Pappy’s Day
Joseph Polchin, Sr. (1906-99)
Today is my grandfather’s birthday.
I always thought it was cool that his birthday was celebrated with a National Holiday. He always reminded me of Lincoln anyway. We call him ‘Pappy.’
Pappy spent most of his life in Hazleton, PA (my family is from there). Loved baseball, enjoying a cigar (taught me how to correctly smoke one), could bake a killer huckleberry pie (with berries picked locally, they grew wild in Hazleton) – and I still have a full bottle of the Windsor Canadian Whisky he picked up on his last visit to California (he always insisted on the cheap stuff). At this point – it’s at least 20 years old – makes a really smoooth cocktail.
In the 1930s, Pappy took a printing/typesetting correspondence course. He actually knew a bit about what I do as a graphic/font designer. He was one of the few in my family I could talk to about my chosen profession.
So have a whisky (or martini), cigar, kick back and enjoy Pappy’s Day 2010.
Photo taken by Bob Gray, Winter 1987
[...] grandfather used to jar his own and about 15 years ago, I went in search of the Official Family [...]