Grandpa John

passed away last week. He was Mrs. Skinny's grandfather, and a decent, honest, bighearted man. I had the privelege of meeting him several times, and it was fewer than it should have been. It's hard and expensive to travel to the west coast, there's no kosher food where he lived, etc., etc. As usual in these cases, you wish you had done things differently despite the effort involved.

John was a WWII vet, as I recall, and worked for Lockheed for many, many years. He was an inveterate record collector, stopping at all the yard sales to pick up more, whatever they were. He gave Mrs. Beatles records years ago - he never listened to them, but he had them. He was a fine singer, and fond of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas that Mrs. & I like so much - he played Ralph Rackstraw in Pinafore on a number of occasions. My dad met him on a trip out there a few years back, and the two musicians hit it off very well.

I'm glad he got to meet both of our kids, and we will certainly tell them about this wonderful man. Mrs. has gone out west for the memorial service, and, the rest of us are with her in spirit.

He was a terrific guy, and we will all miss him.