Just Another Coal Miner's Grandson

                                   Coal Carts, 2005 Steel Sculpture by Christopher Weed

Had an interesting conversation with a few friends this past week. Actually, since there were several people involved, it was probably more of a round-table discussion.

The topic of the discussion was grandparents, specifically because one of the members of the group was about to become a grandparent (again, like, for the third time).

He got the ball rolling with the statement that he hoped he was as much fun as a grandparent as his grandfather was, which prompted another member of the group to chime in with a remark about how much she learned from her grandmother, and then the other two people present also added similar remarks. 

I remained silent, which resulted in one of the women to ask me if I didn't get to spend a lot of time with any of my grandparents.

To which I answered no, I didn't, as I never met any of my grandparents. 

I elaborated a bit, explaining that both of my mother's parents had passed away before I was born, and that after my father left the family when I was just a toddler, his entire family, including both of my grandparents, pretty much left with him.

There were several comments from the group along the lines of surely you got letters, birthday cards, Christmas presents, graduation gifts, etc. - but no, I didn't.

Nothing.

The discussion continued along the lines of an interrogation about my family history for a few more minutes until I stated that I really didn't know anything about my ancestors, and I therefore certainly didn't want to talk about the subject.

So it was dropped. However, I did keep thinking about it, and have been for the past four days.

It's not the first time I've wondered about my ancestry, of course - I've spent a ton of time wondering what kind of people I'm descended from. The thinking I've been doing lately is a bit different though, for I never gave much thought to whether or not any of my grandparents would have been fun to know, or if any of them could have taught me anything.

All I know for certain of my grandparents is that my maternal grandfather was a coal miner, and my paternal grandfather was a farmer.

That's it. I have no other info. I know diddly about either of my grandmothers that I can verify.

Kinda sad, I suppose, but then again, maybe not. Hard to judge what you don't have an iota of experience with.