Comments on: Historical documents from a user's grandfather

Historical documents from a user's grandfather

mwhybark — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:45:55 -0800

Daniel Geduld's grandfather Sol's archives were the subject of a recent post on Boing Boing. Three-digit MeFite grumblebee is Daniel's brother, Sol's grandson, and a childhood acquaintance of yr. humble servant. I felt others might be interested to learn this, and Mr. G. Bee has assented to this post.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:51:14 -0800

Wow. Just...wow.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:02:54 -0800

~~son~~ brother of best of the web

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:09:54 -0800

Wow.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:14:23 -0800

Yes, Wow.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:15:15 -0800

That is amazing.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:21:38 -0800

These need to be republished, on paper.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:22:15 -0800

~~Wow.~~Golly.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:29:05 -0800

My grandfather was an amazing man. When I was a small child, I casually mentioned that I loved popup books. From that day on, I received a popup book every week. He made them himself -- from scratch. He illustrated a fairy tale -- or a story from his own head -- on cardstock, carefully cut out sections with an exacto knife, and glued them back together so that they would stand up when I opened the book. He also drew me comic books and illustrated stories.

My dad told me that during WWII, he built a model airplane from scratch, using odd parts he found around the house. He used licorice for the wires.

His real name was Sally Geduld, but since this sounds like a woman's name in English, he changed it to Sol E. Geduld. As a kid, I was fascinated by the fact that his middle initial didn't stand for anything.

By: growabrain

growabrain — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:49:41 -0800

Like Harry S Truman...

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:53:34 -0800

wowzers.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:11:18 -0800

this makes the internet worth it. thanks to all involved.

By: cholly

cholly — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:14:19 -0800

Awesome.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:36:25 -0800

That's amazing stuff.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 01:02:59 -0800

Crikey Moses.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 03:41:56 -0800

Very cool. The early drawings remind me a bit of the Flywheel periodical published by inmates at Stalag IVB Mühlberg.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:35:31 -0800

grumblebee, do you still have the pop-up books and the comics he made for you? I would love to see one or two.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:40:23 -0800

They are at my parents' house in Indiana. I will try to get them sometime and scan them (though I'm not sure how I'll be able to scan the popups).

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 09:02:00 -0800

I add my amazement. Your grandfather was obviously a hell of a guy.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 14:53:34 -0800

jumping jiminy.

By: deborah

deborah — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 16:21:12 -0800

Nifty times a bajillion!

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:35:27 -0800

You know, reflecting on this, I think it's a concrete example of one of the many ways I personally have benefitted from the turmoil of the twentieth century, as an American from an academic family.

Grumblebee's family was not the only family I had contact with as a child whose parents and extended families had come to university life in the United States with distinctive and original approaches to life, teaching, learning, and parenting. I recall with savor my interactions with at least ten other families whose emigrant backgounds remained fresh but whose familial celebration of cerebration outweighed by far any other of the more usually adopted markers of tribal affiliation.

As a child, it never occurred to me that these distinctive and creative families might be the products of other cultures than that of the US. In hindsight, it's understandable I'd think so, but it equally seems to me that a great deal of the idiosyncratic approaches to life I observed and admired must be recognized as formed in response to and dialog with other cultures. The richness of these responses to life here, and there, has deeply colored my own view of the world and in particular of the importance of emigrants to this nation's life of the mind.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:28:16 -0800

That's a good point, mwhybark. There's something in the meticulousness of my grandfather's work that strikes me as very German. In fact (though he didn't even have a German accent -- he had a British accent), he was -- at heart -- a very German man. To me, he represented the best characteristics of the German national character.

It must have been a very odd and disturbing experience for him (and for many others like him), being a German Jew.

I regret that I never knew him all that well. (Perhaps my brother knew him better.) He was a very quiet man. I knew him best through his drawings and his quiet moments of kindness. His wife, my grandmother, was a very loud woman. She was the prototypical Jewish Mother (and the most amazing cook I've even known). If you've ever seen that Woody Allen movie ("New York Stories") in which his mother appears as a giant head in the sky and shows all of New York his baby pictures ... well, that way my grandmother. She had such a huge personality, that as a kid, she outshone in my mind the quiet man, drawing in the corner.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 10:43:13 -0800

There is more information and commentary on this at boing boing, including the WWI POW magazines.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 10:55:24 -0800

Holy recursiveness. So I found things in the backassward order. Oh well.

By: econous

econous — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 15:48:46 -0800

Well thankfully younsters in the end, everyone agreed that the posted by person was correct.