a/u

I'm a writer by vocation and avocation. A grant writer (professional beggar) by trade, writing poetry and fiction on the side. So I enjoy words, and how they interact with each other.

So I was thinking today about my paternal great-great grandfathers. Three of them tailors, one of them a blacksmith - or at least he was a blacksmith for a decade. I was reading a description about blacksmithing and came across the synonym, "farrier." I thought to myself, "Wait! Farriers are tailors!" I remembered seeing that occupation on a form for one of my ancestors. And then I remembered, no, it was 'furrier.' (Furriers are basically tailors who work with fur, as farriers are blacksmiths who work with farses horses.)

So if someone asks me what my ancestors did, I'm telling them they were farriers and furriers. Though with some of my friends, they will think that the latter dressed up in animal costumes, and the other in women's dresses while working at a M*A*S*H* unit. And while there aren't any photographs of that, I have no proof they didn't.

(my mother's side adds 'farmers' to the mix, which fits perfectly.)