Happy Birthday Grandaddy...

[Panther]

My Grandaddy would have been 103 today... Born 04/01/1900...

His big thing towards the end was a desire to see this great nation reach it's Bicentennial... He passed away the next January 7th (1977) in the early evening...

He was educated through the 3rd grade at which point his father (my great-grandfather) passed away and, being the oldest son, he struck out to support the family at the ripe age of 9. He was self-taught in many areas, including accounting, construction, combustion engines, electric motors and electricity. He was an "amateur" inventor who would give away his inventions and ideas if he thought someone could benefit from them. The stock market crash of 1929 changed his opinion of financial institutions dramatically. After that he didn't completely trust banks or stocks. Even though he had money in banks and owned stocks to the end, he always considered that as money that might be lost at any second. Therefore, he kept cash, redeemable notes, and tangible valueables in reserves the remainder of his life. Also, because of the depression, he didn't believe in taking out loans. I know this is hard to believe, but he built his home... by hand himself with the help of friends who he paid... in my home town and didn't have a mortgage! He never had credit cards and rarely used checks, preferring instead to purchase items with cash and pay his monthly bills (electricity, phone, etc) by going to the utility and paying them in cash. He desired to establish credit for my Granny (and himself), because of failing health, when he was in his early 70s. Therefore, he went to purchase a new car. A subaru wagon... He had purchased every vehicle he ever owned from his boat to his pickup truck to his cadillac with cash. They almost didn't give him the loan because he had never established any credit history of any kind! They were going to make him get a co-signer! Finally, the owner of the dealership was walking through. He knew my Grandaddy and told them to give Grandaddy the loan. He made 2 or 3 monthly payments and then couldn't stand it anymore and paid it off... thus establishing a great credit rating for use by my Granny in the event of his death. (She never used credit even after he passed away... she was born in 1902 and had lived through the depression as well...)

Anyway... April "fools" has always been a special day in my family.

Happy Birthday Grandaddy... I miss you...