be passing through such a phase, unexpectedly for the most part.
I love this stuff. Was it actually Major's half-brother who was born in 1901? Wikipedia says it was a Tom Moss.
That's a brilliant opening paragraph.