This is a true story.
The year was 1917 and he had lied about his age and joined the Army to fight in World War I. He promised his bride that he would build her a proper home when he returned from “over there.”
My grandfather HH and grandmother Pauline were quite a pair. They grew up in Colorado. They were both hearty folks. He was 6' 2" and she was 6' 1" tall. They were by definition giants at that time. She was still going to school and he wasn’t. My great-grandfather didn’t allow him to go into the 4th grade. Instead, he and his father shoveled coal out of the mountains where they lived in a cave with his two brothers. His mom died giving birth to my grandfather.
My grandpa, HH, and my great-grandpa, EJ, brought the coal down from the mountains with a six-horse team and a wagon. By the time my grandfather was twelve, he had his own wagon with a four-horse team delivering coal to homes in Denver.
These were all big strong men. It was a hard life. They moved into a real home when grandfather was ten. It was two bedrooms on two acres of land with an old tool shed that was there before the house. Great-grandpa saw it as a barn, one-day.
Grandpa met grandma when he was delivering coal. She caught his eye right away. They met secretly for the first couple of years and then, the war was raging in Europe and grandpa didn’t want to go until he was married.
The military believed he was old enough to join. Being born in a cave made it impossible to produce a birth certificate. They accepted his sworn word. When they went to get married, no one questioned their age, only their intent.
As a wedding gift, great-grandfather gave them the shed and one acre of land. His words were, “that’s more that I got.” Grandpa knew he could make it a real home once the war was over.
HH and Pauline Rawson in their 40s
He came back to grandma in one piece and was determined to build his bride a proper home. Grandma had been living with her mom and dad. Her dad was in the civil war fighting for the Union at age twelve. He was a big man for his time. He was six feet tall and weighed more than two hundred pounds. Her Mom was 5' 10" tall and was a big woman herself.
Once back home, grandpa went back to work for his dad and in the evenings and sometimes the early morning, he would work on their home. It took him more than six months to build it. At first, it had a root cellar and a front/family room that opened onto a small kitchen. Off the kitchen were the mudroom and back door. Over the next six months, he built a bedroom. It would be five years before he built the second bedroom for my uncle Richard and two years later my dad was born.
HH Rawson, age 85
My grandfather went on to learn to be a machinist and then a tool and die, maker. He was a machinist when the great depression hit. By then, he owned the land and the home with no debt. He made $1.50 every other week working at the sugar mill. With a third-grade education, he could do calculus in his head.
My grandfather went on to run that mill and then one in Oxnard, CA. While there he built my grandmother the home of her dreams, three bedrooms on five acres. He was hired to work for Campbell's soup. He made the molds and dies that were used to make the very first Swanson TV dinner trays.
The world’s first TV Dinner
I was a homeless kid supporting my mother, brother, and two sisters when I was ten. We didn’t even have a home.
Today, my wife and I live in a nice home on a quarter acre. It’s our dream home where my wife enjoys her gardening, I enjoy woodworking, and writing.
We all have so much more than we realize. When was the last time you sat quietly and just “counted your many blessings?” I count this article as one of those blessings: