My Father and his Father

Were entirely different people. 

We don't know much about Grandfather and Grandmother Smith's early life except they were poor. When  they heard the Santa Fe Railroad had jobs in Ft. Madison, Iowa, they moved there.

Grandfather jot a job as a Safety Inspector.. When a train came into the yards, he was waiting for it for it with a long-handled hammer. He walked down both sides of the train, tapping on each wheel to hear if it was cracked.

Defective cars were repaired there in a place called Shopton. This employed many people, but the work was so dangerous the Railroad had it's own hospital. 

Then the Railroad Strike of 1922 happened. We cannot imagine now how important this was. It was a War between the Railroads and the Unions where people both sides were killed. 

My father's sister Zera married Walter Sanford, and he moved in with them, while he went to High School. The rest of family moved a farm in Illinois, where Grandfather had a stroke that crippled him.

They moved back to ft. Madison, where Grandmother went to work for the Railroad again. She was always a hard worker, and had a good head for money, something her husband never had.

Dad went the U of Iowa, but dropped out because of the Depression. He joined the Marine Core and was assigned to Haiti, where he learned French, and his French teacher had a daughter his age.

They wrote love letters to each other (in French).

Dad went on to be a small businessman, which made him a higher-class socially. while the rest of his family remained working-class. 

All this was very important at the time, but of no importance now.