Wednesday, January 13, 2010

My Name - Assignment

My first name, John, was given to me in honor of my paternal grandfather. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1907. As a young boy he experienced firsthand the horrors of World War I. Following the war, his sister met and married an American soldier. Once she arrived in the United States, she sponsored my grandfather to come here as well. he worked many obs upon arriving here in America and even owned a gas station and a lumberyard at one time. Eventually, he migrated west to a Los Angeles suburb. He was a great story teller and was a true "jack of all trades". His mastery, however, was in his knowledge and skills of creating and maintaining his organic garden. One of my most vivid memories of him was the first time I visited him in California and seeing his garden. There was no grass. Literally every inch of his property was either structure or garden. His neighbors initially complained about the odors from his compost piles. The complaints stopped when he began sharing his three harvests a year with his neighbors. I am very proud to have known him and honored to have been given his name.

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