What did your grandparents do?
@GardenGerty (160491)
United States
May 19, 2016 7:09am CST
How did your grand parents make their living? Did they have careers? Were they city people or country people?
I thought of this while looking at the cattle pictures online yesterday.
Today's picture is of a Hereford cow . They are beef cattle, red in color with white faces.
My mother's parents had a farm/ranch, whichever you would call it. They raised a few cows for the beef market. Hereford cattle. In addition they grew most of their own vegetables, with grandma canning or freezing the produce. They would raise and butcher a hog or two a year for pork, had chickens for eggs and to eat. They had ponds with fish to catch and also could and did shoot deer, squirrels and rabbits and occasionally ducks and geese. Although Herefords were beef cattle you still could milk the cows for your personal milk supply.
My dad's dad had a moving company. They were city people. They had a house in town that grandma had paid for with an inheritance. They had fruit trees, but I am not sure about a garden other than flowers. I am sure grandma froze and canned foods as well. My dad's grandfather had a grocery store in Ohio and the family lived above it. That is basically all I know. They moved to a large piece of property in Arkansas and raised some of their own food when I was about ten. Grandpa designed and built the house.
15 people like this
13 responses
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
19 May 16
Your grandparents were affluent compared to mine. None of my grandparents owned any property.
My dad's father was a regular soldier till he got a bullet in his arm in WW1, then he worked on the railways for the rest of his life. My grandmother was 'in service' till she married.
My mother's father was a gardener on a big estate, and her mother was also in service till she married. Women didn't usually work after they were married - they wouldn't have had time anyway as running a house was a full time job in those days. There were no washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric ovens etc.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
Your gardening gift comes naturally, then. Yes, I agree, running a home was a huge chore.
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@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
6 Jun 16
@GardenGerty Funny that you should pop up in my notifs just now - I've only just finished composing a limerick about you. It'll be included in my next batch if I do any more.
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@toniganzon (72281)
• Philippines
19 May 16
My father's father was a politician while my grandmother was a housewife (being a daughter of a mayor she was raised like that).
My mother's father was a politician (the rival of my fathers's dad), my grandmother was an elementary school teacher.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
All kinds of politicians in your background. And some competition as well. It must have been interesting.
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@toniganzon (72281)
• Philippines
7 Jun 16
@GardenGerty Yes very interesting. When my grandfather told me his story, i thought it could only happen in the movies or the books.
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@LadyDuck (470819)
• Switzerland
19 May 16
My grandfather had a country farm, he sold directly his products. My grandparents lived in a big country house where I loved to spend my summer vacations. My father was a city man, he had a career, he was business consultant, my mother has never worked, she has been housewife during all her life.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
My grand parents on my mother's side would sell some of their farm products but mostly their beef cattle. Our moms were housewives when the work was really hard and all encompassing.
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (82589)
• United States
19 May 16
My grandfather was an engineer and worked at Proctor & Gamble and my grandmother was a nurse.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
So you had grandparents that were more of the "city" type. Did any subsequent generations become nurses. I often notice entire families do that. Not sure if it is nature or nurture.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
Railroad type engineer, or mechanical engineer? Maybe your desire to grow things comes from them.
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@BlissfullySilent (476)
• India
19 May 16
my grandpa was in navy and my grandmother was teacher...sadly i never met them...although i been told by many they were really nice people.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
I imagine so. To be honest, I forget that other countries also have military branches. I will have to look and see what a sailor from India looks like.
1 person likes this
@frankie2013 (381)
• Canada
20 May 16
Both my grandparents from my mother's side and father's side were what we call farmers. Both had cows for milk and beef, chickens for eggs and poultry, horses for plowing the fields for corn planting and other staples. My grandmother, on my mother's side was a violinist also playing "gigues" in french-canadian. She was pretty good. My grandmother on my father's side was a school teacher. She was strict and straightforward. I loved my grandparents and miss them all.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
We can learn a lot from our grandparents if we will. It sounds as if your grandparents were much like my mom's family.
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@Tampa_girl7 (50089)
• United States
22 May 16
My fathers parents were country folks and farmed. My mama's parents were city folks and my grandpa filmed movies and was a projectionist later in life.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
That is why your mom met some actors. You had the best of both worlds to grow up with.
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@Tampa_girl7 (50089)
• United States
7 Jan 18
@GardenGerty yes, I loved being in the country and the big city.
@Fleura (30169)
• United Kingdom
14 May 17
My mother's father was originally in the merchant navy but when he wanted children he obviously needed to spend more time at home! He ran the first garage in the village, mostly servicing bicycles as no-one had cars, and charging batteries for people to use to listen to the radio etc at home as no-one had electricity. However he did wire up the family home and ran his own generator so they had electric light. He grew a lot of fruit and vegetables too. My grandmother had her hands full with 5 children; before marriage she had worked as secretary to her father who had several local businesses as farmer, undertaker, joiner, coal merchant and carrier.
My father's mother was originally a nurse. Her husband was in the army in India where he trained as a teacher but when he returned to Britain his teaching qualifications were not recognised so he had to spend the rest of his life as a postman. He grew all the family's vegetables too, and the family took in lodgers.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
14 May 17
It seems to me our ancestors were much more capable and self reliant than we are.It is amazing to think of all they did.
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@Fleura (30169)
• United Kingdom
14 May 17
@GardenGerty They certainly were; we have it easy and if there was some national crisis most people nowadays would be pretty helpless.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
Were your grandparents on both sides from Italy?
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@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
7 Jun 16
@GardenGerty Yes and they were either from the same area or neighboring areas, from what my mother told me.
@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
That is a different type of farming than we have state side.
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@AuraGael (61)
• United States
20 May 16
My paternal grandfather was a postal worker. He was a clerk. My paternal grandmother was a secretary at some point in her adulthood but I'm not sure when. I understand she could type fast and accurately and never have to look at the keys at all.
My maternal grandfather was a writer and wrote for numerous newspapers throughout his life, moving his family around quite a bit. Writing this comment now, I'm realizing I have no idea what he wrote and no way to find out at this point. I can't believe I never asked my mother about that. My maternal grandmother, after divorcing my grandfather became a book keeper and stayed with that company until she retired.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
Well do you know any of the papers he worked for? They would have copies archived. Do you think writing on social sites is possibly a talent that is a skill you inherited?
@polyxena (2628)
• Sturgis, Michigan
20 May 16
I really have no clue what my grandpa on my dad's side did for a living, but I know my grandma worked at a nursing home. As for my mom's side, I know my grandma used to help work with the union wife's for things, and my grandpa had a few different jobs, he was a carpenter and a Chicago police officer and I think that was really it.
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@GardenGerty (160491)
• United States
6 Jun 16
I am going to guess then that they were city folks mostly.
