"Grandfather, Tell Me More"
I have been wanting to share this book for a couple of years now, but only recently has it become available for purchase online (thanks to my Great Aunt Mary!). 
My great grandfather, Leo Vanmeer, authored several great books during his lifetime (he lived to be 98). One of the books he wrote was called Grandfather, tell me more.
He sent me a copy of this book when I was still just a teenager. It is an account of his life, from the year 1907, to the year 2000. I have always loved this book; it is interesting and educational. In fact, I have been homeschooling the children using this book for part of their history lessons. It's personalized history! Very cool for them!
My great grandmother, Ruth Vanmeer, was the artist who painted the cover of the book:
You can see the table of contents here.
Here is an excerpt from inside of the book:
The book continues like this and as it goes along, he talks about his experience of growing up into a quickly changing world, where there would soon be televisions, microwaves, computers, running water, washers and dryers, etc.
Here is a later portion of the book:
The book is filled with 171 illustrations and is a really good read. If you are homeschooling, you might be interested in using this book as a part of your children's education. They will learn so much from it! You can purchase the book here for only $10.95!
You may also be interested in his book, Natural Gardening, and you can read some of his Organic Gardening articles for free at this link.
My great grandfather, Leo Vanmeer, authored several great books during his lifetime (he lived to be 98). One of the books he wrote was called Grandfather, tell me more.
He sent me a copy of this book when I was still just a teenager. It is an account of his life, from the year 1907, to the year 2000. I have always loved this book; it is interesting and educational. In fact, I have been homeschooling the children using this book for part of their history lessons. It's personalized history! Very cool for them!
My great grandmother, Ruth Vanmeer, was the artist who painted the cover of the book:
You can see the table of contents here.
Here is an excerpt from inside of the book:
"Once each week, usually during a Saturday evening, our parents took accumulated eggs and butter to the village General Store to be traded for staples out farm and garden did not produce.
Usually we boys were permitted to accompany them, an adventure eagerly anticipated. We would help Father hitch Charley, our favorite driving horse, to the family democrat---a light, four wheeled conveyance with a baggage box in back, perhaps the forerunner of future pickup trucks.
Our parents sat up front on a spring mounted seat, while we boys climbed in behind to sit on a wood platform, beside the butter crock and egg crate.
Going to the village, especially after dark, was very exciting and enjoyable to my brother and me.
Near the General Store, Father tied the horse to a convenient hitching post. Mother, with the two of us to carry eggs and butter, went straightway into long, ramshackle frame building housing the only trading center for several miles around. To me, the store possessed a magic aura and I never seemed to tire of seeing goods on racks and shelving, displays lighted by kerosene burning lamps placed at strategic intervals throughout the building.
Father, in the meantime, joined other farmer men-folk to discuss crop prospects and problems arising from land use. Their only lighting came from the kerosene-burning lanterns setting on a ledge outside the trading center. The village, in those days, served a surrounding rural area both as shopping and social center.
It's extremely doubtful the population exceeded a hundred residents, including local tradesmen and their families. I think back to individuals who lived there during my early, formative years. The population, then, included the doctor who officiated my birth, the ministers of two churches, school personnel, men who operated the grain mill, the village blacksmith, a saloon keeper and two assistants, the storekeeper and his helpers, as well as retirees, too old or infirm to work. No gasoline station or garage existed in those days.
Seldom did an automobile appear on the village dirt main street and then only momentarily. There was no bank or even a drug store as such, not even a teenager hangout; only a scattering of commercial enterprises, surrounded by modest homes with ever-present gardens. "
Near the General Store, Father tied the horse to a convenient hitching post. Mother, with the two of us to carry eggs and butter, went straightway into long, ramshackle frame building housing the only trading center for several miles around. To me, the store possessed a magic aura and I never seemed to tire of seeing goods on racks and shelving, displays lighted by kerosene burning lamps placed at strategic intervals throughout the building.
Father, in the meantime, joined other farmer men-folk to discuss crop prospects and problems arising from land use. Their only lighting came from the kerosene-burning lanterns setting on a ledge outside the trading center. The village, in those days, served a surrounding rural area both as shopping and social center.
It's extremely doubtful the population exceeded a hundred residents, including local tradesmen and their families. I think back to individuals who lived there during my early, formative years. The population, then, included the doctor who officiated my birth, the ministers of two churches, school personnel, men who operated the grain mill, the village blacksmith, a saloon keeper and two assistants, the storekeeper and his helpers, as well as retirees, too old or infirm to work. No gasoline station or garage existed in those days.
Seldom did an automobile appear on the village dirt main street and then only momentarily. There was no bank or even a drug store as such, not even a teenager hangout; only a scattering of commercial enterprises, surrounded by modest homes with ever-present gardens. "
The book continues like this and as it goes along, he talks about his experience of growing up into a quickly changing world, where there would soon be televisions, microwaves, computers, running water, washers and dryers, etc.
Here is a later portion of the book:
"Even after my college graduation in 1931, computers meant nothing to me. Yet, the invention (mushrooming during the latter half of my life) influenced civilization perhaps as much of even more than the internal combustion engine and motor vehicles it fostered.
In the early nineteen forties, rumors reaching our community reported an astounding device capable of solving business transactions with lightning-like speed and unquestioned accuracy. When the International Business Machines (IBM) cooperated with Harvard University's Howard H. Aiken to build the Mark I Automatic Sequence Calculator, media accounts exited little more than casual comment. Perhaps information, emanating from the Cambridge project, seemed too much like science fiction or something out of Arabian Nights.
Individuals nationwide, and I among them, knew not how much to believe. Scandal-mongers inferred the world was, indeed, headed for the Big Brother era (alluded to in the book 1984). Despite misunderstandings and operational difficulties, offspring of the first 750,000-component equipment today speed the nation's business. Improved compters, reduced in size and added capacity, not only appear in business offices but homes and even schools for instructional purposes.
Only decades from their inception, computers made rocket launching and moon landings possible. My first digital computer experience occurred in 1952. At that time I conducted a Cooperative Training Program for interested high school seniors. While placing a student trainee in a manufacturing office, I was invited to see the newly-installed computer.
To my amazement, the equipment, including a punch card operation, almost filled a sizeable office area. Holes punched in pre-sized cards created the programming operation. Cards, ed into the ponderous equipment, completed the factory payroll with amazing rapidity and dispatch, designating time worked and hourly rate. The operation recalled to me a time, years earlier, when as a payroll clerk I computed each worker's weekly wage with no more than a pencil and scratch pad."
In the early nineteen forties, rumors reaching our community reported an astounding device capable of solving business transactions with lightning-like speed and unquestioned accuracy. When the International Business Machines (IBM) cooperated with Harvard University's Howard H. Aiken to build the Mark I Automatic Sequence Calculator, media accounts exited little more than casual comment. Perhaps information, emanating from the Cambridge project, seemed too much like science fiction or something out of Arabian Nights.
Individuals nationwide, and I among them, knew not how much to believe. Scandal-mongers inferred the world was, indeed, headed for the Big Brother era (alluded to in the book 1984). Despite misunderstandings and operational difficulties, offspring of the first 750,000-component equipment today speed the nation's business. Improved compters, reduced in size and added capacity, not only appear in business offices but homes and even schools for instructional purposes.
Only decades from their inception, computers made rocket launching and moon landings possible. My first digital computer experience occurred in 1952. At that time I conducted a Cooperative Training Program for interested high school seniors. While placing a student trainee in a manufacturing office, I was invited to see the newly-installed computer.
To my amazement, the equipment, including a punch card operation, almost filled a sizeable office area. Holes punched in pre-sized cards created the programming operation. Cards, ed into the ponderous equipment, completed the factory payroll with amazing rapidity and dispatch, designating time worked and hourly rate. The operation recalled to me a time, years earlier, when as a payroll clerk I computed each worker's weekly wage with no more than a pencil and scratch pad."
The book is filled with 171 illustrations and is a really good read. If you are homeschooling, you might be interested in using this book as a part of your children's education. They will learn so much from it! You can purchase the book here for only $10.95!
You may also be interested in his book, Natural Gardening, and you can read some of his Organic Gardening articles for free at this link.
Wow! That is so interesting. I am not usually a fan of history, but to hear history through his eyes is just amazing to say the least. Thank you for sharing that with everyone. I can imagine I will be buying this book very soon.
Reply to this
How neat that you can teach your kids using your own family history
Reply to this
Here's a link to that book by the way: http://www.buy.com/prod/as-a-tale-that-is-told/q/loc/106/202874731.html
Reply to this
Thanks, Tiffany! He sounds like a great guy. I love the illustration on the cover of his book!
Reply to this
My granny just passed last wednesday, she was 99 years old. She would have been 100 in Febuary. I will miss her and her stories. She was a very sweet granny god fearing woman.
Reply to this
Ro, it sounds like your grandmother led a happy and fulfilling life! I know you will miss her. My great grandfather would be 101 as of about a week ago!
Reply to this
How wonderful that your grandfather wrote that and that your children can learn history from a man who lived it. The picture on the cover that your grandmother drew is amazing! It's easy to see where your talent comes from. Your grandparents must have been very special people. I will definitely be getting this book! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Reply to this
Thanks so much, Sandcastlemomma.
You are so sweet!
Reply to this
Thanks for sharing your grandfather's wisdom to us.
Reply to this
"Creativity is . . . seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God." - Michele Shea /http://airbrushactioncom/airbrush-getaway-workshops/vegas-february-20-24-2012
Reply to this
Nothing is more the child of art than a garden.
Reply to this