105 Years Ago

Updated from a post back in 2007.

My maternal grandfather would have been 105 years old today. On February 28, 1907, my grandfather was born in a small town in Transylvania called Varalmas. (aka Almaşu Mare).  At the time the town was part of Hungary, but now it is part of Romania.

Latitude: 46.950
Longitude: 23.133

(These numbers are taken from the Global Gazetteer). For those who are numerologically inclined: Add the digits together, and you get 36. Admittedly, some take longitude to a few more decimal places. But as long as you take it to 6 (or a multiple of 6) more decimal places, the sum is still a multiple of 18)

I have many fond memories of my grandfather.

• He taught me how to bowl. As some of you know, I don’t bowl extraordinarily well. That isn’t his fault. I recall him bowling over 200.
• He was always interested in new technology. In 1982 he bought me, my siblings, and my parents our first computer. A Commodore 64. Ironically (oh, yes, I’m pretty sure this is ironic) I was very loyal to the Commodore, and I swore at that time I would never own an Apple.
• He exercised by jogging around his basement, and always insisted on shoveling his own driveway during the winter — with a cast iron shovel. I have two ten-pound weights of his, which he used much more than I have.
• I remember eating waffles for dinner at my grandparents’ house, and he was the one who cooked them. I loved the idea of waffles for dinner. (He also had a Presto Sandwich maker, which I thought was cool.)
• As a young man in Chicago, at Fort Sheridan, he served in the ‘Cavalry‘ in its final days. He had a cavalry sword engraved with a Star of David. After WWII he retired from the Air Force at the rank of Lt. Col.

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5 Years Ago

I began blogging about genealogy in 2007.  While I date my obsession with genealogy research to this April 17th, 2007 post, that's going to be a very busy week for me.  So I will observe this blog's 5th anniversary today.