Been close and personal to an OLDIE lately?

S

Sunfish

I was about to say "Sadly, I'm becoming one of them" but clearly it would have been sadder still if I had failed to make it. (At least my lady would have been sad )

So where was I? Ah yes, I was wondering if many of you spend "quality" time with the few remaining survivors of the terrible times of the first half of the 20th century.

There are only a few left but they have wonderful stories to tell.

I am willing to bet none will speak of the banks as their friends!

I remember my Dad telling me "I've been through two wars, two marriages and the depression, And you think I'm naive?". Actually he was, but it is more important to think why. He lived in a period when no sane person could believe anything they were told. Being patriots though, they did. There is a contradiction there, I'm sorry, but I can't write what I feel.

This is incomplete. If I can, I will finish it later.

Thommo
 
Thommo said:
I was about to say "Sadly, I'm becoming one of them" but clearly it would have been sadder still if I had failed to make it. (At least my lady would have been sad )

So where was I? Ah yes, I was wondering if many of you spend "quality" time with the few remaining survivors of the terrible times of the first half of the 20th century.

There are only a few left but they have wonderful stories to tell.

I am willing to bet none will speak of the banks as their friends!

I remember my Dad telling me "I've been through two wars, two marriages and the depression, And you think I'm naive?". Actually he was, but it is more important to think why. He lived in a period when no sane person could believe anything they were told. Being patriots though, they did. There is a contradiction there, I'm sorry, but I can't write what I feel.
Click to expand...
Hi Thommo,

It's always interesting to listen to an oldie (espec you:D). After reading your recent post Re zero real growth between 1920 & 1968, I made a note to talk about it to my wifes grandmother.

Her waterfront place in Syd is worth around $1.5M today. She bought the block in 1920 for ? pounds (This is the bit I need to talk to her about). Syd harbour was an open sewer in those days so only the v. poor lived close to the river.

Towards the end of the depression her & her mother got to the stage of visiting boarding houses to move into after the bank was about to forclose on their house. Fortunately her husband-to-be managed to pay enough to stall them. So she still lives in the house she was born in.

KJ
 
Keith, when you talk to your Gran, don't talk of money. Ask what things "cost". Let her use her own definition and research it later.

T
 
Thommo said:
where was I? Ah yes, I was wondering if many of you spend "quality" time with the few remaining survivors of the terrible times of the first half of the 20th century.
Click to expand...
My Grandad was a survivor of the depression. During that time, he was never out of work. He was never too proud to refuse a job- and often travelled distances to work. My Mum tells stories of when they travelled by horse and buggy to go to a place where there was work- and sleeping under bridges along the way. My Mum was a toddler at the time.
Thommo said:
I am willing to bet none will speak of the banks as their friends!
Click to expand...
Agreed. My Dad was telling me two days ago that the bank managers were actively advising my Grandad not to buy land- that it was a dead loss deal. The same land he had bought before, and the land which furnished him comfortably in retirement- well, comforftably before his stroke, which cut short his career as a plumber's labourer at the tender age of 75 or thereabouts.

I remember my Grandad being frustrated because he could no longer ride his bicycle to work beacuse one side of his body wasn't working properly.
 
Hey Thommo,
my wife's parent's used to live out at Kelso and have sold up and moved further into town, next time I am up that way I may drop a line and pay you a visit as I have always loved your posts.

Many Kind regards
John
 
Thommo you are right- our old people have so many incredible stories to tell, but, sadly, they are so seldom asked-

I think it was the Arabs or someone who had a saying, "When an old man dies,
a Library burns"

Very best regards,
 
Thommo said:
I was wondering if many of you spend "quality" time with the few remaining survivors of the terrible times of the first half of the 20th century.

There are only a few left but they have wonderful stories to tell.
Click to expand...

I love talking to older people even though they ramble on a lot at times.
I have an old lady friend in her 70's who i visit every 2-3 weeks to help her with odd jobs around the house. She talks a lot about the good old days and i often spend more time listening to her stories than doing any work :)

I also have a good friend named Jo who's 77 and from the old Yugoslavia (Serbia). He comes to my house every weekday at about 10am and leaves at 4 pm to go play chess with his mates. I let him keep his tools in my garage so he can potter about doing his woodwork and keeping busy.

He's been married 3 times and has 6 sons ranging from 49 to 21. He's a cabinet maker by trade and did his apprentice when he was 13. When the nazis came through he had to sleep in the workshop and steal food from them to survive. He had no shoes, just rags tied up with string. The 1st time he tried to escape the commies he was caught on the German border and jailed for 18 mths. The 2nd time he made it. He's always going on about the bloody dictators, fascists and commies. He's also got some interesting thoughts on the leftist movement in America and blames the Jews for commercialising religion. He tells me the day you retire is the day you die. He goes to the movies every Thursday night and always gives me a review the next day. He's one of the most determined people i know and a perfectionist at his cabinetmaking. He taught himself to read and is always telling me facts & figures. He always gives me advice about not drinking too much, eating healthy and keeping busy.
He tells me to seek truth, give compliments, embrace change, never regret, listen, be decisive, keep busy, trust instinct, know yourself, practise patience, stay focussed and rise up.
He's a great guy.
 
nomadic said:
I love talking to older people even though they ramble on a lot at times.
I have an old lady friend in her 70's who i visit every 2-3 weeks to help her with odd jobs around the house. She talks a lot about the good old days and i often spend more time listening to her stories than doing any work :)

I also have a good friend named Jo who's 77 and from the old Yugoslavia (Serbia). He comes to my house every weekday at about 10am and leaves at 4 pm to go play chess with his mates. I let him keep his tools in my garage so he can potter about doing his woodwork and keeping busy.

He's been married 3 times and has 6 sons ranging from 49 to 21. He's a cabinet maker by trade and did his apprentice when he was 13. When the nazis came through he had to sleep in the workshop and steal food from them to survive. He had no shoes, just rags tied up with string. The 1st time he tried to escape the commies he was caught on the German border and jailed for 18 mths. The 2nd time he made it. He's always going on about the bloody dictators, fascists and commies. He's also got some interesting thoughts on the leftist movement in America and blames the Jews for commercialising religion. He tells me the day you retire is the day you die. He goes to the movies every Thursday night and always gives me a review the next day. He's one of the most determined people i know and a perfectionist at his cabinetmaking. He taught himself to read and is always telling me facts & figures. He always gives me advice about not drinking too much, eating healthy and keeping busy.
He tells me to seek truth, give compliments, embrace change, never regret, listen, be decisive, keep busy, trust instinct, know yourself, practise patience, stay focussed and rise up.
He's a great guy.
Click to expand...

You've learnt a valuable lesson - why waste your time learning life experience on matters that have already been learnt by countless others? You are taking the wisdom oldies are offering you and spending your life learning other/new things. Imagine how much more advanced you will be; how much more you will have grown as a human being.

You are a good person Nomadic. Congratulations on appreciating the value and wisdom of 'the oldies'. I'm sure you are a much better person for it.

Olly
 
A great thread Thommo - thanks for starting it - it comes at a time when I have been reflecting on all of this a lot.

My Grandma in Switzerland passed away last month at the age of 89. She was in good health at the time of her passing and went in her sleep after getting back into bed one morning when not feeling quite right. My Grandfather went to check on her and she had gone. This was a good way to go for her, but hard on everyone else because it was so unexpected. I was fortunate enough to have made a trip to see her and my Grandfather last year, after not seeing them for 13 years. Despite the language barrier I was able to soak up some old stories, but most of all I got to know who she was and what she valued. I regret not having the opportunity to do this more over the years, as she was an amazing woman with a lot to give, and I would have enjoyed learning more of life's lessons from her.

My boyfriend's Nana lives here in Melbourne and we see her at least twice a week. She was originally born in Italy, moved to Yugoslavia as a child and spent some years in a prison camp in her younger years. She met her husband overseas and emigrated to Austalia in the 1950's. She is 90 now and in great form. She has lived in her home in Hawthorn for about 40 years after paying it all off herself. She has out-lived 2 husbands and all of her remaining family overseas. She speaks 5 languages and still does all of her cooking and cleaning herself. Up until a few years ago she was still cleaning her own gutters and painting her house. :eek: Some of her lessons include:

  • Don't drink too much water - it kills you - and you don't know what they put into it. :confused:
  • "The home cooked meal is the best one" because chefs don't wash their hands and pre-cook their food the day before.
  • For a relationship to last you must continue to love, respect, be loyal and be honest with one another. Trust is the most important thing.
  • Never go bare foot and always wear stockings.
  • Never have outstanding debts with friends.
  • Always push yourself to keep going, never stop trying.
  • If you don't have time to visit, always call. Old people need to know that someone will know if they are not OK, so they can rest assured that if something happens to them someone will come looking for them.

She says that when she goes one day she will take a heart full of secrets with her. I believe she will take a lot of old fashioned wisdom with her too, and can only hope she is around for many years to come to share it with us.
 
I smirked when reading the post - I was thinking the same thing Apocalypse!

Some great info in this thread guys, Ive tried to take some on board and look for my own more often as well =)
 
about 10 years before he died my grandfather (at my mother's insistance) wrote a book called "a letter to my grandchildren". mum then typed it up, photo's inserted and had it bound for all the grandchildren. oupa wrote it because (as he recalled) when his grandparents died, he knew nothing about them and could barely remember where they had even lived.

i get teary just thinking about the book ... a book full of rambling stories from my grandfather being a young boy and working in the mines, meeting my grandmother on a train, the birth of both his children while he was away at war (and the war stories - all from a very personal point of view), adjusting to life after he came home and on and on. a wonderful gift to the family and something i will treasure and hand on.

it is a wonderful read and something i try to encourage all my older relatives to do. unfortunately most think their lives as uninteresting as 'they lived it' so it is nothing unusual.

i must read "letter to my grandchildren" again. i miss my oupa, even tho he died nearly 5 years ago. :( (sniff)

lizzie
 
Oldies

My great grandfather lived with us when I was about 8yrs old and he passed on just after I turned 21 . He was an old wharfie and he was so dry but so funny....I remember he told me one day that "when I was a boy, you'd sh*t outside and eat inside...now everyone wants to eat outside and sh*t inside"... :)
 
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