[naciketas]

I like my Maternal grandfather more that my Paternal grandfather. I found that with many this is the result. Maternal side is more affectionate than the paternal side! Reasons?

 

[Digger Blue]

naciketas:
I never knew my maternal grandfather. He died right before my birth. The interesting thing about the two grandfathers, however, was that they had careers on the opposite end of the spectrum. One was a preacher in California. He'd go visit with everybody in the town. In the depression he would milk goats for the children across the street to have milk. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, my paternal grandfather was busy grinding keys with a hand cranked key grinder. He got trained electricity and became the area manager of the little patch of ground in Tennessee where the government decided to put a little facility called Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received plaques commending his efforts, and he had Gen. Groves come and visit in his small hotel after the war.
That is the story in a nut shell.
Regards,
Digger
:happy:

 

[Aqualung]

I'm digging up old Boomer threads again. Some interesting nuggets back there. My maternal grandfather was great when I was a kid. In my mid teens he began to despise me because of the length of my hair & we didn't have much to say to each other until I cut it short just before he died. He grew up around a lot of social conformity so it's all he knew. He would be 114 today so that explains some. I don't remember my paternal grandfather. I was 4 when he shot himself in the head before killing his girlfriend. I learned of this from my mom when I was around 17 & we never talked about it except for his sister confirming it once.

 

[tanstaafl28]

I like my Maternal grandfather more that my Paternal grandfather. I found that with many this is the result. Maternal side is more affectionate than the paternal side! Reasons?

My paternal grandfather was much older than my maternal grandfather. This may be why I found latter a bit more fun to be with than the former (literally and figuratively speaking).

 

[Glenda Gnome Starr]

I barely remember my maternal grandfather. I think that I was eight or nine when he passed away. I do remember my paternal grandfather. He was a great character. He said, about my father, "Tell me if he bothers you, and I will knock him down!" I didn't really want my grandpa to knock down my dad so I didn't say anything. Nevertheless, I found that funny. I figured that he would have used his cane to knock down my dad. He and my grandma used to have lots and lots of playing cards in their apartment so my sisters and I would play with them but there wasn't even one full deck. My grandpa used to take walks and he was very aggressive about crossing the street. He held his cane up in the air and charged. He died when I was 23. I think that he was 95 when he died.

 

[jcal]

I never knew my maternal grandfather... he passed away from cancer before I was born. My paternal grandfather I knew very well. He was a master woodworker who came to America from Italy immediately after WWI. He had 7 children and loved spending time with every one of his 22 grandchildren. He worked a lot (and bent over backwards to make his customers happy) but, when he wasn't, he would love to take us by the hand and show us his grape arbors, his fig and cherry trees. He would tell us stories of his youth in the "old country". He would spend hours trying to (unsuccessfully) teach us Italian and (more successfully, at least in my case) how to use tools. I vividly remember sitting on his lap while he was driving and him letting me steer the car... at age 4 (you could do that in the US in '50s)! The happiness that could be seen in his face on the occasions when his entire clan was assembled was priceless. He was a good man that worked hard, loved his family and set a good example for us as we were growing up.

 

[Sangmu]

I only met my paternal grandfather twice as a child. He was an extremely cold, capricious and petty person. Never told my father he loved him and was very harsh/distant throughout his entire childhood.

My maternal grandfather was my grandpa. Played with all of the grandchildren for hours. Loved us to bits. I inherited my nighthawk habits and snacking tendencies from him. He was an ENFJ and we unfortunately had conflicts when I was an adolescent due to his paternalistic attitudes and hasty judgements, but they were relatively minor. Many aspects of the guy live on in my heart forever. Only fond mems.

 

[jamaix]

I have always felt cheated in this area. My paternal grandpa died when he was just 57 years old. I think I was about 14 when he passed. He had been battling cancer for years. So my memories are mostly of him being extremely sick. Too ill to have much of a relationship with his grandchildren.

My maternal grandpa was a detached and impersonal man. Once after a visit, I overheard my mom telling my dad, I'm not going back again. My dad said yes you will, for your mom's sake. Kids create messes and my grandpa didn't have any tolerance for kids and their messes. He was verbal about this. Even if they were his grandchildren. My grandpa left my grandma after 38 years of marriage and my mom cut him out of her life. Which also meant he was cut out of our life as well. Not sure it would have made any difference though, as he didn't seem to really care about us that much.

I had hoped my kids would have an opportunity to have a good relationship with their grandpas. They did for a few years, but both their grandpas died while they were pretty young.

I can't wait till my husband and I get to be grandparents. I know my husband will make a wonderful grandpa.

 

[ItisI]

Don't think so. At this point, I've outlived him by six years.

 

[Exelsior]

Looks like I'm the first who would give a slight edge to my paternal vs. maternal grandfather. Both came of age in the 1920's/30's and had some pretty hard lives by today's standards. They both grew up in Appalachia, working odd jobs to get by and using family farming for supplemental income. Neither got past the 6th grade in education. As such, it was hard to relate to them once I hit my teens and early 20's, especially during & after high school & college.

I have some fond and interesting memories of both, although they were both pretty hard and "cantankerous" characters. But, I think my paternal grandfather was a bit less "checked out," even though he was a little older and passed away at age 82 in 1988, since he was a little more engaged with his grandchildren on a personal level in terms of talking to us and teaching us things. However, I got more interesting stories out of my maternal grandfather, and rare growing up activities like [ra]**** hunting and checking traps for muskrats along the Ohio river are highly memorable.

 

[Elspeth]

Never met him. He died when my father was 4.

Maternal grandfather was quite a character, and though I didn't get to spend much time with him (he lived in a different country) I liked him a lot. Fascinating man. Wise and practical in the way many men who survived through those times were. Built his family's house, and the cesspit to go with it, supported his family through the Depression and the Anschluss, and the war.

Suffered from miner's lung for years, but nonetheless lived to a ripe old age (well into his 90s) and after hospital told him to go home to die of his third heart attack, decided he didn't believe them and lived several more years.

 

[ItisI]

Never met mine either, since he died when my Dad was ten.