Is ANYONE as tough/manly as their Grandpa?

[InkEd]

Like the title says... Is ANYONE as tough/manly as their Grandpa?

I for one will admit that I am not even close. I look at all the "manly" things I have done in my life and it seems that my Grandpa (R.I.P.) "one up'ed" me across the board AND did most of it before MY DAD was even born.

Childhood Years:
Me:
Born in Memphis Tennesse
Grew up lower working class in the early 1980's.

Grandpa:
Born in Clifton New Jersey
Grew-up starving poor in the Great Depression.

Late Teens/Early 20's:
Me:
Denied entrance into Navy because of medical history.
Took up Boxing then Jiu-Jitsu and did a handful of low-level amateur MMA fights in the very early 2000's...as a hobby.

Grandpa:
Drafted into US Army.
Took a boat to the Pacific Theatre and fought in Manilla, Leyte and Guadacanal in WWII...as a soldier.

Adult Life
Me:
Went to college for 2years before getting bored and dropping out.
Dated for 3 years. Got engaged for 3 years and Married 2 years ago.
No kids yet. (Just a spoiled rotten pitbull.)
Always worked a full-time sales job since 19 years old.
Pay alot of bills for my mother since my father died unexpectedly last year.
Shaved with a Mach 3 until 30 years old. (Now use a Feather SS)
Favorite Drink: Chopin Vodka with Tonic.
Smoking: Used to enjoy an occassional expensive cigar.
In my early 30's. Still plan on living for several more decades.

Grandpa:
Dropped out of highschool to work in a factory to support his sick mother.
Left factory to fight in WWII
Got married about 2 years from returning home from WWII.
Had 3 children. Supported family. Paid for 2 of them to go to college. (The other joined the military) Helped raise one of five grandchildren.
Worked 30+ years as a machinist and an electrician.
Shaved with a straight razor until not able to hold razor steady enough.
Favorite Drink: Seagrams Seven and Soda.
Smoking: Lucky Strikes later Unfiltered Camels until in his late 60's.
Passed away in his late 80's. (12 days after his one and only wife of 60+ years.)

Misc.
Me:
Tattooed on over 70% of body. (All done completely sober)
Favorite Music: Heavy Metal
Languages: English only
Firearms: Several for Home Defense and Recreation
Favorite food: breaded Veal

Grandpa:
Volunteer Firefighter
Favorite Music: Polka
Languages: English and Polish
Firearms: (Not including military service issued.) One for Home Defense and shooting foxes near his vegetable garden (through the window from inside the house!)
Favorite food: Homemade beef stew


I think out of ALL the comparisions, the only one I win at is the music. (The extensive tattoos and the volunteer firefighter job MAY be draw AT BEST.)




SO, I AM WONDERING IF ANYONE IS TOUGHER/MANLIER THAN THEIR GRANDPA?

 

[jbird1264]

My grandfather flew a B-29 in WWII. He became a minister and college professor afterward, and I recently heard one of his sermons in which he talked about having his plane flying out of control after being hit over Japan.

And I complain about having too many undergraduate papers to read.

jbird

 

[Kentos]

Never

 

[Isaac]

I'm not even going to put up comparisons, both of them would beat me to a pulp.

 

[honed]

Men aren't simply made that way anymore, so no, no one will outbeat their grandfather.

 

[Bendragon]

Grandfather

• Army = WWII Kokoda Track (Sigs) Wounded. Patched up buy a nurse and sent back out. Used to tell me stories of the spiders, the sheer size would actually scare some of the soldiers.
• Lied about his age in order to join for the War

• Several years in the private sector involved in telecommunications.

• Airforce = Malayan Emergency - Can't remember the job, but basically loaded bombs, weaponry and made sure all the armaments were in order

• Shaved daily with a straight (I only just found this out as I thought it was a DE, hence my switch to straights early on)

• Drank like a sailor, Scotch.
• Liked popular music that changed with what ever was current (I remember him talking about Boney M of all things)
• Tattoo from his army days, upper arm.
• Freemason

Grandmother

• Army = Nurse, patched up my Pa they married the minute they got back to Australia.
• Housewife
• Together they couldn't have children, so adopted 2 and raised them as their own.
• Also drank like a sailor, Scotch and water

Step Grandmother

• Army = Nurse, also patched up PA...They bumped into each other 10 years after my Nanna (Granmother) passed away and just knew each other instantly (not bad for 60+ years)
• No drinking, smoking or anything else really.

Father

• NAVY = On HMAS Melbourne (Carrier) Worked on Tracker planes - Realised that the NAVY wasn't for him.
• RAAF = Bosnia, Airframe fitter by trade, LAME, numerous mysterious "missions" that in effect were working with the NAVY and locating illegal happenings in Aussie waters. It's weird when the old man tells you that he's going, but can't tell you where, when and for how long.
• Doesn't drink, smoke or gamble.
• HATES shaving and had a beard in the navy and a moustache in the RAAF
• Pink Floyd, ELO, Supertramp.
• Now in the civil aviation working with Eurocopter on the MRH90's and Tigers

Me

• Sales manager - Always worked in offices
• Injury prevented my joining the Army (onsite @ RAAF Base) That and my now wife came along at a very pivotal point in my life.
• Straight razor
• Scotch
• Heavy Metal
• Tattoo's

Lets be honest, I'm not even as tough as my Grandmother !

 

[Shantytownbrown]

Had the strongest most sincere handshake ever, even in his dying days (may his soul rest in peace)! Proud blue collar machinist who never seemed unhappy with what he had! Best cribbage player ever! Miss that Man! Love y'a Papa! (hope you can hear me)

The only thing he wasn't strong enough to do was quit smoking...

 

[Jawaburger]

Is that a rhetorical question? I think it is statistically impossible to be more manly than my Grandpa was!

 

[oakeshott]

Great thread and the answer in my case is a resounding "NO!" I consider myself medium tough. Family went bankrupt when I was two and so we had very little and I worked cutting tobacco on a farm from the age of 11 on. Many fights as a kid and you can check out the school I went to if you watch "Remember the Titans". No picnic. One of my classmates, a kid I scrapped with in shop class in 7th grade, was shot to death in a poker game when he was a senior. Another of my classmates was a serial killer. I did NOT scrap with him. I was a poor Jew in the south. If you weren't ready to defend yourself, things would go badly.

Compared to my Grandfathers though, I'm a wimp. My paternal grandfather owned a little motel off Hwy 1 in Alexandria. My father was napping in the other room when he heard a guy come into the motel office and order my grandfather and grandmother, at gunpoint, to hand over their cash. My grandfather, who grew up on a farm and started working before he was 10, said "You son of a *****, you might take me but I'll take you when I go". The guy turned and ran. My favorite story, shortened to the northern version, is after he retired to Florida with my grandmother where they lived in a hi rise condominium. He was 72 at the time. Some young buck of 55 or 56 insulted my grandmother in the laundry room. Pappa waited for him for DAYS in the lobby of the condo and when he finally showed up, proceeded to kick his a** without so much as a how d'ya do. My father chastised him for being a bully and picking on kids younger than him. The old man lived through tough times, raised a big family on next to nothing and never, ever backed down that I know of. Wish I were half the man.

The interesting thing about the old man is how gentle he was with us grandkids. I don't think I ever saw him angry and he spoiled us rotten. I really miss him.

 

[jazzman]

Father's father: Left the small town where he was born, crossed a continent and an ocean to live in a country where he didn't speak the language, all 5 children went to college, died before I was born.
Mother's father: First generation American, born into a level of 19th Century poverty we can barely imagine, left school after 8th grade but spoke three languages, could read 4 languages, work required lots of heavy lifting and occasional violent attacks, read daily newspapers and serious books, started sending his four children to college during the Depression. Of 10 grandchildren: 2 Ph.D., 2 M.D., 3 J.D., 10 B.A./B.S.
Me: Never lived in a home that didn't have indoor plumbing, speak one language, work required lifting briefcases and occasional boxes of documents.

 

[InkEd]

Had the strongest most sincere handshake ever, even in his dying days (may his soul rest in peace)! Proud blue collar machinist who never seemed unhappy with what he had! Best cribbage player ever! Miss that Man! Love y'a Papa! (hope you can hear me)

The only thing he wasn't strong enough to do was quit smoking...

Are you sure the cigarettes weren't manly enough to quit him?

 

[InkEd]

In hindsight, I think it would have been more appropriate to give our grandfathers championship prizrfighter-style belts for Christmas/Father's Day rather than the coffee mugs and crossword puzzle books.

 

[Obiwan]

Great thread. I won't go through the full comparision, but my grandfather is the best man I've ever known (without question).

 

[cdhumiston]

I was raised by my Great Grandparents. My grandpa was born in 1898 and worked his entire life at Frigidaire, he also farmed 50 acres until he was 79. He cut wood with a double blade ax to heat the house, raised hogs and chickens for food and loved to hunt rabbits with his double barrel 12 gauge. He chewed Union Workman tobacco all day long and I rarely recall him actually spitting out the juice! He was a tough old man of German descent and believed in hard work. I miss him a lot and I know he taught me my greatest lessons in life. I know I'm not as tough as he was, but I think he would be proud of what I've accomplished...

 

[Prince]

Both of my grandpa's were very manly.

Both worked in hard industrial jobs while I sit at a computer in an office all day.

 

[lcdrbaldwin]

One of my GrandDads owned & operated a barber shop all his adult life ... 'nuf said!

 

[Vickers]

Well, let' see...

- one delivered ice to houses. Yes, he was one of those big guys with tongs carrying blocks of ice to put in iceboxes (pre-refrigerators). After that he built interstate highways.

- the other one killed at least one guy in a barfight, and might have killed another guy who caught him in flagrante delicto with his wife. Was also a carpenter in his spare time.

So yes, you could say I'm tougher than both of them, put together.

 

[Landri]

I'm not even going to put up comparisons, both of them would beat me to a pulp.

Same here

 

[cstone28]

Great thread.

Not even close. Two things have struck me about my grandfather in the last few years. Until I moved away to go to school and form a family I was always close to my grandparents. As a young child my grand parents spent a lot of time with my family, teaching me things like ice fishing, cycling, golfing. It was only recently that I realized that my grandfather was in his early 70s when he was doing these things and doing them at a level I would be pressed to hold now. The second is my grandfather had open heart surgery at 92, 6 weeks later he was back at our hunting camp chopping wood for the up coming hunting season, thats bad *** in my books.

Luckily my grandfather is still alive and I still get to see him from time to time, unfortunately time is not his friend anymore and the man I grew up with has faded into memories.

A related note, cleaning out my grandparents house after moving them into a nursing home is how I found my first DE and how I ended up here. Even at 98 my grandfather is teaching me new things.

 

[imfallen_angel]

Guess I'll be the thread breaker.

I know just about nothing about both Grandfathers aside that one was a despicable man that did very bad things to the family, died before I could deal with him personally, and the other did just about nothing for anyone, including his children and let himself whimper and die slowly after my grandmother died, leaving that side of the family a mess.

I survived the mess that both these men did, the mess that followed, managed to go from a broken person with no self-esteem or anything (broken finances) to a father of many children (wife and I are a joined family with 5 children, three from my side due to a woman that used me - and having children to control me). My wife has MS, my kids, there's 3 with disabilities, (one autistic, one with severe dysphagia, and a bipolar one), managed to get a decent career, a house, cars. I've done all I could for my family, including my sister, my nieces and my nephew that are part of the mess all interconnected with these men.

I have no doubts about where things stand and that I'm much more of a man than both of them combined.