"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than you."
Dr. Seuss
I have no Seuss anymore. Don't get me wrong - we had them. But they have gone off to live elsewhere. So, I'm using a shot that I took this morning for another project. This was hammer week. I took a shot of my grandfather's and father's hammers. There may be no one that is me'er than me - but not without these two polar opposite men. Grandpa was the, for me, loveable guy that let my Grandmother's parakeets fly free while we were on vacation because he felt sorry for them. He smoked pipes that smelled wonderful and he read Cavalier (girlie) magazines that I was not allowed to touch.
My father never drank. His hammer is on the bottom of this shot as the anchor. He was always my anchor, my voice of reason. I still ask myself how Dad would handle a situation. I love that I have both of these old hammers to reflect on the men that used them.
I shared this blurb from Dr. Seuss's bio on Facebook today.
"His mom was 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, a competitive platform high diver who read him bedtime stories every night. His dad inherited a brewery from his own German immigrant father a month before Prohibition began in the U.S., and eventually became a zookeeper who took young Theodor with him to work. The future Dr. Seuss grew up around the zoo, running around in the cages with baby lions and baby tigers.
"At Dartmouth, he majored in English and wrote for the campus humor magazine. But one night he was caught drinking gin with some friends; since this was during Prohibition, it was an illegal act. The Dartmouth administration did not expel him, but as a disciplinary punishment, they did make him resign from all of his extracurricular activities, including the humor magazine, of which he was the editor-in-chief. From then on, he wrote for the magazine subversively, signing his work with his mother's maiden name, Seuss.
His mother's family pronounced it "Soise," the way it's said in Germany, but people in the States kept mispronouncing it Seuss. He eventually embraced the Anglican mispronunciation: After all, it rhymed with Mother Goose, not a bad thing for an aspiring children's book writer."
@squamloon I did not know all of that info. Thanks for that. Interesting - certainly formed an incredible man. @httpgeffed Thanks, Colleen. Just the tiniest nod to Seuss.
It's so nice to have these wonderful family heirlooms... and your description of the men who used them is touching. Maybe not traditionoally "Seuss-y" but I love the way you tied it in! :)
Beautiful symbolism represented in these two hammers. Wonderful capture. I must say that as weird side of me, being a woman, I love hammers and hardware; actually I have many and proudly know how to use them, and do often.
Beautiful words Cathy. I also have someone who is no longer with us who I ask myself "what would they do" in certain circumstances, it really keeps my friendship with them alive.
March 4th, 2013
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I shared this blurb from Dr. Seuss's bio on Facebook today.
"His mom was 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, a competitive platform high diver who read him bedtime stories every night. His dad inherited a brewery from his own German immigrant father a month before Prohibition began in the U.S., and eventually became a zookeeper who took young Theodor with him to work. The future Dr. Seuss grew up around the zoo, running around in the cages with baby lions and baby tigers.
"At Dartmouth, he majored in English and wrote for the campus humor magazine. But one night he was caught drinking gin with some friends; since this was during Prohibition, it was an illegal act. The Dartmouth administration did not expel him, but as a disciplinary punishment, they did make him resign from all of his extracurricular activities, including the humor magazine, of which he was the editor-in-chief. From then on, he wrote for the magazine subversively, signing his work with his mother's maiden name, Seuss.
His mother's family pronounced it "Soise," the way it's said in Germany, but people in the States kept mispronouncing it Seuss. He eventually embraced the Anglican mispronunciation: After all, it rhymed with Mother Goose, not a bad thing for an aspiring children's book writer."
@httpgeffed Thanks, Colleen. Just the tiniest nod to Seuss.