Grandpa Tom cars and stuff

People we remember…….My Grandpa Bob (Robert) was a big tall man that always wore a three piece suite with a gold chain coming out of his vest pocket. I was named after him. When going out on the town, like so many men of his time, he also wore a hat, a fedora. Grandpa Bob would even dress up for a backyard barbeque, you could always pick him out in a crowd, not because of his height of 6’4 but because of his clothes; he was always the best dressed one in the bunch. He lived down town in Longview and never had need for a car. Sometimes when we came up for a visit Grandpa Bob and I would go for a walk up town.

He would always light up a big cigar and point to the stuff in the windows. I had no idea what the stuff did, but I had fun. At the end of our walks we always stopped under the local movie theater billboard; I’m not sure which theater it was, and look at photos of all the professional wrestlers; he would always tell me about each of the wrestlers.

I didn’t know then, but Grandpa Bob was already retired. I always assumed for some unknown reason that Grandpa Bob was rich. I never saw him go to work. I never really new what his profession was. I just thought he must have been in upper management or maybe a banker. It must have been his clothes. I just never new! And if he did tell me, I wasn’t listening or didn’t remember. Through the years I would overhear bits and pieces of his life and Long-Bell would come up in some of the conversations.

Next thing I new Grandpa Bob moved to California to live with one of his five daughters. I only saw him one time after that, and that was just before he died.

It wasn’t until 50 years later, by chance, that I found out what Grandpa Bob did for a living. I was going through my parents’ things after they had passed away and found a card in an envelope. Thinking that it may have been my parents’ wedding invitation I opened it and found out that it was a funeral notice of Grandpa Bobs funeral. Inside the card was an arbitrary notice, an article from the Oregonian news paper. It read: Death Claims Noted Sawyer; Longview Wash. ( Special ) Robert F Malone born in Arkansas in 1883 who rates as one of the lumber industry’s great sawyers, died in Los Angeles Saturday. Malone had been living in Las Angeles with daughter for the past two years. Malone gained five years of sawing experience in the Southern Pine Country of Texas before starting to saw logs for Long-Bell at the Woodworth, La. Mill in 1910. He remained at the mill 17 years and then was transferred to the Long-Bell mill at Ludington, La. After a few months he then transferred to the Longview mill in 1927 until 1950 . In the 41 years with Long-Bell it was estimated that he had converted enough logs into lumber to fill a train 192 miles long or approximately 760,000,000 board feet. Although many claims have been made on behalf of other sawyers in regard to the industries record, it was established that Malone’s record would rate at least close to the best.

I was shocked; I had no idea! That old saying. “You cant judge a book by its cover,” is very true.
Another person that left an impression on me was my Uncle Ed. I only saw him a couple of times but he was always fun to be with. He always had a lot of people around him too. Maybe because he was a big sports nut, and a big fan of the Pacific Coast league. He liked the San Diego Padres the most. Uncle Ed was a man of average height but for some reason stood hunched over a bit and that made him look shorter than he actually was, he wore his trousers pulled up to his chest and his ears were bigger than normal. To me, Uncle Ed hunching over like that, with his big ears, sort of looked like a monkey. Uncle Ed would always say, “Did you know that Willie Mays lives right down the street?” Also, Uncle Ed always had his pockets full of peanuts. You always knew where he had been by the trail of peanut shells he left behind. I heard that most of the time he was at the ball park.
The car Uncle Ed drove was a beat up black VW Bug.