Archive for November, 2014
Remembering Dad
By Janet Gillespie Editor”'s note: The Alley posed a couple dozen questions (omitted to save space) to Carl”'s daughter Janet. Her personal anecdotal and illustrative answers have been arranged into this narrative by Sue Hunter Weir. We invite readers to enjoy this insight of Carl and Helen and to also use it as an example of writing about the loved ones in your families. My dad was a second-generation American because his dad”'s dad was born in Donovan, Illinois to Swedish immigrant parents. My dad”'s mom was born in Sweden. She came to America just to visit and met my Grandpa at the Swedish Mission Tabernacle in Chicago (my grandpa was working as a motorman on the streetcars in Chicago at the time). Grandma was planning to return to Sweden and her sister was coming to visit. My Grandpa gave her an engagement ring before she returned to Sweden to tell her family she was going back to marry him. Her sister never came to America. My grandpa had heard about [...]
Carl: Curious, Sense of Wonder and Fearlessness
Pans made by Carl and his workers at Domestic Sheet Metal and sold to Maid of Scandinavia Catalog By Thorbjorn Adam I met Carl the day my family moved to Ventura Village. He was scraping the last ice off his immaculate sidewalks. Over the next years I had the privilege to spend countless hours with him. We worked on projects together and we traveled to his boyhood farm. We shared weekly meals together. Three themes remind of me of Carl”'s life. His endless curiosity, his deep sense of wonder and his constant fearlessness. Even as a boy he tried to make wings to fly like the birds. Be it nature or modern technology he was always in awe. Keeping him off a ladder was next to impossible. My family and I will miss Carl.
