What jobs did/do your grandparents do?

My grandmother was mostly a housewife, in the '70s owned a ceramic shop that burned down in '79 (note - my grandfather just found out last week that she was the one who torched it for the insurance money). Spent the '80s and '90s teaching ceramics classes at home, selling jewelry at flea markets, running insurance scams on occasion.

My grandfather was a sheetrocker in California after WWII, I guess he eventually ran his own small company. When my father went to college in the late '60s, he and my grandmother moved to Las Vegas and then Iowa, helping start an RV company that would eventually become Winnebago (in a roundabout way, after the original corp had folded). In '71, he and my father moved to Texas, where they worked construction for a while, started Southern States Roofing in '74, and kept that up doing commercial roofing until the last big hail storm at the beginning of the '90s. Now the business is mostly commercial remodelling and one or two homes every year for the commercial clients, mostly contracting. A total of four direct employees, the two of them, an old hippie and on occasion, me. Turned 80 this spring, still works every day.

On my mom's side:
My grandmother worked at the Post Office for 30 years, retired in 1990, gets a $24k/year pension, plus some social security. I wish Civil Service was still around.

My grandfather, uh, I don't really know. He passed away in 1989, had his first bypass in '75 and retired soon after. Had worked in factories and in ranching before that, I think. Mostly raised chickens and took them to shows when I was alive.

Paternal grandmother: Never had a job, too busy having 13 children.

Matenal grandfather: Gardener, farmhand, prisoner of war.

Maternal grandmother: Long-running chain of various village shop jobs. May have worked as a butcher's assistant at one point, I can't remember.

My father's mother worked for what has become Verizon as a telephone operator.

My mother's father was a merchant seaman who jumped ship to come to America. He then became a fireman and construction worker.

My mother's mother was a seamstress in a factory in NYC.

My maternal grandfather was a banker, the latest (last, actually, I think) in a long line of them; my maternal grandmother was a receptionist for the same company for something like fifty years. The first and only job she had, I believe. (I can't even imagine living in the same town for fifty years, much less working for the same company.)

Maternal Grandfather - Engineer

I am not sure what either of my grandmothers were employed as.

My maternal grandparents met while working at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. My grandma quit to raise her children and then fucked up her leg which made her semi-immobile and unable to work for the most part.

My paternal grandfather was a bus driver and streetcar engineer. Nana didn't work as far as I know.

Maternal grandfather was some kind of gambler/entrepreneur.

Paternal grandmother was a housewife.

Paternal grandfather used to own a large clothing factory but lost it all when he went to trial for dipping quite extensively into his employees' insurance funds.

Maternal grandma was a high school teacher. She was a good teacher but she could be mean, I've heard.

Paternal grandpa is buried in Vegas. He's not spoken of much and I have no idea what his profession may have been, if he had one.

Paternal grandma is still hanging on, she worked in a doctor's office most of her life to support 5 boys and is now retired.

maternal grandfather - took over the family farm when he was 17 and his dad died, but then joined the army for WWII, was a POW, came home and started working for GM, first on the floor, later as a tool & die maker. UAW.

paternal grandmother - cashier/stocker in a five & dime forever, including while raising five boys; more or less sole wage-earner.

paternal grandfather - not much I think; he was in the military for the war but is an alcoholic so couldn't keep real jobs for too long. I remember my dad saying he would do loadout for bands when they played at the university, including KISS!

They are all still alive and I should visit them more of course.

My paternal grandmother (the egg donor): A cleaning lady and serial marrier (*bitter laughs*).
My paternal "grandmother" (the one who raised Dad): Retired.
My paternal grandfather (the sperm donor): Was a career Army man (fought in Korea, IIRC); died of a heart attack while serving overseas during peacetime.

merchant seaman/fulltime parent

My mother's parents were both dead by the time I was born. I've only seen a couple of photos of them. They had three daughters and two sons, and ran their own farm - until the red plague was imported into Estonia in the early '40s. After the war, my mother's mother managed to keep their house and some o thef land and give a decent education to her children. Except for the eldest son who, still in his teens, had to take over as the master of the house then.
As a small kid, I spent many summers at that place. And a very beautiful place it was. (Still is. Sold years ago now.)

my other two grandparents ran a small mom&pop store in a bad immigrant neighborhood in philadelphia, forcing their children off to college at 16 in the hopes that they'd find nice jewish wives. they died very young.

The glass ears industry, yes?

On my mother's side my grandfather ran away from home at age 16 and eventually became a tenured professor of English and American literature, while my grandmother was a faculty wife who raised two children (before marrying she worked in an insurance office as a clerk.)

maternal side
real g-father: mother never knew him although a pic exists of him looking like gene vincent on a motorcyle
step-father: carpenter
g-mother: licensed vocational nurse (not rn)

My ancestors: growing food and fighting Italian occupation to serve you better.

both PgF's family and MgF's family were wine merchants, apparently with some ties to some of the big Port and Madeira merchants (in Porto and Funchal, Portugal, duh). one uncle fought in the RAF during WWII, another was in the Royal Navy -- both have some really interesting stories.

(oh and N. if my mom's Jesus does that mean I can't be Mary Magdelene?)

My mother's parents were both botanists, and university professors. Actually, my grandfather ended up Vice Chancellor of the University of Singapore, and my grandmother was head of the Botany Department of the University of Natal.

It gets posher a generation back. A Doctor, A Minister, An Adventurer, A Town Mayor, and "nothing, they were just rich".

(How the heck am I supposed to live up to that? But at least it's not as strange as HSA's family which is full of poets, publishers and cookery writers.)

My mother's father owned and ran a pharmacists in Acton (it's still a chemist's today) and my mother's mother was a house wife.

Maternal grandfather: went on WPA projects during the Depression, became hardware store owner, wound up with group of friends in commercial property cartel and at one time owned the land that became Mall of America. Oldest of five boys and Always Right, so bossy as hell.
Maternal grandmother: housewife/mental patient. Was sent to art college and secretary school and was sewing/cooking MACHINE until she got loopy (sez my mum).

AFAIK, my paternal grandma was a housewife.

My maternal grandpa worked as a clerk in the City of London - Aldersgate Street I believe. And Nan, my maternal grandma, who was the only one of the four who was not deceased by the time I was born (marrying late being a constant in my family) was also an office clerk...she worked for a firm of meat wholesalers at Smithfield Market called Borthwicks.

My mum's mum was an opera singer, but gave it up to raise a family. My mum's dad was a postman and also served in WWII

My dad's mum became an orphan at 17, moved to Canada from Scotland and ended up becoming a housekeeper for the Eaton family (yes, the department store Eatons) before settling down into raising her family. She then became an avid bowler and had one of those great satin team jackets.

My dad's dad moved to Canada from Lithuania in the 30s and was a very skilled carpenter and builder. He helped build our family cottage in northern Ontario.

so predictable, really!!

mgf: general practitioner M.D.
mgm: housewife basically

maternal grandfather: worked in a factory after coming home from WWII, some sort of flooring company. died in 1986
maternal grandmother: was a professional dancer in Canada for a while, then sold shoes when she moved to the states with my grandfather. Still kickin it in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Walks 5 miles a day at 75.

My paternal grandfather was a diplomat and economist. He was involved in setting up the UN and worked for it for the rest of his working life, generally in Africa (he still lives near Geneva). He was mates with Haile Selassie, knew Ian Smith and I think met Idi Amin a few times too. He was by all accounts not a great husband and divorced my grandmother when my Dad was in his teens - she didn't work after the divorce, I don't know what she did before her marriage though I know she'd been to University and had worked.

Dad's parents = Merchant seaman + housewife

Paternal grandfather worked for British Rail all his life, starting at age 14 by washing down the engines and at the end of his career he was in charge of the line between London and York (I think). Train drivers essential at home, so didn't get conscripted.

Both grandmothers housewives.

TS: being "happy to declare" the fact vs being asked the question and answering it!! Should we not take part in the thread? Anyway, it's only my paternal grandfather who was a "shyster" (this isn't even the word to describe him, he was a disgusting excuse for a human being and he deserved the painful, drawnout death he received, albeit he deserved it far sooner, but this is neither here nor there). My mother's father was a very sweet, respectable, hardworking man, not in any way a shyster.

A distant relative of mine (a great Uncle I think, maybe great great?) was researching our family tree a few years back and was asking all of the older members of our family what knowledge they had and my Grandfather claimed that his grandfather spent some time gun-running in Africa, which apparently was completely false but many an hour was wasted trying to un-earth facts about him from African sources.

that he had been good
at what he did; we'd be rich!
but: three-time loser

I'm just thinking that what this thread "reveals" is that, shocker, there are a lot of dodgy dads in America.

What's interesting to me is not necessarily class, but female roles. Females that had careers two generations ago - are they polarised around any particular class? (For example, more female careers in subsistence level classes, or "vanity" careers in classes that could afford females not to be full-time homemakers?)

1. Quite sympathetic to the aims of feminism.
2. Very aware of $$$ from too early an age.
3. Desirous of a career so that if the bottom fell out of HER life, no scullery maid option for her.
4. Really keen to keep her career once married because It's Fun To Be A Fashion Buyer.

Mum's mum = florist, dinner lady, house wife

Dad's mum = land army, house wife

Dad's dad = Commando, business man

Really dumb hippies are not the people that believe this myth - I think you'll find it's really dumb Tories.

Paternal grandfather: no idea. He died when I was two, but theyre from out bush, so I think it was farming.
Paternal step-grandad: a bastard. A really unpleasant man. Dead now, too. Don't know what he did, if anything, apart from drink and gamble and yell at the kids.
Paternal grandmother: not sure, which is a worry! Housewife perhaps. She got alzhimers late in life and has passed on now.

I know a lot less about my dads family than my mums.

Maternal grandfather: Methodist minister.

Grandmothers: no paid work outside of the house that I know of.

Paternal grandmother - a "flying nurse" in the South African bush. She continued in nursing throughought the rest of her life (whenever she wasn't hospitalized herself) and spent some time working at Toronto's Hospital For Sick Children (Sick Kids).

Maternal grandmother - an actress, musician (stage and some tv) elocution teacher, (apparently) domineering housewife.

Maternal grandfather - can't remember. I never met him.

My maternal grandparents met while working at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

I just found this family history thing my mom typed up.
Her dad worked at American Can with his brother. Then was in the Army during WWII even though his job enabled him to receive a deferment. Met my grandma at Montgomery Wards, then back to the Can Co., then various jobs with hotel supplies companies, then tried selling cemetary plots all over Illinois, then hired by a relative to work at a glass store on the south side.
Also says he started having war flashbacks during his last year of life--he used to just tell funny stories about those times. Yet another example of the things my parents don't tell me. (I was 20 before I knew my uncle was my mom's half-brother, not, um, full-brother)

My maternal grandmother was a physics teacher at a Catholic high school. She was the only physics major in her class at Agnes Scott (an all-girls' school, she wanted to go to GA Tech but they didn't accept girls at the time) and then in the '70s she went on to get a master's degree in Computer Science from GT. She was instrumental in getting me involved in computers from an early age -- she taught my brother and I to make programs in BASIC when we were kids (though obv. at the time I didn't have the complex insight to make anything useful).

Right now I'm reading through a folder of old programs she'd written in her free time. This one is labeled "Plotter Programs to Draw Circuit Diagrams" and was written in the early '80s. She died last summer; I miss her, she was the shit.

great thread idea

grandfathers: truck driver/warehouse worker, milkman
grandmothers: kennel owner, housewife

very Detroit

M. grandfather: Philadelphia cop
M. grandmother: Philadelphia housewife

P. grandfather: Methodist minister
P. grandmother: Methodist minister's wife

Oops, I did this already under a short-lived name. I didn't see that because I just did a "Find."

M. grandfather: electrical engineer/vice-president of Scientific Atlanta, died before I was born
M. grandmother: teacher

P. grandfather: not sure of his career history, he made signs for a while (now retired)
P. grandmother: housewife, church lady

Father's father: worked for the railroad. Can't remember exactly what job, probably station agent in Quincy. (A town that doesn't exist anymore.)

Father's mother: farm wife, mother of 13. (One died in infancy.)

Mother's father: no idea, I should ask my mom sometime.

Mother's mother: nurse; in later years, live-in nurse/assistant. She occasionally took care of people 20 years her junior. (PS, she's still hanging in there, will be 111 in nine days.)

oh I didn't even say back then that my maternal grandmother was also a sometime DJ on the CBC as well - some Scottish music hour I think.

this really is a great thread idea. congrats

Maternal grandfather: Coal miner, then 4 years Army service in WWII, then railroad brakeman.
Maternal grandmother: Worked at a rayon plant for 15 years, then held various light factory jobs for several years. Currently a greeter at Wal-Mart.

Paternal grandmother: Worked in a department store in NYC, then did seamstress work at home, then worked as a secretary in various capacities.
Paternal grandfather: No idea - never met the man. I know he was an amateur boxer, but beyond that I haven't a clue.

Wow Rock, your awesome Gramma is still going strong! Thats fantastic :D

One grandad

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191235/

The other

Laurence Bradshaw, did the Karl Marx sculpture in Highgate cemetary amongst other things

Was a feature on The Last Word, with my grandma being interviewed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_14apr2006.shtml

Maternal Grandma: as a teen sang with jazz big bands, then worked for Jewish social services, became an activist/organizer and folk-singer, eventually became a psychologist/therapist

Maternal Grandpa: Also worked for Jewish social services (where he met my grandma), served in Army in WWII, became a psychologist

Paternal Grandma: piano player for silent movie houses, then homemaker

Paternal Grandpa: suitnmaker, professional old bastard

I posted on here before, but my paternal grandfather finally made it onto Amazon

Yes it's a book on potato diseases. Yes, I acknowlege that DNA may have affected my Devo worship.

Maternal grandpa rode the rails in the depression and then ran a general store and a lake ice-fishing business with my grandma.

Paternal grandpa: security guard for a car manufacturing plant. Grandma was a homemaker.

I know the move from blue collar to white collar over the past 50 years has been well-documented, but our individual stories are a pretty striking reminder.

I'm probably unusual in having had two white collar grandparents and a business owning grandparent.

paternal gf: postmaster
paternal gm: jr. high science teacher

maternal gf: military man turned factory-to-dealer furniture salesman
maternal gm: housewife, full-time worrier

111!!
My grandmother lived to be 102 and her grave is awesome - born:1898 died:2001
She saw centuries and milleniums!

She was a bit dotty at the end - you can't really bitch about awareness from someone who is 102.
people tried to comfort me "Hey, so sorry that your gramdmother died."
"she was 102 years old!"
"Wow!"
"Yup."

Grandfather: Insurance. It has become a family theme. Lots of people work for Teh Hartford.

My Scottish side:
grandfather trained race horses at Ayr and worked in the mines in Ochiltree.
Fierce grandmother birthed 10 children. The first died in WWI.
Both grandparents died before I was born.
(My father was the youngest of the ten children, and he was 44 when I was born).
My father served in WWII - wacky! His brother died, etc.
And he is also dead.
As are most of his sisters.
I have one lovely auntie left, and one awful auntie who will live to be 186 years old because she is so mean and awful.
All of my aunts are/were nurses.
I think I have ruined this thread.
It was totally worth it.

Mother's father 1: Constructing/contracting (I think)
Mother's father 2: Farmer
Mother's mother: Didn't work, as far as I know

Father's parents: Actually, a good question - no idea: died before I was born/when I was v. young

maternal grandfather: merchant seaman
maternal grandmother: housewife

paternal grandfather: naval officer
paternal grandmother: housewife

my dad was a naval officer too, and so was his dad's dad.

MAT GRNDF: farmer
MAT GRNDM: farmer's wife
PAT GRNDF: aircraft mechanic
PAT GRNDM: aircraft mechanic's wife

GF (dad's side): worked at the railroad (?). Not sure what he did exactly, something with maintenance or electricity.
GM (dad's side): Teacher, but had to take an (alchololic induced) break

GF (mom's side): *drawer* at boat factory
GM (dad's side): housewife (before marriage used to make and sell her hats)

I mean, mom's side in the last line of course

paternal grandfather -- worked for Black Star Coal Co in Kentucky for 50 years, beginning as messenger boy age 14 around 1907 and retiring as an executive in 1958.

paternal grandmother -- worked as secretery for a few years before marriage, then did the homemaker/childrearing thing.

maternal grandfather -- accountant/bookeeper for PennElec, the electric company for about 40 years. a genius autodidact, upon retirement he indulged his longtime hobby of (verrrry cautiously) playing the stockmarket. well into his 80s down in Florida the local stockbrokers were calling him for tips.

maternal grandmother -- afaik she never had a job besides wife/mom.

Paternal grandfather - farmer (in Nebraska; moved to California during the dustbowl years)
Paternal grandmother - farmer's wife and mother of three; I'm named after her

Maternal grandfather - served in the Merchant Marines in WWII as captain, loved it
Maternal grandmother - wife, mother of three, later worked as insurance adjuster after their divorce

M grandfather and grandmother - both were religious teachers.

P grandfather - made tons of money in telecommunications from the late 1950s right up to the 80s. Unfortunately after his death in '91, most of it was subsequently squandered away by my dad's siblings through a series of bad investments.
P grandmother - housewife.

Very much 'unskilled' working class:
1)worked in a cake shop for several decades
2)various: inc. delivering doughnuts and something or other in a gasworks
lived in tiny rented place with outdoor toilet
3)various: inc. window cleaner and school caretaker
4)various: inc. cleaner and working in a munitions factory during the second world war
lived in council house and then (from mid-70s) council flat

grandmas both housewives mostly

p grandpa: dairy farmer turned real estate agent

m grandpa: phone company

p grandma's father: miner in nevada

Maternal grandmother: homemaker, married quite late, was told she'd never have kids then had 4
Maternal grandfather: draftsman, Seabee during WWII, worked his way up to head gear designer @ GM, reason #1 I became an engineer.

Paternal grandmother: farm wife, took over being postmaster after my grandfather was killed until forced to retire at 72, died last year aged 93. I dreamt of her last week, we were doing laundry, sorting socks. It was such a peaceful dream and I was happy when I woke up, then so sad when I remembered she was gone. She was a force of nature and I lived in terror of her judgment.

Paternal grandfather: farmer, school bus driver, postmaster of our small town. Killed when I was 3 1/2 by an exploding food stand at a Holiday on Ice show, 3 weeks before JFK was shot.

:0

here's my grandfather's book

No wonder Elvis Telecom and I have always got on, with grandfathers who wrote about botany. Though I suspect potato blight is somewhat cooler than orchids and rare grasses.

Gosh, he was a handsome devil, according to his official biography...

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/history/gilliland.jpg

My mum's dad left school, went straight into National Service, worked in a shoe factory for the next 45 years (while also raising my mother on his own, which was no mean feat for a single man in the Fifties) then died about three weeks after retiring.

- grandfather i: voice of superman, various radio gigs, "idea man" for ad agency, insurance salesman, full-time retiree
- grandfather ii: methodist minister

neither grandmother worked a day in their lives

Maternal:
Grandmother - I don't really know what she did. I know she worked in a pickle factory for years. Also she went to work as an au pair in the USA just after WWII (in Brooklyn)
Grandfather - he ran away from home, so I don't really know. But, I just remembered, my mum telling me that, during WWII, he used to tour the back courts of Glasgow doing a close harmony singing act with a couple of women and people would throw them coins and stuff - unbelievable! - but my great granny wouldn't allow my mum or my uncle to talk to him

Paternal:
Grandmother - ran away from home. No idea.
Grandfather - he was a labourer. My dad told me used to "tim sand boats" and I had no idea what he was talking about

I've been trying for ages to google my granny's books, but can't find them. :-(

At risk of reviving another thread, I'm compelled to point out:

http://www.facade.com/celebrity/photo/John_Dillinger.jpg
+
http://www.facade.com/celebrity/photo/George_Orwell.jpg
+
http://www.methuen.co.uk/images/475/0413750000.jpg
=
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/history/gilliland.jpg

http://www.facade.com/celebrity/photo/John_Dillinger.jpg
+
http://www.facade.com/celebrity/photo/George_Orwell.jpg
+
http://www.methuen.co.uk/images/475/0413750000.jpg
=

Well, you get the idea

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/40/106764847_c8b0947d98_o.jpg

My grandfather and me. (Mother's side.)

Maternal GF: Red Cross disaster relief worker
Maternal GM: housewife

Paternal GF: WWII combat vet/Cleveland radio "personality"/alkie
Paternal GM: Substitute teacher in Cleveland school system

All are deceased.

Maternal GF: worked in office of fire station, not sure what exactly he did
Maternal GM: cleaner/home help for elderly

Paternal GF: no idea, don't think he had a job since I was born
Paternal GM: various factory/warehouse stuff I think

Only maternal GF is dead, but I don't see the paternal ones anyway so they might as well be, really.

Maternal GF: Roofer.
Maternal GM: Shop detective, worked in a carpet factory, etc.

Paternal GF: Civil engineer.
Paternal GM: Nurse.

Grandmothers are still alive.

Maternal GF: Insurance Agent
Maternal GM: Nurse

Paternal GF: Jazz Guitarist
Paternal GM: Jazz Vocalist. Later, Nurse

All no longer with us.

Maternal GF Biological: professional drunk
Maternal GF Step: Pharmacist
Maternal GM: Housewife

Paternal GF Biological: Soldier killed in WW2 - professional diver
Paternal GF Step: Chef/restaurant owner
Paternal GM: Chef/restaurant owner
All of the paternal ones were German and lived/live there.

Only maternal GM still alive.

maternal grandfather - served in the army in WWII, then had a working class job but I don't know what precisely, something in railroad or shipping iron ore
maternal grandmother - housewife

paternal grandfather - electrician in the iron ore mines, iron range of minnesota. UMWA. those guys went in the newly dug mine shafts to rig up lighting so the actual miners could go in and work.
paternal grandmother - housewife mostly, also hospital volunteer

Wait - that's wrong. Only PATERNAL GM still alive. My maternal GM died in 1958. Oops. xpost to self.

Maternal grandfather = account executive for Royal Bank of Canada in Cuba (pre-Fidel), then New York
Maternal grandmother = worked at RBC; in the States she was a food stamp adminstrative manager for HRS.

Maternal grandmother = still working (at 83! yay!) as a nurse for Miami-Dade County.

*"Paternal" grandmother is the third entry

As previously but liking the revived thread:

*paternal side (the ones who immigrated from mexico)

g-father: migrant farmworker, steelworker at US Steel, mechanic, Catholic deacon
g-mother: school cafeteria worker, housecleaner (and mother of 5)

*maternal side

real g-father: mother never knew but he was a motorcycling bad boy from Austin
step-grandfather: carpenter (deceased)
g-mother: licensed vocational nurse (deceased)

Maternal GM - Nurse, then mom and housewife for 25+ years for five kids. BUT, and this is one of my favorite stories about her, without a driver's license her whole life in suburban Philly (Norristown, mostly), she would, each and every year, come downtown and renew her nurses license just in case. She was AWESOME.
Maternal GF - Sales rep for Merck, then real estate salesman.

Paternal GM - Emmigrated from Poland in the 20s (I believe), worked secretarial and retail jobs (Including Strawbridge and Clothier) for most of her working life, I think.
Paternal GF - Philly Cop (some GREAT photos of him on his big, old Harley back in the day), then bus driver, then driver for various older folks. Was a Mason.

Despite some addiction issues here or there, but some solid folks, the four of them. Just lost the last one, PGM, about two months ago - she was 90 and still kickin' ass at cards. I miss her a lot.

Maternal grandmother - housewife (I think she DID do paid work at some stage but I don't know what) (alive)
Maternal grandfather - accountant and Worshipful Master of local Masonic Lodge (dead)

Paternal grandmother - no idea (might be alive)
Paternal grandfather - no idea (dead)

Bosko Balaban Stats For Season
Name Bosko Balaban
Team Aston Villa
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My grandad at work

http://images.google.com/images?q=Lawrence+Bradshaw+source:life

paternal grandfather: lawyer/city official
paternal grandmother: housewife (4 kids)

maternal grandfather: business owner (store, restaurant)
materanal grandmother: housewife (7 kids)

Paternal Grandfather: manufacturing engineer
Maternal Grandfather: worked in a factory, not sure doing what exactly

both Grandmothers: housewives

paternal grandfather: cattle rancher until disabled
maternal grandmother: ranch wife, I guess, and then spent most of her later years taking care of my grandfather
maternal grandfather: some kind of drifter
maternal grandmother: did civil service office work

Paternal GP: Air Traffic Controller (interesting fact: one of the first 13 black men picked to integrate the military)
Paternal GM: Cleaning lady
Maternal GP: Circulation manager of the Seattle Times
Maternal GM: Baker/Caterer

maternal: my grandfather was a writer and ended up as an ad executive. his father was an emmy award winning directer and producer and general manhattan gadfly. his father was a london banker. my grandmother was dutch old money, new amsterdam style, and I think was a teacher at some point. her parents were god knows what.

paternal: my grandfather boxed during the great depression, saved up money, became a business and property owner in an upscale NYC suburban town, and eventually mayor for life. grandmother: homemaker.

both grandmothers psychologists one grandfather a geologist the other a concrete salesman WILL U LOOK AT THAT PEOPLE

maternal gm: illustrated department store ads for the newspaper, later worked in framing shop.
maternal pf: carpenter. built lots of things, including their house. he also had a real knack for doing crown molding (actual molding, not putting up a piece of wood). wanted to be an artist, but it was not allowed.

paternals: no idea. i think salesman (lol generic) and housewife?

Maternal Grandma worked as a Real Estate agent, a Tax preparer, ran an antique shop, and now sells homemade jewlery and antiques online.
Maternal Grandad is a Nuclear Pharmacist. He does mostly regular clinical work at a hospial, but he' sometimes called in to do research and run The Cyclotron.

Srsly, Cyclotron.

Pats, steelworker and a homemaker (6 kids).

my geologist grandpa fukd w/nukes for real up at livermore

I don't know what any of my grandparents did except my mom's dad who was an asst sec of labor during the Eisenhower admin

Grandads fuckin' w/ nukes chest bump to jho.

booya!

dad's dad: blacksmith, farmer, puttin babies in ladies
dad's mom: housewife, baby factory (14 kids, y'know)
mom's dad: POW camp guard in WWII, no idea what else he did
mom's mom: housewife, presumably

they was all teachers

Mom's dad: banker
Mom's mom: cleaning lady, wallpaper hanger, housewife, person who sat in the fire tower to watch for fires, convenience store manager

Stepdad's mom: cafeteria lady
Stepdad's dad: I don't know, actually. He died young, before I came along.

Dad's dad: Baptist preacher, all around creep
Dad's mom: I don't know this either. I don't talk to these people.

Dad's Dad: Owned a bicycle store, later ran a bike wholesale company.
Dad's Mom: Housewife.

Mom's Dad: Ran several different Italian-American restaurants.
Mom's Mom: Worked in restaurants with Grandpa, later worked in a nursing home.

Mom's dad - Farmer
Mom's mom - Farmer's wife, after he died worked at a grocery store

Dad's dad - Farmer
Dad's mom - Elementary school teacher

Interesting thread!

paternal grandfather: metal spinning
maternal grandmother: I don't know but now I want to know
maternal grandfather: carpenter
maternal grandmother: shop worker

Almost all the women on my mothers side worked in Woolworths. Very handy when I was a child. Also my grandfather was a carpenter for Maynards sweet manufacturers and so I got lots of free sweets!

pgf: worked in a power plant like homer j. simpson
pgm: cleaned houses, i think she still cleans houses at age 74 (this side is stereotypical workaholic irish immigrants i guess)

mgf: independent trucker, mechanic, landscaper
mgm: owned/ran an ice cream store

later had some involvement in the glass industry i've never fully understood; involved traveling

was a sales rep of some kind, i think. also has always been/is still involved in neighborhood/condo boards.

maternal grandfather #2 - (my grandmother remarried) businessman (who also owned factory?) and socialist.

textiles, including/especially(?) sequins

#1 may have lost business in the depression?

maternal grandfather: newspaper typesetter, navy in wartime
maternal grandmother: domestic servant, housewife, shop saleswoman, auxiliary firefighter(!) in wartime

paternal grandfather: fisherman, sailor, navy in wartime on same ship as other grandfather by complete coincidence (actually, on seeing that written down it seems so unlikely that I'm coming to doubt it myself - need to check that out)
paternal grandmother: housewife, all-round matriarch

maternal grandfather: worked in the printing business (movable type probably)
maternal grandmother: housewife mostly, some sewing

paternal grandfather: small-time farmer, tons of different jobs besides that including rat catcher
maternal grandmother: housewife with lots and lots of kids (like 10 or something)

my grandma was a "donut girl" w/ the red cross during WWII-- enlisted right out of high school and went overseas pretty much.

my mom just sent me this badass picture of her check it out:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x18/gr8080/grandma_monkey.jpg

I love this photo!! She's quite beautiful (your grandmother, not the monkey).

My maternal grandfather was a bridge builder...I don't know the word for it but he poured the concrete that formed the foundations of rural bridges over creeks, etc...helped to build the breakwater in Warrnambool, etc. Then was a driver in WWII, and a prisoner of war. I don't know if he went back to his original job after the war or not.

Maternal grandmother was a bit of everything...telephone operator when she left school at 16, i think she worked at the post office for a while too, then worked in an artillery factory during the war...then housewife mainly when my aunt and mum were born, though she did a ton of charity work around town, lots of sports clubs and social clubs and church organisation...she was a busy lady. And my hero.

Paternal grandparents: don't know a ton about them. My paternal grandfather was a farmer, and my grandmother was a nurse, then housewife. But they turned out to be my dad's adoptive parents and as I've gotten older I've learned that they were jerks to him [wrote him out of the will, sent him to live in town when he was 16, etc] so I have soured on them over time.

GILF

^yellowcard

I just found this photo of my grandparents inside of a plastic bag with a bunch of other photos in it. I can't stop looking at it.

My grandma was a dietician at the hospital and she met my grandpa when he came through and needed to be fed. Grandpa was a (??) at a company that manufactured (??).

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7075/7188363541_4259ff5202_z.jpg

That is a fucking cool photo, period.

Wow. Amazing photo.

i can see u!

Maternal Grandfather: Psychologist
Maternal Grandmother: Psychologist
Paternal Grandfather: Suit maker
Paternal Grandmother: played piano in the silent movie houses

Grandpa's name was Furman, but everyone called him Tom. I like the creepy shadow and the placement of their hands.

hell of a photo

why is she in bed? who is taking the photo? where is his left hand?

LL that rules!!

maternal grandfather: electrical engineer
maternal grandmother: computer programmer
paternal grandfather: sign maker

and I just realized my maternal grandmother's father has his own wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Rosselot

p. grandfather worked for the irs
p. grandmother was a secretary at harvard biz school

m. grandfather worked for the phone company
m. grandmother was a homemaker

why is she in bed? who is taking the photo? where is his left hand?
i have no idea
i don't even know if he had siblings or what his parents' names were

wait yes i do
there was theodore and gail
they have a family graveyard in florida

p. grandfather somehow involved mining
p. grandmother housewife
m. grandfather chief of police
m. grandmother housewife

here is another one of them playing ping pong
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7215/7373697818_4f88d1577f_z.jpg

Maternal grandmother: HRS administrator until retirement in 1990.
" grandfather: executive for Royal Bank of Canada's Havana and NYC offices

Paternal grandmother: county nurse and caregiver until retirement in 2008.
" stepgrandfather: trucker

p. bio gfather Olympic athlete and soldier killed in war
p. step gfather chef/restaurant owner
p. grandmother chef/restaurant owner

m. grandfather pharmacist
m. grandmother housewife

Dad's dad was a fireman. He was sent to WW2 and ran a flamethrower in a foxhole. He died of cancer, family is pretty sure it's because he helped clean up the SL-1 nuclear meltdown. He died when my dad was eight.

His wife started working for the post office after my grandpa died, and worked her way up into almost the highest position at the post office. Retelling these stories of my dad's about people who died decades ago makes it clear to me I have no idea what's going on. Anyway, she was going to get promoted and the man interviewing her intimidated her out of the position by saying there was just no way she could meet the job requirement of lifting 80 lbs.

My grandma on my mom's side joined the Navy when she was younger. I talked to her about it a few years ago and it was the only time I'd heard her sounding cheeky. It was a real rebellion against her parents. She worked various kind of housecleaning and janitorial jobs after she got married.

My mom's dad was an alcoholic and a self-employed crazoid, by all accounts. He kept bees and pigs in the tiny yard of their 500 sq ft house. He was really into finding valuable coins and I guess he thought of it as kind of a career. He got kicked out of a lot of banks for harassing tellers about trading in coins.

p. grandfather was a scout for the Cleveland Indians for a while.
p. grandmother worked at an employment agency.

m. grandfather was a steel worker.
m. grandmother was a homemaker.

LL's photos are fantastic

also at least three of my grand'rents worked in tobacco for at least a while, which is kinda what everyone round those parts did.

x-post Yeah they are. So many mysteries in the bed one. It looks like a movie still.

I have no idea what most of my grandparents did. One worked for the Wildlife Service. The rest just sat around a lot.

A+ photos gr8080 & LL!

p grandfather was in the free french forces during ww2 and met my grandmother in a hospital where she was nursing. he then worked in the paper manufacturing industry and my grandmother became a housewife

m grandfather was in the army as a fighter pilot and then when he left ended up working in paper manufacturing.
m grandmother was housewife and then started working in local politics.

only 1 of my 4 grandparents is still alive and i really regret not having being old enough to talk about all those things they did. i know one my older cousins got my grandfather to talk in detail about his time in the free french forces & how he escaped occupied france (he might have recorded it too, not sure) and i also remember a couple of stories but i'd love to know more.

On my mother's side, my grandmother was a journalist after the war but gave it up to raise a family. My grandfather lied about his age when he was sixteen to get into the army during the war and served in the Desert Rats in Italy and North Africa. There are some great photos of him cycling around the Pyramids. Afterwards, he became a property surveyor and ran an estate agency.

On my father's side, my grandmother raised eleven children (i think). My grandfather was a politician of some description but gave it up when he was sixty to become an imam and community leader of sorts. He also ran a charity undertaker's, burying people whose families couldn't afford to pay for it to be done. I helped out with making some coffins, one summer.

http://i.imgur.com/1lSOM.png

The family hearse.

woah

One of my grandfathers was an English teacher, the other was a craftsman for Slazenger and made crossbows and longbows in the days when that sort of thing was made out of wood.

Shari thats amazing and awesome :)

Also I'm always in awe of stories about young men of times gone by signing up willingly to head off to war. I guess they saw an opportunity to see the world and defend their country? Its sad to think we know better now, I guess. Not that I'm at all demeaning anyone who chooses the forces as a career, I have friends who have.

dad's parents, both teachers. mum's dad a teacher and mum's mum a housewife.

pat gf - industrial chemist
pat gm - possibly a translator
mat gf - manager of a market garden
mat gm - various, last job was in a supermarket

Also I'm always in awe of stories about young men of times gone by signing up willingly to head off to war.

Yeah, I always wanted my grandfathers to tell me more about their wartime experiences. I know that one of them served in Egypt in WW2, but he'd never tell us a thing about and I sensed he was still quite traumatised by his time there, as he supposedly lost a lot of friends.

yeah I hear that a lot (not surprising!) and it makes me sad to think that maybe there was a more innocent time where men thought "I want to do the right thing by my country!" and strode into absolute horror. Now, with the advent of widespread media and hindsight, it'll never happen that way again. we lost way way too many good, innocent, well meaning men in their prime to such shit.

mat gf- panzer division german army ww2, captured in France. Not sure what job he did after the war, tho he settled in England, because he was killed in a motorcycle accident long before I was born.

mat gm- also in the German Army, signals division stationed near the Russian front, apparently when the end of the war was in sight her and her friends were desperate to flee westwards to ensure they were captured by the Americans rather than the Russians. Moved to England became an accountant.

mat gf, ran a pharma company called carter-wallace...their big product was condoms
pat gf, no clue, hardly knew him
neither grandmas worked

My mum's dad ran an engineering firm, invented the horizontal bandsaw, provided the materials for the Lloyds building, bits of the barbican, St James' Park, Stamford Bridge and Watford's stadium. Also helped develop the machine that puts Maltesers in their packets. Also also developed and produced a range of motorised cars (that used petrol and everything) for children.
My mum's mum was a housewife.

My dad's dad was a university librarian.
My dad's mum was a teacher who was sacked for painting a student green.

Father's side:
My grandfather was in the mines at 13, ran away to join the navy at 14, in 1914, and served as a career navy man until he retired at 50. He was a rating, then an NCO, until the advent of the second world war made the admiralty realise they needed competent seamen with commissions, not just public schoolboys. He became an officer in 1939. Absolutely no idea what he did after the navy. It was never mentioned in our family.
My grandmother was a housewife.

Mother's side
Grandfather worked on wholesale fruit markets in Liverpool and then Birmingham. Which meant my mum was the unusual child who ate fresh fruit during the rationing years. My grandmother worked in a munitions factory, then for many years in the Jacobs biscuits factory. Before she met my grandfather, she was for a couple of years the sweetheart of future England manager Joe Mercer, when he was an Everton player.

PS Paternal grandfather did the Arctic convoys to Murmansk and Archangel in the second world war.

That route sounds nightmarish.

So did mine. He was then involved in liberating Denmark in some fashion. We still have some swastika-emblazoned nautical equipment looted from German ships before they were scuttled. Being a practical man the booty is sextants and so forth, the big oil paintings of Bismarck were left in place to be consigned to the deep. Afterwards he skippered a fisheries protection vessel.

My maternal grandfather was also in the navy and ended the war based in Udine, but I don't know what he did there and it's all lost to memory I'm afraid. Afterwards he was a compositor, which aiui was the typesetting of newspaper pages for printing. We have a cartoon of him, carrying a ladle of hot metal, drawn by the resident cartoonist on his retirement.

My maternal grandmother worked at C&A. She was some kind of auxiliary firewoman during the war. When I went to register her death I was so tempted to put the latter for 'occupation', but was sensible and boring instead.

My paternal grandmother was probably the cleverest, but was mostly housewife and erstwhile schooldinnerlady. I believe she was in a munitions factory in the war, which other than visiting family may have been the only time she left her island.

I wish they were still around. I wish I'd asked them more stuff when they were.

maternal grandfather: returned from ww2 with no real work history, and wound up owning a steel mill. some real horatio alger shit, at least until the steel market collapsed in this country. which explains to some extent was how i was born into a working poor household while my mom grew up wearing kiddie fur coats. i dont think my grandfather's heroic boozing really helped with the business stuff either, mind you.

maternal grandmother: betty draper, essentially, until aforementioned collapse of business, after whic she worked in a department store.

paternal grandfather: fuck if i know. took off when my dad was a kid.

paternal grandmother: literal shut-in.

my grandfather also signed up for service rather than be drafted.

actually i think he signed up before the u.s. was even in the war.

Paternal grandfather: owned a restaurant through the '40s and '50s, later turned into my dad's/uncle's milk store.
Paternal grandmother: stay-at-home.
Maternal grandfather: because of poor health, I think he mostly took whatever he could get--odd jobs, handyman, etc.
Maternal grandmother: baked pies during the depression, later a switchboard operator.

I wish they were still around. I wish I'd asked them more stuff when they were.

I didn't really have the chance with my grandfathers, both died around the time I was five, but with my grandmothers, absolutely.

When you read down this thread and read the same thing so many times - "he served in WW2" – it's hard to quibble with the notion of a greatest generation. I know most of them had no choice in the matter, but still …

Paternal grandfather: lots of odd jobs/manual labor, could never keep a job for very long because of his chronic health problems
Paternal grandmother: Country club hostess, she had a lot of gossipy stories related to the crazy rich people that went there

Maternal grandfather: Construction work, the highlight of which was going to Russia to work on the construction of a government building there. I have a lot of great communist memorabilia thanks to this.
Maternal grandmother: Homemaker

According to the internet, my maternal grandfather was gainfully employed by the Royal Australian Air Force from 12 July 1940 to 20 August 1945.

oooh beautiful and amazing photos LL, gr80! I must demand to see all grandparent photos available.

not sure what my mom's dad did except drink after korea.. I didn't know him well and he died when I was young :(
mom's mom did not work, but when my parents were ballers in the 80s they used to pay her to do our laundry/watch me
mom's stepdad was a truck driver

dad's mom worked in insurance, used computers in the 1980s like a boss (manager) and is still pretty handy with a computer
dad's stepdad was a carpenter and taught me to be handy and to appreciate graphic design. He used to build sets for Sears catalogues and the like, as well as their house and their cottage!

My Grandparents' house flooded in the 90s and most of their photos were lost ;_; I have this great one of my Grandma but -not- Grandpa - scandalous! They installed a dance floor in their basement and a bar called 'the Dicks* Inn,' these people could party.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/61000_444925658577_5371505_n.jpg

*My maiden name

oh and I remember that my Grandma (pictured) was going to become a nurse but a transit strike kept her from being able to get to school, so she dropped out and started working in an office.

i have a ton more -- those were just in the first batch to be scanned.

- my maternal grandpa was a pharmacist, owned his own store in small-town ontario and then did other pharmacy work when he sold the business. was in the navy during the war but his eyesight was bad so he ended up mostly playing piano and singing for everyone! he had over 100 songs memorized, mostly boogie-woogie 30/40s jazzy stuff and could play them all even in his last year of life at 88 years old. so i guess he was a pharmacist-musician.
- my maternal grandma went to pharmacy school but got pregs + married and then worked in my grandpa's shop and raised kids and then did other community things
- my paternal grandpa, did some airplane mechanic things, then real estate things, i'm totally vague on this one but he was a pretty smart guy
- my paternal grandma, i sadly really don't know and have never opened that conversation up with my dad, she smoked a lot and died in her early 50s :(
- my paternal step-grandma, from when she married my grandpa also did real-estate stuff, before that raised kids, sang in groups during the war effort.

it amazes me how much the war played a part in all of their young lives, but hey, Canada in the 30s/40s... world war: a really big fucking deal.

I love this thread.

what small town in Ontario, rrobyn?? god I wish I could walk around 1940s Canada just for a day.. a week.. my Grandparents were all just a bit too young for the war so had the odd jobs in the cities. I know my paternal Grandfather started off at the Heintzman's Piano Company when he was about 14, making deliveries! Grandpas & pianos! Mine never played, though.

Han0ver!
yeah, i think people my age (mid-30s) are generally the tail-end of people who had grandparents in the war

Aww! I love little H! I've had to go there a few times for work.. so peaceful. I think owning a pharmacy in a town like that would be amazing. Would that I could switch between 2012 Toronto and let's say 1930s Markham on a whim.

xpost no way rrrobyn. i'm 26, i have cousins as young as 15 and my grandparents were in the war. though my grandfather was quite young (17) when he left to take part in the war.

wow, i guess i am just always amazed by how far WWII reaches into the present day, even though i guess i shouldn't be surprised at all

xp I guess it all depends on if they were young or old brides - my Grandma had Dad at 21 but I guess your Grandfather would've been overseas around the time, so couldn't start the family til later!

Here's my grandma washing dishes -- there are other b/w ones, but they're still buried in the box.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5336/7374743972_0f78dd3421_z.jpg

paternal grandfather was an engineer, i think at raytheon
paternal grandmother was an engineer too, not sure where but i know she got to work on one of those early mainframe computers

maternal grandfather was a biologist and chemist, during the war he worked on uranium extraction for the manhattan project, then was a college professor for most of his life
maternal grandmother is a crazy socialist/marxist, not sure what she did for work but i don't think she held any job for very long since she's unpleasantly argumentative

oh also my paternal grandparents retired early, moved to vermont, and ran an apple orchard for 15 years, which was the inspiration for my ilx username

that's so funny that you know Han0ver, ffm! i lived there with my brothers for a year when i was 10 (long story) but otherwise hardly know it. it's pastoral, true, though there are some quainter towns in the area - really i think i'm just affected by my mom's dislike for it and why she left ontario and came out west after university!

that is a great pic!

Both grandfathers were farmers in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and both grandmothers never worked a day in their lives--they married in their late teens and were born ~1885-1905. (My mother was born in 1935 and my father was born in 1929.) All have been dead since the late Eighties.

Well, at my old job I had to schedule routes all over Ontario & oversee scheduling for all over Canada so if there's a Dollarama, chances are I know it! So I didn't get to spend a lot of time there but we drove around, in the small towns we'd always tour a little as well as do our actual work. :)

xp
Love the dishes shot. Must convince husband to take pictures of me for grandkids to ooh and ahh over!

nice, ciderpress!

Wait, I meant ~1895-1905. Sorry.

Paternal grandfather - ran government printing press in Zanzibar
Paternal grandmother - housewife I think
Maternal grandather - worked in a munitions factory
Maternal grandmother - housewife and ran a dance school

loving all these la lechera pics

my maternal grandfather was born in 1899 in london, moved to the US in the 20s or 30s and worked at the GE plant in erie PA for something like 50 years. he lived until 2001, so he saw 3 centuries, from gaslamp london to the internet age.

here's a picture of him circa 1909

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/1909.jpg

Awesome! And love the insane colourization in that!

That is so cool! Esp the 3 centuries part.

my mother tinted the photo sometime in the 60s I think? I guess she invented colorization lol

my maternal grandmother worked as a sales clerk at the boston store in erie for many many years

not sure what my paternal grandparents did tbh

Paternal gran - stayed at home as far as I can tell
Paternal grandad - worked for the GPO, which coincidentally eventually morphed into the organisation I work for now.
Maternal gran - mainly organising posh military dinners and so-on - I am not sure whether she was ever paid for this or if it was just seen as a military wives responsibility?
Maternal grandad - teacher, brigadier and yacht deliverer

amazingness on this thread

yeah it kind of boggles my mind that this laidback old guy I grew up hanging around with was like 23 when nosferatu came out

xps

xp It just looks like ordinary Victorian style tinting to me.

making a list of stuff invented in his lifetime also bonkers

Maternal grandfather - my mum never met him, but I gather he was a solider when she was conceived/born. We've seen photos of him from a couple of decades later that appear to be marketing / press matrial for some kind of business, people round a table signing a document or something, but I have no idea what.

Maternal grandmother - worked in a shop, like a corner shop or post office or something.

Paternal grandfather - machined steel tools in a factory in Sheffield.

Paternal grandmother - I don't know.

There were almanacs from 1905 in my paternal grandfather's house, and old-fashioned fire extinguishers (a glass bulb that you threw to the ground and smashed) in the barn.

yeah it kind of boggles my mind that this laidback old guy I grew up hanging around with was like 23 when nosferatu came out
this is what i'm talking about!

these are my grandparents as i remember them. my grandpa died when i was 4, so this is a year before that. (they're both dead btw)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8011/7189510489_175ff3cf54_z.jpg

Forgot to mention--how, I don't know--that my paternal grandfather served in the war too, I think, as a medic.

Paternal grandfather died when I was thirteen. Both grandmothers when I was in my early 20s. Maternal grandfather still alive. All things considered, I guess I was quite fortunate to have gotten to know all of them.

Dad’s side: gpops was a boxer during the Great Depression and later became a successful businessman in the city where he lived. He was elected mayor of that city for two terms and left under mysterious circumstances. There’s a park somewhere in that city named after him.

Mom’s side: granddad started his career as a psy-ops officer in the army and ended it as the VP of public relations for an energy corporation (global warming isn’t real kinda crap). Love him all the same.

old-fashioned fire extinguishers (a glass bulb that you threw to the ground and smashed) in the barn.
I know about these because of Auction Hunters or whichever random storage war show has Ton and the skinny brown haired dude on it, heh. They found a bunch in a Chicago storage unit.

LL's photos are fantastic

― Word of Wisdom Robots (Abbbottt), Friday, June 15, 2012 4:29 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Snohomish_-_Blackman_House_Museum_-_Comet_fire_extinguisher_02A.jpg/533px-Snohomish_-_Blackman_House_Museum_-_Comet_fire_extinguisher_02A.jpg

Should we be instagraming these photos? Would make them look more authentic.

I am scanning original prints. Also, it pleases me that anyone is enjoying these pictures -- I'm the only grandchild of these people and my parents have let these photos sit in a bag inside a pink storage carton on the landing for 25 years, so someone should enjoy them.

i love those photos.

exactly what I was thinking of, Christine!

my great grandfather was a minister in Fernie, BC - I have a picture of them with my Grandma with unfortunate overexposure in the centre:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/61000_444925648577_5170794_n.jpg

Keep it coming, LL. The stuff I've posted is what I scanned when I lived with my Grandparents for a few months - wish I had more!

Most of what my grandparents had disappeared when the bulk of the family moved to Minnesota in the Eighties. Sad to say.

I'm gonna bump this thread up to hippies! Grandpa, Grandma and my Dad (in overalls) on the far right. Grandma is same little girl as in above picture.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/61000_444925663577_5804223_n.jpg

I love old photos. I document everything so that in the future ours will be charmingly retro.

who's top left in the back shirt? nice hair on that one!

That's my Aunt's exhusband (she's the one in the yellow shirt beside him.. my Dad's sister.) He ended up being gay. 0_o*

*0_o at him marrying her and the heartbreak that followed!

My Grandma is channeling Little Orphan Annie there. Dog's the wrong colour though.

paternal gf was an ESB overseer, he brought electricity to the island in the ?40s?. was also a fisherman, had a couple of boats. the family home was also a guesthouse, but my grandmother ruled that roost.

maternal gf was a small farmer, grandmother a farmer`s wife (ie a farmer but with kids and the house to look after too)

farmer / farmer / factory worker who sold eggs on the side / bartender

Both of my maternal grandparents own and run nurseries (of the botanical type). My maternal grandpa used to do some sort of hop chemistry thing for Guinness before that. He invents plants.

Don't really know about my paternal grandparents, I stopped seeing them when I was a kid and my dad buggered off, but I have a feeling that paternal grandfather was a fireman or had something to do with firefighters in general... this could be a completely and utterly wrong lateral-childhood-brain-move, though.

He invents plants.
so totally awesome

i have another set of grandparent photos to get to, but they are buried under a bunch of other stuff. eventually.

xpost no way rrrobyn. i'm 26, i have cousins as young as 15 and my grandparents were in the war. though my grandfather was quite young (17) when he left to take part in the war

Heh: I have cousins who are 5 years old, and our common grandfather would've been nearly thirty when the war broke out, so there must be plenty kids yet unborn whose grandparents were running convoys and breaking out of pow camps. What a long shadow.

I have uncles that were in WWII. And my father 4F'ed out of Korea because of rheumatic fever. I r old.

both grandfathers inherited businesses, both grandmothers suffered

one was a drunkard, spendthrift, firearms enthusiast, violence enthusiast, fan of country pursuits, raconteur, philanderer, avoider of debts and pathological slacker

the other one was considerably more unpleasant

m. grandfather was a clerk of some kind in the court system. my mom has called him a "magistrate" but i think she really means clerk.

m. grandmother was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse.

p. grandfather--not entirely sure? my dad's family was historically carpenters, but i think my grandfather might have just made do? like, subsistence farmed, done a little carpentry here and there and bartered it for food and other goods. my dad has a huge extended family and they all lived together at that time so it's kind of hard to separate out individual occupations. and backwoods village in incredibly corrupt region=basically feudalism; not sure what the economy was even like.

m. grandmother--housewife, eight kids, living with her husband's family, can't even imagine.

sorry that last one was p. grandmother. feel like rural kashmir in the early to mid 20th century kind of = appalachia

it occurs to me that my dad never talked much about his dad's occupation, even though he told me that his dad was a great man, etc., maybe because he was made to feel ashamed of where he came from by his peers at school, medical school, etc. when he was growing up

and his teachers for that matter

p grandfather owned a bike store and later a bike wholesale business
p grandmother was a housewife

m grandfather ran a restaurant
m grandmother worked in same restaurant and later worked at a nursing home

nakh`s irish heritage comes again to the fore

pretty sure drunk grandad was an irish nationalist if only to overcompensate for half his ancestry being english or german

mom's dad - field geologist in iran for BP subsidiary, chief consulting geologist for bechtel engineering during construction of karadj dam, professor of geotechnics at universities in san diego and southern louisiana

mom's mom - english major in college, became secretary and english translator. now works as a cafeteria lady.

dad's dad - worked as a middle manager and bureacrat for the national phone company in iran that ross perot set up, so i suppose he worked for ross perot. from the stories he tells it sounds like they basically just did paperwork until 11 am lunchtime, went home for two hours for lunch, then came back sat around and shot the shit for the rest of the day, sort of the teetotaler equivalent of the three-martini lunch.

dad's mom - also english major in college, also worked as secretary and translator. when came to america worked as a professional seamstress doing high-end alterations.

most impressed w/ mom's mom's sister - worked first as a therapist for marines suffering from PTSD, then worked as senior CPS psychologist for SD county. would ride along with sheriffs and swat team when they would bust down the doors to arrest people for drug crimes and violent crimes. her job was to take custody of any children and try to make the experience not too badly traumatizing (good luck) and then she would follow the children through the foster care system until the age of emancipation as their therapist.

maternal grandmother - worked in an office at Sears Roebuck.
maternal grandmother - Army dude.

paternal grandmother - nurse.
paternal grandfather - odd jobs - delivered milk, delivered beer (sometimes the beer delivered him), ran a gas station. Retired from the U.S. Postal Service.

Supposedly I've got a great-great grandfather who was sheriff of Shelby County, Tenn., but Lord knows how to look that one up for sure.

My maternal grandparents ran a farm. They both died before my mother was 20.

My paternal grandfather was a publican/undertakers who, judging by a photo of him I saw recently, also enjoyed a little crossdressing on the side. My paternal grandmother ran the pub with him and raised eleven children along the way. She's the only one still living.

paternal grandfather
maternal grandfather

paternal grandmother was a homemaker, in the parlance of her times, and died in 1964, before I was born. Here she is kicking up her heels on New Year's Eve in 1961 (she is in the middle, in black w/glasses)
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6022/5885234179_971a803be7_z.jpg

maternal grandmother was a social worker, lived to 101 and only recently passed away.

maternal gf - WW2 veteran, later spent 30+ years working in "the plant" (Dow Chemical)
paternal gf - WW2 veteran, later spent 25+ years working in "the plant" (Edwards Electronics)
maternal gm - housewife
paternal gm - housewife

Also, interestingly, maternal grandparents married a pair of siblings - ie. two Brown brothers married two Haley sisters. And Grandpa Brown was a friend of James "Scotty" Doohan.

paternal grandfather - coal miner
paternal grandmother - schoolteacher

double-paternal great-aunt - farmer, flew (non-combat) planes during ww2

paternal/maternal great-uncle - infantry in ww1

maternal grandfather - scientist at dupont; went to germany at the end of the war to assess the nazis' scientific advances
maternal grandmother - studied fashion design, but her true calling involved gin

My paternal grandfather was a publican/undertakers who, judging by a photo of him I saw recently, also enjoyed a little crossdressing on the side.

I still want to go know what was going in in that photo but i have no idea how to raise it with your father.

maternal grandma - blow jobs
paternal grandma - hand jobs
maternal grandpa - rim jobs
paternal grandpa - unemployed

Married siblings have the cutest back stories (in my head).

What is a double paternal? You have two dads with the same sister?

just an awkward way of saying my paternal grandfather's sister

Double paternal
What does it mean

Found a picture of my dad's father (and that side of the family)

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2421/3860576983_9f5ab65367_z.jpg

(grandfather at top. grandmother is holding my Uncle Ben. My dad is on the bottom-left. This picture was taken in 1919 when my dad was 4 years old). Both of my dad's parents had passed away long before I was born.

What's cool is that botanists are still referencing my grandfather's work even a 100 years later... Every so often I'll search and find a reference to his work on potato diseases or bean anthracnose. My favorite title of all of his books is "Observations On The Pathological Morphology Of Stinking Smut Of Wheat."

That's a great photo!

paternal gf was a bridgeworker (spans, not teeth) -- and a WWI veteran

Observations On The Pathological Morphology Of Stinking Smut Of Wheat
This could be a NWW album

Paternal grandfather: owned a bar
Paternal grandmother: homemaker

Maternal grandfather: psychologist
Maternal grandmother: psychologist (both for the military/government)

Want to say one generation before that everyone washed clothes.

dug up more pics from that photo shoot + another one

mmmm foods
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7417618212_dd0fcdaa78_c.jpg

dining room
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7259/7417617946_ab23bcf279_c.jpg

on the beach
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7114/7417618348_db75cd32ac_z.jpg

Those are dreamy!

Grandma made Grandpa sit on the floor?
What does he have behind his back?
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5465/7417618044_ac7391676c.jpg

grandfathers: chemist, mechanic
grandmothers: typist, secretary

secretary gm had the second highest grades/entrance exam score in the province when she applied to med school but was denied because of sexism

these old pictures are fantastic. wish i had access to some of my own here. pls keep them coming

paternal grandfather: farmer, wwII marine
paternal grandmother: odd jobs here and there, not sure

maternal grandfather: owned the local shoe store. sold some real estate?
maternal grandmother: stay at home mom until the kids were grown up. got a job as a secretary and worked her way up to vice president (briefly) of #&R B10ck

Paternal Grandfather: Quantity Surveyor, rugby internationalist (when it was an amateur game)
Paternal Grandmother: Old Money Edinburgh Matriarch
Maternal Grandfather: Merchant seaman (lots of stories about Cuban brothels), crofter
Maternal Grandmother: District nurse (there is an entire generation of people in the village that she delivered).

My grandfather (the banker) would never talk about his time in WWII, either. I heard one pretty gruesome second-hand story from my grandmother about being stuck in an enclosed space with some dead bodies for longer than one might prefer, and my mom took him to see Saving Private Ryan and he cried in the theater, and that's all I knew.

When I was proof reading his eulogy that my mom wrote, I learned he had been in the 1st Infantry Division, landed on Omaha Beach, and earned a Medal of Honor for staying awake for a truly ungodly length of time to non-stop operate a radio. He would never talk about any of it.

Ack thinking about my 70-something grandfather crying while watching Saving Private Ryan after years of silence about the war is making me a little verklempt. Also I miss that guy a lot.

aww man :(

that is super raw, carl

my grandpa talked about WWII a fair amount, but only about his buddies there, the good times they had on the ship between what what probably some horrifying stuff. one of the only photos i'd seen from his WWII days everyone looked grim and awful, except for him, hat crooked and making some silly face at the camera. he liked to show us the shrapnel still in his arm and brag about how he could dive off one end of the ship and swim underneath it to the other side.

pretty gruesome second-hand story from my grandmother about being stuck in an enclosed space w--COVERING MY EARS AND EYES

brag about how he could dive off one end of the ship and swim underneath it to the other side.

I love this.

cool thread!
one grandpa was a pilot for pan-am.
other grandpa was a pediatrician.
i wish i had known them better, they probably had good stories.

my pictured grandma wasn't in any war, but she also refused to talk to me. i think it's just something grandparents do? i would ask questions and questions about the way things were but she just never wanted to tell me anything.

i have a set of photos of the other set of grandparents too, but they are more fraught (and one is still alive) so imma hold off on those

my grandma would talk to us a LOT, but it became clear from an early age that she had kind of soap opera-fied a lot of events. when talking about my dad's first wife, she was always like, "one day she just walked out and no one ever saw her again" and my dad would later tell us that he had lunch with her the week before.

paternal grandfather: farmer in later life but I don't know before that
paternal grandmother: nurse
also they are my father's adoptive parents.
I've known his birth mother for longer than I knew my grandmother, but I still to this day don't know her backstory or how she came to have my Dad. She was related to Dad's adoptive parents, I believe a cousin or something like that, and that Dad's birth father might have been a returned soldier though I have NO idea.

Maternal grandfather: worked in concrete I believe, building local bridges. Had his own business before the war doing this. A lot of them are still standing, which is p cool.
Served in WWII as a driver, was shipped to Singapore and was captured as a POW during the fall. Spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Burma. Worked on a section of the Burmese railway until he fell ill with Beri Beri and remained in the infirmary til the close of the war. He lived for another 30 years after that but he died right before I was born so I never got to talk to him about any of what he went through. Mum said he never talked about it. but we found out later that he kept a sort of diary of his time in the POW camp, and we have that along with some of his belongings from the war. that's about as close as I've gotten to realy knowing him.

Maternal grandmother: left school at 16, worked as a post office clerk and a telephonist that I know of. During the war she worked at an artillery factory in Sunshine just outside Melbourne. We have newspaper clippings of the notices she posted in the local papers requesting information on the whereabouts of my grandfather, and we have a letter from a returned soldier who told her he had seen my Grandad in the Burma camp in the infirmary, and that he was still alive.
After grandad returned home, she worked mainly as a housewife, but was heavily involved with Legacy (a charity for the families of deceased servicemen), as well as a local orphanage and quite a few sporting organizations like the loca tennis club, as well as church fundraising.

It's funny, even though Nan didn't have a 'job', I always remember her being busy. She died when I was 16, so by the time I was old enough to know, intellecutally & emotionally what my Grandad had lived through, she wasn't around for me to talk about it with her. And it's sad, because she would talk to me about pretty much anything, and told me lots of stories about her life so I know I would have learned a lot about Grandad from her.

I really miss her.

maternal grandfather: fireman
maternal grandmother: alcoholic

paternal grandfather: he did "tool and die" in factories, first in Germany, then in Detroit and finally in Connecticut. Also worked as a chauffeur during the depression.
maternal grandmother: homemaker, but worked as a cook during the depression, I think for the same rich people my grandfather chauffeured for

interesting things about my grandparents:

maternal grandmother's father was apparently an extremely wealthy industrialist of some sort, but he disowned her for some reason and I think she always hated my grandfather for not being rich. perhaps this partly led to the alcoholism.

my paternal grandfather died in the 60s and my paternal grandmother later married an ex-jesuit priest (who, from what I gather, basically left the priesthood because my grandma was too foxy), but he then died less than a year after they got married.

strangely I have no idea if either of my grandfathers were ever in WW II or any other war really

my maternal grandfather was asst secretary for labor
my maternal grandmother was a librarian

i dont really know what my other grandparents did, cocktail parties i guess

Paternal Grandfather - Worked for the Gas Company, painted a lot in his off-time
Paternal Grandmother - Worked for MGM as a producer's assistant

Enatic Grandfather - Federal Judge
Enatic Grandmother - Worked for the State of CA but I don't remember exactly what

My maternal grandfather has a wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pallett

He was the son of a grocer, friends with Donald Sutherland and very popular in his riding. He resigned from Parliament in disgrace, though, after accusations of cronyism surfaced regarding the construction of YYZ airport. He also played a role in the cancellation of the Avro Arrow's development, and was depicted as an antagonist in a documentary.

My paternal grandfather dug up the hills of Devonshire for coal, then he had a change of heart, and built a kiln and sponsored local potters.

My maternal grandmother was briefly a member of the chorus of the Canadian Opera Company; I have no idea what my paternal grandmother did but she was an imposing figure who drank gin and smoked cigarettes and had a garden in rural Northumberland.

I'm a bit ashamed that I don't know all the answers to this. Questions to ask next time I'm home. My maternal grandmother was a ropeworker and my paternal grandmother was a french polisher. Good grandparent jobs, both of them.

maternal grandfather: WWII, worked for the VA after that
maternal grandmother: nurse, then full time irish catholic baby machine.

paternal grandfather: jazz guitarist
paternal grandmother: big band singer, eventually nurse

paternal grandfather: secondary school teacher
paternal grandmother: housewife, mother, IRA sympathiser

maternal grandfather: civil engineer
maternal grandmother: housewife, mother

Early-20th-century small-town Ireland not a place of great opportunity for women, I think. I never met either of my maternal grandparents and I really know very little about them, might ask some questions next time I'm home.

One odd side-effect from having older parents (my dad was 50 when I was born) is that whenever I see "WWII" in conjunction with someone's grandfather I keep thinking of my dad (who was in the Merchant Marines during the early Battle Of The Atlantic days) and suddenly feel older than I am.

White grandfather was a cabinet maker.
Not 100% sure about black one but I think either him or his wife had a shop in the Kenyan village my dad grew up in. Never met him , think I did meet her.

Lived with white one for a few years as a child. Or maybe more my family did.

Paternal grandfather: farmer
Maternal grandfather: university professor

Both grandmothers were housewives, though I seem to recall my maternal grandmother taught school for a few years.

maternal grandfather: returned from ww2 with no real work history, and wound up owning a steel mill. some real horatio alger shit, at least until the steel market collapsed in this country. which explains to some extent was how i was born into a working poor household while my mom grew up wearing kiddie fur coats. i dont think my grandfather's heroic boozing really helped with the business stuff either, mind you.

maternal grandmother: betty draper, essentially, until aforementioned collapse of business, after whic she worked in a department store.

paternal grandfather: fuck if i know. took off when my dad was a kid.

paternal grandmother: literal shut-in.

Strongo is basically Sally and Glen's son

at my parents' for christmas and my (english) mom who grew up in colonial singapore visited england the other month for first time in many years and i have pictures of (pictures of) my maternal grandparents now, plus i have been checking w her re: details, so

grandfather was royal navy ww2, and then a writer of high-seas-adventure novels and a history of singapore, and also was a kind of impresario (such that my dad who is from ohio and was putting up and taking down tents for a traveling production of peter pan met my mom cuz her dad was producing its singaporean stop), while

grandmother (chic as fukk there imho) was a textbook author and gallery owner who died in a car crash decades before i was born that also killed my mom's older sister but which my mom survived. eventually my grandfather remarried and moved back to oxford and by then i don't think there was very much money anymore. met him a few times when i was young; he looked like cuba-era hemingway and i made a "radio drama" where he voiced a wizard.

i don't have pictures handy of my dad's parents but grandfather returned from the war and bought/ran a bar in shelby, ohio; grandmother was i think a housewife but my dad talks about her very little. i met her as a little kid, but never him; he died when my dad was in his 20s. none of these people survived long enough for me to get a clue about asking them to tell me stuff, which i feel p dumb about; but they were always very far away and i only occasionally saw the two i met.

Farmers/

Played the organ on the radio, was apparantly a very big deal.

Maternal grandfather - Fisherman. Died 1965, before I was born
Maternal grandmother - Housewife

Paternal grandfather - Butcher. Died 1994, his funeral was the day my son was born so didn't go to it.
Paternal grandmother - Housewife. Died 1991.

He appeared in the October 1952 edition of National Geographic magazine on an article on Holy Island, Northumberland.

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i329/yorkshiresky/IMG244.jpg?t=1356355303

He was itinerant in more ways than one as he divorced my grandmother in the late 50s and moved in with a woman who was about 20 years younger than him. In late 1950s Berwick that just wasn't the done thing and caused a lot of friction within the family at the time.

psychologist
geologist
psychologist
cement salesman

opera singer
forest ranger

My gran worked at Linotype from the age of 15 until 60. I find this incredible.

Great-great grandfather - drove a streetcar
Great-grandfather - drove a truck
Grandfather - drove delivery trucks, mail vehicles
Father - Real estate sales, delivery

I'm the first one stuck in an office. At least now I know where my desire to be a trucker has always come from.

Grandma: Doughnut shop during the war, GM after

Grandpa: Sailor during the war, fireman after, installed water heaters and sump pumps after smoke inhalation during rescues caused him to lose a bit of lung and retire.

I found out during my parents' visit last week that my paternal great-grandmother (who was a lifelong liberal and lived on the gulf coast of FL) was still mowing her own lawn at 87, and one day on her walk to the market got run over by a truck. She was hit from behind so she probably had no idea what happened. Not a terrible way to go, but I hope it doesn't run in the family.

Me in 2007:

Paternal GF: no idea, don't think he had a job since I was born

Found out at his funeral last year the reason for this was he got PTSD after serving in the Malayan Emergency as a 20-ish year old. Which apparently was why he didn't turn up to my wedding or see us ever. Although, as my dad said, he could make it out to the pub alright.

maternal GF: barber/barbershop owner
maternal GM: homemaker, volunteer pollster
paternal GF: bartender/waiter
paternal GM: nurse

I also had a paternal step-grandfather but I have no idea what he did besides drink; I believe my paternal step-grandmother was also a homemaker but I'm not 100% sure