As I mentioned in an earlier post, I only saw my dad’s father once in my life. I believe my brother saw him twice. We did get a few stories about him, though.
My mom’s parents weren’t too sure about having their daughter marry that “Greek boy”. My mom says Grandma didn’t learn to spell the last name until they had been married five years and it appeared the marriage would last. Grandma’s idea was that Grandfather pushed a fruit cart down the street for his living. In actuality, he was chancellor of the Greek embassy in Washington, DC.
Although our last name is unusual in the US it is fairly well known in Greece, although it is not common there either. Back around the beginning of the 20th century one of my greats was President of Greece during a brief democratic period. The family also had a famous admiral who fought against the Turks. There is even a family museum on the island of Hydra. The family was very influential in the shipping business.
The family story is that after WWII, Grandfather used that influence and also a tidy sum of money to help Aristotle Onassis get started in his shipping business. Years later when my Grandfather reminded him of this “handshake” loan, Aristotle professed to have no memory of such a transaction.
My Grandfather retired to the Greek community of Tarpon Springs, Florida. He was born in 1887 and died in 1967, so he was the first of all my grandparents to pass; one of the reasons I only saw him that once.
Here he is in Tarpon Springs with his second wife:
And here are Grandfather, my dad and my aunts, and my brother and I during his only visit to California in 1961:
Tuples and Attributes 