In the picture below, Grandpa is sitting in front of the Philco radio that had a prominent place in the living room at 220 North Victoria. At 1900 Tatum, the house they bought in 1955, it was banished to the basement where it stood unused until Grandpa’s death in 1981. When Grandpa was listening to the radio – or watching TV after moving to Falcon Heights – EVERYONE had to listen. Grandpa always turned the volume way up. Grandma said that it was because he was hard of hearing, which he later also was. I always suspected, though, that the loudness was Grandpa’s version of a show of force.

“Look, Grandma, Grandpa has that ‘in-face look’ again.” That’s how I described the way Grandpa looked when he took out his dentures. He was the only person that I knew in those pre-Kindergarten days who had false teeth, and I found it fascinating.

Sometimes there would be a pink something floating in the toilet. Grandma would never tell me what it was. She gave me the impression that it was something children shouldn’t see, like it was something dirty. “Just flush it away.” That pink something in the toilet was the cement that Grandpa used to glue his dentures in. I always wondered what was so bad about it.

Grandpa was fascinating, too, because of his personal history. As I understood it, Grandma owned the house at 222 N. Victoria in St. Paul. Mother told me that Grandpa had had gambling debts and therefore couldn’t have any property in his name. And because Grandpa hadn’t worked much for some time, Grandpa had had to come up with the money for the house.

By the time I was old enough to remember, Grandpa was working for the Department of Motor Vehicles of the State of Minnesota in the State Capitol building and had a regular income. But as I understood it, Grandma paid the bills out of her own salary. She worked during World War II at the Arms Plant in New Brighton, Minnesota, and later, until her retirement, at the Division of Driver’s License on University Avenue and later near the capitol in St. Paul.

Grandma paid the bills. Mother told me that once the hot water heater in the house had broken down and needed to be replaced. Grandma didn’t have enough money to buy a new one, so she asked Grandpa for the money. He told her she could have the necessary funds but would have to pay interest on the sum. And she paid.

Grandpa must have contributed to the housekeeping money according to other information from Mother. On the census form Grampa gave his occupation as “wholesale candy merchant.” In addition, he sold dice boxes, gambling devices that are now outlawed. When Grandma said at the end of the week that she didn’t have enough money for groceries, Grandpa went out and sold a few dice boxes. Otherwise he wasn’t a very ambitious salesman.