My paternal grandpa, Ed, was a carpenter. During Prohibition he decided to get rich, as the man across the street was doing -- only instead he got 180 days in the Workhouse and the Sheriff got his still. We still have his personal still though; my Grandmother was throwing it out after the old man died in 1968 and my brother rescued it. He made houses and was pretty good at it, but he didn't believe that education beyond grade 8 was necessary. He and my father had some serious rows, I understand, because Dad wanted a life outside of carpentry -- one that included acting in the local theater company and reading, for example.

Ed, my maternal grandpa, was a machinist and draftsman. He and his twin brother, Ted, bought a ranch outside Lewiston, Montana. Ed went Back East to court and marry Clara -- which he did, and thereby provided my mother and uncles -- but who, when they were newly engaged and Ed announced that after they were married they'd be living on the ranch, announced in a shocked voice, "You want me to move WHERE?!??!?" And so he spent the rest of his life in Illinois. Insulin-dependent because of his diabetes, he died of a stroke in 1953. We kids inherited his test tubes (he had to do the old Benedict Blue test every day) and his auto-injector and hypodermics. We found that you could use the auto-injector and a hypo needle as a wonderful water gun that would shoot a stream clear across the living room. Grandpa was an inventive soul and would have loved that!