Discovering US History from my Grandfather’s Political Pins & Ribbons
Who was Underwood? Smith? Ella?
My paternal grandfather was a “Canadian, Scottish, Irish Catholic” newspaper man. Like many born in 1910, he never went to college. He went straight to work for the local Waterbury, Connecticut newspaper, where he was a Sunday editor. He became a political reporter and consultant to the New York Times, after having worked many years in the newspaper business. He also worked for the Norwich Bulletin, Putnam News, and the Muskegon Chronicle in Michigan. I heard many wild stories about his life, from the fact that he shimmied down a drain pipe from a school window to escape the nuns in the eighth grade, to the yarns about him dining with George Bush’s family. My father had black and white photos of him in sharp business suits, smiling and looking like he was having a great time in numerous candid shots around the table with many politicians. The fact that he was a writer always intrigued me. I never had the opportunity to meet him, as he passed away from cancer before I was born.
It’s hard for me to guess what it would have been like to know my grandfather and his work, but I imagine…
