Heroes and Wise Men, Part 2

Grandfathers are Like Gold
by Janet Lanese

(Page 2 of 2)

It is the malady of our age that
the young are so busy teaching us that
they have no time left to learn.

Eric Hoffer

My grandfather once told me
that there were
two kinds of people:
those who do the work and
those who take the credit.
He told me to try to be in the first group;
there was much less competition.

Indira Gandhi

When my grandfather speaks,
everyone listens.

Jason, age ten

My grandfather grew up with a passionate love for aircraft, but I can't say that as a kid I was fascinated by airplanes. I did not grow up dreaming to be a pilot. At the age of twelve, I had my sights on becoming an electrical engineer. It wasn't until a few years later that I began to think about flying. I admit that my grandfather's role in military aviation helped tip the scale a little, but I never felt pressure stemming from his accomplishments. I love what I'm doing. I love serving our country. What an opportunity. They pay me to go out and challenge myself, fly state-of-the-art equipment, and have a good time.

The world today is a lot scarier than when my grandfather dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. We knew who our enemies were. Today, anyone could be our enemy. We don't know who's going to want to take us on next. When I entered the Air Force Academy, Mother Russia was our enemy. It's a much more uncertain world out there.

As for my grandfather, it's an honor to have his name.

Paul Tibbets IV

We all know grandparents whose
values transcend passing fads and
pressures, and who possess the
wisdom of distilled pain and joy.

Jimmy Carter

Grandfathers are for telling you what it used
to be like, but not too much.

Charles Shedd

My grandpa reads his Bible all the time.
I wonder if he's cramming for his finals.

Laurie, age nine

Grandfathers impart information,
ethics, and values
that children learn nowhere else.

Arthur Kornhaber

Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

Are our grandfathers' heroes our heroes?

Only once in a blue moon, an individual makes such an impact on our society that his name is passed down through generations. Joe DiMaggio was such a man. He will live forever in the hearts and minds of baseball fans, young and old alike.

They called him Jolting Joe and the Yankee Clipper, and when Joe DiMaggio died in 1999 at eighty-four, a style and an era ended.

New York newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin once wrote, "Baseball isn't statistics; it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base."

He was a larger-than-life celebrity. Hemingway fictionalized him, Simon and Garfunkel immortalized him, Marilyn Monroe romanticized him, Mr. Coffee commercialized him, and a fifty-six-game hitting streak made him a national sports treasure. The record endures as the last great sports record still to be broken. In 1955, Joe was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

While Joe played thirteen seasons with the New York Yankees, his heroics were not limited to baseball. He was involved in many philanthropic causes. A modest and private man, he preferred to keep a low profile, and did his best work anonymously. Many people don't know that in 1992, he donated his name and time to raise money for a children's wing of Memorial Regional Hospital in southern Florida. The result is a state-of-the-art, 150-bed facility. True to Joe's philosophy, no child is denied treatment because of inability to pay.

Joe, a grandfather of two and a great-grandfather of four, was really involved and a frequent visitor at the hospital. You could tell how much he loved kids by the way he interacted with the young patients. Several years ago, my grandfather and I were visiting my brother, who was a patient, and had the privilege of shaking the legend's hand and talking a "little" baseball. My grandfather bragged about the encounter with his sports idol until the day he died, and my brother, who is now a first baseman for his high school team, will always remember the man who was his inspiration and role model.

After DiMaggio's death, former Mayor Ed Koch summed up Joe's life perfectly:

"He represented the best in America," Koch said. "It was his character, his generosity, his sensitivity. He was someone who set a standard every father in the world would want his children to follow."

Jim Thurston

As a grandfather,
I'm entitled to a few words
of sage advice to the young:
I would spend more time
with my children.

John Huston

One of the odd things about ancestors,
even if they are no older than grandfathers,
is that we can scarcely help feeling that,
compared to them, we are degenerate.

Robert Lynd

Each generation imagines itself to be
more intelligent than the one
that went before it,
and wiser than the one that comes after it.

George Orwell

© 2000 Janet Lanese

About the Author

Janet Lanese is a perfect example of a grandmother of the nineties. She combines multiple careers as a real estate broker, a writer for her community newspaper, a co-hostess for a local television program, and a contributing editor for over thirty parenting and religious magazines. Janet Lanese lives in Castro Valley, California, and, even with her busy schedule, she finds time to enjoy her three grandchildren.