Golden Memories of My Life With Ruth & Sam

Joe Callihan

Description

Golden Memories of My Life with Ruth and Sam offers insight into the kind of training into manhood; which sadly today, due to liberalism, is lacking in many lives of the unfortunate. Both of my grandparents were of the old school, pioneer spirit. They taught me to have respect for those who earn my respect by their quality of character. Also to earn my own self respect, due to my placing value upon the qualities of character I desire to possess.

Self reliance is missing in the lives of those voting with an attitude of "give me;" and self respect gets thrown out of the window by those lacking in character. Worse yet, many today vote for politicians which are characters, rather than demanding they HAVE character. As the result, many people in America have been ignorantly flushing America down the toilet of history's once great nations.

How very blessed I was to have the upbringing I received. This book contains not only the story of two extraordinary people. It offers a very good guide for parents of today, who desire to see their children grow into respectable men and women.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 28 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456613501
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

GOLDEN MEMORIES
OF MY LIFE WITH
RUTH & SAM
 
MY WONDERFUL “GRAND” PARENTS
 
 
By: Joe Callihan

 
Copyright 2013 FIRE OF LOVE BOOKS,
All rights reserved.
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1350-1
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, photographic including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

 
RUTH & SAM
DEDICATION
The stories you are about to read may amaze you and the characters you shall meet may seem like they are of fiction. But I assure you, the characters in this book, as well as those in other books I have written, are genuine and true.
This is the story of two very special people, who were and are very dear to my heart. They were a gift and blessing from God into my life. My parents being divorced, did not wish to be held down in their mid-twenties by a one year old boy. My grand-parents on my mother’s side came to my rescue.
What a wonderful life I led under their influence. Also, their influence helped make me the kind of man I am today. I was taught not to ever fear anyone who wanted to bully me. But rather, to give the would-be bully cause to fear me instead. I was taught by example, the value of seeking to possess character, and all of its ingredients, such as integrity. In them, I got to witness courage at its best!
Charity was the cornerstone of my grand-mother’s being. Selflessness, giving to those in need, and sincere caring for others, helped make my grandmother a legend in her time. Fearlessness, regardless the situation, made a Giant of a man out of my five foot, six inch grandfather.
Join with me now in knowing of their lives. I am sure you will gain hope and inspiration from some of the things they said and did in their lifetime here on earth. How I look forward to the day when once more I will get to see them, and spend eternity with them in Heaven.
Chapter One
JOHN EDWARD GARRETSON - A MIGHTY MAN OF FAITH
Growing up I was so blessed by God. My young parents divorced when I was but a year old. As I said earlier, neither one wanted to be held down by a baby. So my grandparents on my mother’s side took on the responsibility of raising me. They became my legal guardians. Later, when I was around six or seven they adopted me.
At that point in time John E. (Edward) Garretson and his wife Ruth became my official mother and father. At my grandmother’s insistence, I was allowed to retain my name given at birth. So I remained Joseph Callihan. This decision proved to be very wise. Not long after my adoption, my name helped make me aware of a kidnapping attempt.
I was in the second grade, attending parochial school in Ironton, Ohio. Ironton was just across the Ohio River from Russell, Kentucky where we lived. After school I would go down to the bus station and catch a bus back to Russell. (Evil people were around in those days - just not as many as today).
One day as I came to the bus station, a man in a car parked near the curb called out to me. “Are you Joey Garretson?” Before I could answer, he went on to say, “your grandfather sent me over to give you a ride home.” Then opening the car door on the passenger side he said, “Come on, hop in!”
I knew immediately he was lying about having talked with my grandfather. “Sam” (my nick name for my grandfather) would have told him my name was Joe Callihan. I hesitated and stalled for time. “Don’t you believe me,” he asked. Then holding in his hand a dime he said, “Here’s a dime, you can call him if you don’t believe he sent me.” “No thank you,” I calmly replied, “I have my own dime.” Opening a box of candy, reaching to the passenger side and opening the door, the man said, “I brought you some candy. I thought you might like some. Hop in so we can go.”
This nailed the lid on his coffin. We had been warned in school to watch out for any stranger offering candy. Having watched and waited as the traffic light turned red, I ran across the street in the opposite direction from which he was parked. I heard him slam the passenger door shut. As he started his car I heard him shout, “Come back here and get in this car you damn kid!”
I ran up the street and turned into a neighborhood, going up the porch stairs to the front door of the first house I came to. I began ringing the doorbell and banging on the door, but to no avail. It appeared there was no one home. Then, looking down the street, I could see his car turning to slowly drive down toward where I was. As he got nearer I knew he could see me, as the porch had open slats on the banister. So I quickly leaped over the banister and hid behind a growth of shrub.
I got away by hiding in that shrub for over two hours, during which time he circled the neighborhood three times. I then went to the nearest store and asked to use their phone. When I described my ordeal to the store manager, he led me to the office phone. The sheriff of Russell came to pick me up. From the good description I gave of both the man and his car, the police were able to quickly discover who the man was.
As it turned out, my grandfather had fired this man earlier that day. My grandfather had repeatedly warned him about reporting to work drunk, and had warned the next time would be his last, as it would cost his job. Unfortunately alcohol, as with far too many, was the master over this man’s brain. The police caught up to him as he was driving his car near the state border, attempting to escape capture. He was charged with attempted kidnapping, and went bye- bye for a long time.
But let’s get on with telling you about the man this chapter is dedicated to: John E. Garretson. My grandfather was a mighty man of faith. “Sam” came from a large family, having several brothers and sisters. Standing only five foot six inches tall, he was on the short side in height, but a GIANT in courage. In his lengthy career with the C&O railroad, Sam started as a water boy, later he became a master mechanic.
As with many a young boy in his day, Sam quit school early, taking a job as water boy on the C&O to earn money to help support his widowed mother and younger sisters and brothers. A water boy was one who brought buckets of water to the men who were laying track all day. The pay was extremely low, but every penny helped his family get by. He became known as a hard and reliable worker, often willing to go out of his way in helping other workers. Although just a boy, Sam would often take over and lay track, to give an exhausted worker a break. The men were always appreciative of this gesture of good will. Well respected for his kindness, Sam developed many adult friends who would look out for him.
Having a hunger for knowledge, Sam was self taught. He would spend many hours at night reading and studying books about subjects children in high school and college would be learning. He discovered he had a brilliant mechanical mind. Others discovered this fact as well, and through the years he earned many promotions at the C&O. He developed a reputation of being dedicated to both his company and its employees. He was feared by many for his fierce temper, and loved by all for his honesty, fairness and sincere concern for every employee.
Me grandfather developed the first refrigerated railroad car. Excitedly, he presented his invention to higher ups. As the result, he never was paid a cent for his invention. They stole it out from under him, since he had failed to first get a patent. When he sought a form of payment, Railroad lawyers pronounced he had worked on development on their time. That was only partially true. Most of the time was his own, as he worked on it in his garage on his own time. In compromise, the railroad named it the “Garretson Icebox.”
My grandfather remained loyal to the C&O, and did rise up the line in promotions. Before he retired in 1955, he held the position of Senior Master Mechanic. He was making over $500.00 a week (good money in the mid 1950’s). But, much to my grandmothers’ dislike, Sam was an easy hit for his many ne’er-do-well brothers. They were constantly hitting their big brother for “loans.” I’m not talking about small loans, but loans in the thousands of dollars range.
Sam made the mistake of loaning the money to his brothers time and again, always offering the same feeble stipulation to “pay it back when you can .” Sam’s brothers lacked the kind of integrity Ruth’s brothers were brought up to possess. To them, the words “when you can” meant “don’t bother ever paying it back.” Ruth once told me she estimated they had robbed their older brother of well over $100,000.00 through the years. Once Sam had retired, she saw to it that their cash cow stopped giving. The retirement savings Ruth had tried to accumulate had been wasted on the brothers. She discovered many times Sam had tapped into their savings to give money to one of his brothers. Sadly, an incident I had in school, also helped deplete their savings.
In 1949, an exciting offer came my grandfather’s way. Some men from South Africa came to the house and paid Sam a business visit. They came to make him a fantastic offer. They were planning on building a railroad in South Africa, and wanted to hire Sam to head up the project. His reputation made them believe he was the one they were looking for. A very serious offer was then made. “We presently have in New York, a bank account in your name with $100,000.00 in it. We will arrange for air and ship tickets for yo