This was my granddad.

It looks like he's about ready to thump the camera man. You can tell this guy was old-school by the butt hanging from his mouth. The striped socks are a nice touch. I think they were a gift from his mother, maybe a bribe to sit for a stupid photo shoot. Maybe he had to borrow the suit.

Check out the wickedly cool chair. There is absolutely no way you will get that from Ikea.

He worked the fishing boats off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia most of his life.

I never really knew him all that well as I grew up on the west coast in Vancouver, but I recall him as a stern but loving man. He taught me how to make a whistle from a 2 inch piece of branch. You had to suck on it until the bark slid off, then you whittled the wood a bit, slid the bark back on, and it was a really loud whistle. To this day I haven't found the right twig to do this. Maybe they only grow on the east coast. Maybe I just forgot. I was quite young when he taught me this. Here's a link to a page by someone who seems to have had a working recollection about the wood whistle.

My wife thinks I take after him quite a bit.