The thing is ...

I have a long proud Irish ancestory. For most of my life, I was under the impression that my forefathers did not emmigrate to this country until the early twentith century. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my great grandfather on my dad's side of the family came here in the 1860s! Many of you who have had the pleasure of reading this blog may know that I have a serious issues with "the MAN". Well, the subject of this post is to give some insight this phenomenon. See old gramps didn't come straight from the home country to the good ole US of A. No, he took a more circuitous route to this wonderful country of ours. It seems that he had some issues with "the MAN" as well. But his issues were with "the English MAN". The real story, is that the dude got booted for "rebellion against the Crown". That's right baby, I come from a long line of rabble rousers. Anyway, he gets sent to the British penal colony in Jamaica. After he was sprung, there was no way in hell he was going back to his homeland. His pride, and the minor detail that he no longer considered a loyal subject of the realm, led him to find a new place to call home. Apparently, he had heard the "bring me your tired, your hungry, your poor" spiel and decided to check it out. He must have made an impression on my grand father, because he hit the bricks at age 12 and walked from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. In my opinion it takes some intestinal fortitude to leave home at 12. Must be that at least a few of those impressions were made on his ass. After getting out of the service it 1919, he became a union organizer. Now if you aren't familiar of the labor situation in the USA during the early twentith century, the you can't understand the magnitude of this decisions. He regularly got his ass KICKED. This spirit of rebellion was passed down to my father. My father was a college football player in the early 1940s. Playing tailback, he refused to wear his girdle because it slowed him down. In one game, he got hit in the back and severed his spinal cord. At the time, he was told he would never walk again. Being the stubborn son-of-a-bitch that he was, he wouldn't listen to the doctors. Somehow, he found a doctor that understood physical therapy. Working with the doctor he recovered enough to be accepted into the US Army where he served as an ambulance driver in France during WWII. One day, he was involved in an accident in his ambulance and he severed his spinal cord AGAIN. This time the injury was higher up on his back. It took a heavy toll on him. When he enlisted he weighed 190 lbs. At the time of his discharge, he only weighed 88 lbs. When he rovered enough, he sought out the same doctor and went through it all over again. Once again he was able to regain the use of his legs. But his journey didn't end there. In 1955, he had a sinus infection and took a new antibotic that made him profoundly deaf. Almost immediately, he lost his job because he could not communicate. With no protections like the Americans with Disabilities Act, the world was a very different place. Faced with having five children and a pregnant wife, he did what most of us would do. He went back to school and got his Ph.D in Molecular Biology and landed a great job. He ended up working for a man that appeciated his skills and ignored his handicap. Unfortunately, his friend and mentor died of a hard attack. His new boss was not so understanding of my father's special circumstances and did everything he could to get my Dad fired. But my old man would have none of that. He threw himself into his work and proved his worth everyday. The results he achieved included obtaining four patents, one being for Alka-Selzer Plus Cold Medicine. Additionally, his malaria innoculation is still being used in much of the world. None of this was enough for him though, he worked with our representative in Congress, the right honorable John Brademus to get the ADA passed. He testified three times before the US Congress. That year he was awarded "Scientist of the Year". Now the mantle of "rabble rouser" has been passed on to me and my five older brothers. Don't even get me started on that bunch of nut jobs. Actually, they are all great guys and all are as stubborn as hell. When I look at my son and my nephews, I see the ole fire is still burning. It's amazing to see the spirit of my father, his father and his father still deeply entrenched in the next generation. So bear with me when I go on one of my rants. It's just my Irish heritage. What can I say, it's great being a part of such a lineage. More stories from Paul Gavin. Info on novels Paul Gavin's Storefront. Technorati Tags: Fiction, Online Book, Chapter, Rebeleyeball, Paul Gavin IceRocket Tags: Fiction, Blook, Chapter, rebeleyeball