Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa Glenn

My Granpda, Glenn, my dad's dad, turns 80 on August 12th. Yesterday, we had a
birthday party for him, so I am going to acknowledge his birthday right now instead of on August 12th. He doesn't have a computer or know how to use one, so he most likely won't even see this, so it is mostly for the amusement of my family members who will see it!

The party was at the Gastropub, a new bar, restaurant, and billiards place in Fargo. It is about 1 block from Andrea's house, so that was convenient! This location was chosen because playing pool has been a longtime hobby of Grandpa's. When my dad was a child he even ran a pool hall in the evenings.
A few photos from the evening. . . (Some were taken by me, and some were taken by my aunt. I lifted them from Facebook.)


My parents and aunts and uncles were in attendance, as well as me and Andrea and Kirk. (Pete had to work). My cousins Kara, Kirsten, and Kendra were also there. Greg, Laura, and Courtney were missing in addition to Pete due to it being a week night.

Grandpa and his children.

Ice cream cake!

"Girls, do something silly with Grandpa!" OK, don't mind if we do!

A normal one. . .
There were some presents. Whenever there is an occasion involving presents, Grandpa always says, when presented with a gift, "Well. . .I didn't think I'd be getting anything!" This time, he got a raffle ticket in his name, some wedding photos from my cousin's wedding, and a huge bag of his favorite candy treats. His main present was a new watch from his children.

It's a nice idea and he is very hard to buy for (candy is pretty much the only sure bet) but I'm not sure about how often he will wear this watch. I was very sneaky and took this photo of his wrist so I could try to capture the cheap John Deere novelty digital watch he has been wearing since at least the mid 1990s. It will be hard to beat!
Now, I have the inevitable scans. . .I have to mention that when I was looking at my pictures I realized that I never made a Father's Day post! Sorry, fathers, I didn't mean to diminish the day. I was in Vegas that weekend and never made one. Sorry!
Anyway, Grandpa Glenn's photos are interesting to me because, of my four grandparents, he is the only one to be captured in photographs as a young child. My grandmothers' families were pretty poor and couldn't afford photographers and cameras. My other grandpa's childhood in Duluth is a mystery and there are no pictures of him before high school. If there are any, I'll most likely never see them because all of his siblings are dead and who knows where they would be. So it is pretty cool to actually have some "baby" pictures of one of them!
Awww, Glenn, 2 years. . .Imagine that! 1932! Once he mentioned that when he was growing up his birthday, being in August, was usually during harvest and his party would be attended by men taking a break from the fields. When he was old enough, he himself would take a break to have his cake. He has older cousins, the twins Judy and Opal, who have the same birthday and there is one picture I recall seeing of them together with a cake at a joint celebration.

Another birthday! That house was built in 1940 and it looks pretty new in that picture!

Glenn and his brother in a fancy professional photo. Very cute! It looks like the writing in the corner might say 1882, but I know that isn't possible.

Another year, another photo. . .

High school graduation in 1947.

You can barely see who the people in this picture are, but I think it's interesting so I'm putting it on here! I think Grandpa is the second boy from the right and this is the "boys" at his country school. There was also a picture of the "girls" and the whole group. It was called Washington #something and it looks like a pretty nice school! Once they entered high school they went to high school in town. When this time came, Grandpa became a boarder and lived in a room in the house of a town family near the school with a friend and they went home on weekends! It is hard to imagine because their house is only about 4 or 5 miles from town. The idea of 14 year olds living on their own is pretty unthinkable today, but it was pretty common in the 40's I guess. My grandma, who only lived 1 mile from the school, said she used to be jealous of the kids who got to board in town because they always seemed to have alot of fun! Grandpa once mentioned that his "roommate" died young (not in high school, but as a young adult) and he seemed sad when he talked about it.
This photo is from their wedding album. At this moment Grandpa is just realizing that his groomsmen disabled his car just as they were about to drive away! Haha.

Oh yikes. . .That beard tells me that this was 1976. . .

Oh. . .YIKES!


This is the classic "4 generation" photo. I imagine there must be one with me and my dad as well, but who knows where it is. I came across this one when I was scanning at my grandparents' house. Grandpa hasn't taken the "1st generation" place yet, but hopefully it will happen in his life!

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