Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

That is my son and his wife. They have zero interest in having children and that is perfectly fine. Except in my wife's eyes since she will never get a granddaughter.

My kids are 28, 27, 24 and 16. My older kids have no interest in marriage or kids, and that's fine.

[Teseo]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

That is my son and his wife. They have zero interest in having children and that is perfectly fine. Except in my wife's eyes since she will never get a granddaughter.

My parents said that and im here, "accidents" happens

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

That's the way I was with my grandparents. I spent summers on their farm.

I shared mechanical things (tractors, cars, trucks, etc), woodworking, and "farm stuff" with my Grandfather. I could sit and listen to him talk about WWII for hours (he was a paratrooper on D-Day). Some of it was probably actually true.

Shared interest in art, fishing, food (her cooking, me eating), love of historical interests (museums, historical sites) and general mule-headiness with my Grandmother.

I had great times with my maternal grandfather. He never served in the war since he was a brass casting mold maker and deemed essential services for the war manufacturing effort (for obvious reasons). He was a musician that played stand up bass in a swing/rockabilly band (think Stray Cats) which to the 40s and 50s was about the equivalent of heavy metal music today. He was also a pioneer in the development of rock music and in the late 60s would break out his old electric guitar and knock off a few Hendrix riffs for me. I am told that I inherited my sense of humour and wit directly from him but unfortunately he passed away when I was only 13 so my memories are a bit fuzzy even though I spent a very good part of my youth with him. We worked on cars, built models and did a shitload of fishing together pretty much every weekend until I started working when I was 12. My grandmother only passed away 4 years ago and she was also very good to me through my childhood. It didn't come out until after her death that she was actually a sort of groupie for the band back in the 40s and my uncle who is 3 years younger that my mother actually had a different father. She obviously had a wild side that I never saw.


My paternal grandfather was not in the war either since he was a lumberjack so also an essential service worker that could not sign up for military service. He was a very quiet and introverted man so I doubt we exchanged 100 words in all our time together.


They were about as opposite as you could possibly get.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Teseo

My parents said that and im here, "accidents" happens

My wife and I had to leave our wedding for an hour so she could feed the baby. Yes, accidents happen.
My son and his wife have made sure there is only an extremely small chance of an accident. Almost medically impossible for it to happen actually.

[p1l0t]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I had great times with my maternal grandfather. He never served in the war since he was a brass casting mold maker and deemed essential services for the war manufacturing effort (for obvious reasons). He was a musician that played stand up bass in a swing/rockabilly band (think Stray Cats) which to the 40s and 50s was about the equivalent of heavy metal music today. He was also a pioneer in the development of rock music and in the late 60s would break out his old electric guitar and knock off a few Hendrix riffs for me. I am told that I inherited my sense of humour and wit directly from him but unfortunately he passed away when I was only 13 so my memories are a bit fuzzy even though I spent a very good part of my youth with him. We worked on cars, built models and did a shitload of fishing together pretty much every weekend until I started working when I was 12. My grandmother only passed away 4 years ago and she was also very good to me through my childhood. It didn't come out until after her death that she was actually a sort of groupie for the band back in the 40s and my uncle who is 3 years younger that my mother actually had a different father. She obviously had a wild side that I never saw.


My paternal grandfather was not in the war either since he was a lumberjack so also an essential service worker that could not sign up for military service. He was a very quiet and introverted man so I doubt we exchanged 100 words in all our time together.


They were about as opposite as you could possibly get.

That's quite the background! Explains why we all enjoy your personality.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by p1l0t

That's quite the background! Explains why we all enjoy your personality.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

I have tried many times to find anything on the band to no avail. There was an old film of them playing some time in the late 40s or early 50s but it disappeared 40 years ago. Even the many pictures that he used to show me have been lost someplace along the line. I have one single late (1970 or so) picture of him with his bass but it is a posed shot and does not really show how wild the band was as I saw in the movie.
It was more or less like watching the Stray Cats right up to and including the swinging around and standing on the bass while playing. In fact the guitar that Setzer is playing looks almost identical to what grampa had!
The only difference was they wore flashy blue plaid jackets and didn't have tattoos. hell they even had almost the same haircuts.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk_WpqVFYZg"]Stray Cats - Rock this town LIVE - YouTube[/ame]


Edit: I forgot to mention he was about 5' 5" and scrawny. So picture Flea playing a standup base!

[Sapphireho]

Funny you mention Stray Cats. I just bought a best of Stray Cats CD last week. I opened it in my truck, listened on the way home, swear I brought it in the house and now it is missing.

My grandfather played the electric base in a rock band back in the day. I saw them once about 1976. They all got together one last time for a 4th of July party at my grandparents house. I think in their prime they did local fairs and stuff. He was actually my step grandpa, never knew my bio grandfathers. One died in 1945 and the other in 1970.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I have tried many times to find anything on the band to no avail....

One of my favorite uncles was the bass player in a pretty successful regional band in the 60's, and the lead singer/composer went on to work with some folks you would recognize. You reminiscing sent me down the Internet rabbit hole and I'll be darn, I was able to find both photos and recordings of a couple of their hits that got airtime...

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT4V-nb4ohk"]Dayv Butler & The News - The Boy Who Only Smiles (1967) - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-TVto8Alig"]Dayv Butler and The Delmars - If I Had a Girl - YouTube[/ame]

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

One of my favorite uncles was the bass player in a pretty successful regional band in the 60's, and the lead singer/composer went on to work with some folks you would recognize. You reminiscing sent me down the Internet rabbit hole and I'll be darn, I was able to find both photos and recordings of a couple of their hits that got airtime...

That second one is very much like what they were doing in the 40s and 50s and is sort of a direct descendant of the sound. I use the term "rockabilly" since people are familiar with it but it was probably called more like "swing", "boogie woogie" or "jazz". The big difference in what they did was it wasn't the big band sort of thing that people associate with that music today. It was just 5 or 6 guys with a bass, a couple of electric guitars, basic drum kit and a sax or piano. There are many elements of what became rock and roll in it but not enough to call it rock and roll (if that makes sense).

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

There are many elements of what became rock and roll in it but not enough to call it rock and roll (if that makes sense).

Absolutely. After the band broke up (I don't remember why they did) my uncle went on to do some studio work and still plays but never really made a living out of it, and once they had kids focused on "real work" but always played in a band.

He still has his original VOX Amps in his basement and plays on them regularly. The whole house shakes when he does.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Absolutely. After the band broke up (I don't remember why they did) my uncle went on to do some studio work and still plays but never really made a living out of it, and once they had kids focused on "real work" but always played in a band.

He still has his original VOX Amps in his basement and plays on them regularly. The whole house shakes when he does.

When my grandfather passed away my uncle cleaned out all the amps, electric guitars, electric and stand up basses and other good stuff. I suspect that is where the film and pictures went as well but nobody in the family has heard from him since about 1978. I do have grandpa's old, well worn, Kalamazoo acoustic guitar though. It is unusable at this point but could be repaired.

[humfrz]

Neat grandpa, grandma stories, folks ......

I'd tell some ....... but, I wouldn't know where to start ....... so, I just won't ....


humfrz

[echo419]

wouldn't know or can't remember?

[Sapphireho]

Man, hard to complain about the temps being almost 80°f, but we really need some storms. Snow pack in CA is only 18%. We have broken temp records every day of February. I might start doing a rain dance soon.