Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Our new wonderful world

Yesterday afternoon I received a comment on a blog I wrote sometime in 2008. The sender's name was Susan and she was doing research on her grandfather who was the last president of Robinson Reminder Co. How magical that a short mention of my having met him on a train to California could have turned up in her research. And how I wish I had more information to send her.

He was a good looking man. He was very proud of his two sons who were both pilots in the Navy. I think he mentioned that he himself had been a pilot in the navy. He didn't seem old enough to have been involved in WW1, but he could have been there during the peace time between the two wars. He spoke lovingly abut his wife who was forever interested in historical architecture. And he said that when Sam and I visited them in New England she would be happy to show us around. We did communicate by mail. And we were invited to visit. We had to decline and I am fairly sure that it was our financial situation that kept us from accepting. From then it was just Christmas cards and congratulations on new arrivals in the baby world.

Mr Robinson gave me a Robinson Reminder and he gave one to Mr.Shaw, my father-in-law, during lunch. And Susan I would like to know if both of his sons lived through the war. I may have been told about their happy re-unions in one of the letters but I do not remember.

I have been surprised several times by the life of my blogs. What surprised me the most was when a reader checked on the names of my fellow travelers on the trip from Sweden through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. Maybe that's the reason my memories paled. What if I told about something that was all wrong. Age does strange things to memories. When the Argentina pulled in to her berth in San Francisco, guess who met me. Mr, Shaw again. This time he came on board and had lunch with the Captain. I never called him anything but Mr. Shaw. For some reason he liked me, and we got along swimmingly.

7 comments:

June said...

It is, indeed, a small world, isn't it?
I imagine that if we all talked together long enough we would find a common thread running through all of our lives . . . changing texture and color as it went . . . but never breaking.

Barbara said...

Now I am intrigued. What was a Robinson reminder?

Barbara

Barbara said...

I have something more to share. I just left a question in the comments section, ("What was a Robinson Reminder?"), along with a few unstated questions I left unsaid because I felt like it would be demanding and rude to ask too much. I would have liked to know what your exact comments about Mr. Robinson had been, so I could go back and read them. I also wondered why your father in law's name was Mr. Shaw, because I know that your family name is not Shaw.
Because I was curious about the Robinson reminder, I googled it, and what do you think I got? I found the answer to all my questions there. There were several links to material about Robinson Reminders (they sell old ones on ebay), so now I know that they were items you carried which were something between an address book & a schedule book. A link to your entry of October 6, 2008, also came up, and that was the one in which you told the story of how you met Mr. Robinson! In that telling you mentioned that Mr. Shaw was Sam's STEPfather, which put my last question to rest. Seek & ye shall find! I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Robinson's granddaughter learned about you by doing the same thing I did, doing a google search on her grandfather's product.

Susie Read said...

It's so wonderful to hear what he was like. I've always heard such great things about him and his wife. Both his sons lived through the war. Shep's plane was shot down and he was taken captive, but both he and Bill returned safe. We have some great pictures of both of them in uniform. Shep moved to Chicago to start a family. Bill moved to Westhampton Beach on Long Island. I still keep in touch with his son, Peter, who still lives there.

Robby, the Robinson you met, was a champion ski jumper. I'm told he was one of the first pilots too. My mother has some wonderful stories of him and his wife Da. He passed away in 1975, and shortly before then his other son Jack (my grandfather) took over Robinson Reminder Co. My mother and her two brothers all worked for him until it was shut down in 1985.

It was so nice to hear a little story of my great grandfather. I have always wished I could have known him, and I was so happy to hear the story of your meeting him.

weecyn said...

Dear Svensto,

If there's a way to email through blogger, I have not found it yet. So instead I'll communicate this to you via comment.

I found an article in the NYT that I though you might be interested in, about how to deal with unloving, abusive parents. I don't think it has any answers or advice you need; just thought you might find it interesting. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/health/20mind.html

I hope all's well and wish you a happy Halloween. Hey, there's a good question for you - was Halloween celebrated in old Sweden? Either way, what are your memories of discovering how Americans celebrate the holiday?

Kind regards,
Cynthia

MWill said...

Dear Svensto,

I just wanted to drop you a line to say that I hope you are doing well and that delightful fun things are keeping you from the computer. This is not meant to be a nagging note at all, just one to let you know that you are well loved over here on the internet and definitely missed.

Happy Halloween!
Meagan

Anonymous said...

thinking of you today! Can you please share about the famous halloween cackle!! We miss you,,,,, Jan, Peter, Doug, Andy