Harry

 This is the only resemblance of my Grandfather I have. The story is a co-worker did this drawing during lunch on his brown lunch bag. I never met him. Gone long before I was born, as was my Grandfather on my Mother's side.  Max didn't have all that many stories to tell, but he did tell me that Harry had been a carpenter and that was how he learned. That gene may skip a step or two...I'm left-handed anyway and we all know there are no good left-handed carpenters, according to legend anyway. Besides the drawing I have Harry's old hand made tool box. I keep some old photos in it, not tools.

Another story of Harry is about a building he worked on. Often as we drove down the Parkway Max would point out a small building just off the road and tell me that "Harry built that". The Brown Jug is not a glorious edifice, certainly not famous and I can tell you it still has the original plumbing...phew! Yes I have had a few beers and a pizza or two in the building Harry built. And just to add a twist, my usual partner on these after-bowling stops was my friend Dick...whose Grandfather also built the Brown Jug. I doubt that Dick's Grandfather did the drawing of Harry, but we'll never know now.

Harry was the first of us to NOT use our first name. Max and I continued that tradition. But, Harry didn't have a middle name, so we can only guess how he ended up as Harry.

I found out about the common bond Dick and I shared many years ago when we were both young. Hell, both his brothers were still in diapers. The only quiet place was his cellar. So we set some kind of a table up and played whist or hearts and solved all the world's problems, obviously without success. Dick and I had another bond, plenty of siblings and no privacy... another reason for a table by the furnace. We have both grown up (or old...or bigger) and maintain our friendship via cel-phones. Shades of Dick Tracy! Two neanderthals in the 21st century. The brothers in diapers are now old too, just not as old!

Don't know who'll want Harry's tool box or sketch, but I'm thinking of filling with old family pix. You know, the old sepia things of people no one knows. Sometimes a name on the back, but who is it? Our children should be just as perplexed as we are...right? I'll say, "This is from Harry", they'll just have to guess who the hell Harry was!