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He would tell the story of how they had escaped from the Nazis and settled in New England. The 'Sound of Music' was written about their story. During the second world war, Grandpa had a letter from the War Department that thanked him for his thoughts on a weapon to be used against enemy aircraft. His idea was for a 'missile' that contained tar and an incendiary device that on contact would explode into a sticky mass of flame. I don't know if he had any impact or not, but two weapons can be related to his idea. First, in the latter part of the second world war, we started using flame throwers as a weapon against pill boxes and bunkers. Secondly, during the Korean War and later we used the dreaded napalm bombs, loaded with kerosene, that exploded into flame on contact. During the depression, he and my father would drive into the country looking for dead fall or discarded fence posts, which they loaded into the rumble seat of my dad's Plymouth coupe. This was essential to keeping the family warm through the winter. They often talked of those days in later years. Frank's hands showed the lessons that he learned working in his machine shop. Several of his fingers were either with gnarled nails or had been partially amputated. After numerous sheet metal cuts they were hardened, and always enamel stained from dipping his 'boxes'. He had a large dip tank filled with olive drab enamel (you got your choice of colors - olive drab or olive drab), with rods extended from side to side. After dipping the metal in the enamel he hung them by the corners to drip, using hooks, on the rods. When the enamel had set, he then placed them on racks that he placed in kerosene fired ovens. I still remember the smell of the kerosene ovens mingled with naptha and cigar smoke. Grandpa used to smoke one White Owl cigar a day. I used to earn candy money by going to Mitch Goyette's store to get Grandpa some White Owls. He always had the right money so that I could keep the change, as much as three cents which was a fortune in candy in those days. He would puff occasionally on his cigar then it would go out from inactivity, and either rest in his mouth or an ash tray unlit until he desired another puff. Then he would hold the cigar with his hand so that he could knock the dead ash loose with his little finger. After that he would use a 'down the house match' to relight, usually with three puffs to get it going. It was dangerous business to throw away a stub without asking first if he was done with it. Grandpa used to say that his father would say to him each time he'd see him lighting up, "That habit's gaining on you, Frank.", then Grandpa would say "I've never smoked more than one a day, and I don't inhale.". The only impact that I could see of his smoking was that he constantly had to clear his throat. Grandpa dearly loved playing cribbage and bridge. He also loved to read and transferred his likes to me. When I was at his house I was always offered a chance to go along on his weekly trip to the library to check out some new books. He especially got me interested in Max Brand westerns. After his stroke he still put in ten hour days, only it took quite a few hours to get them in, as he interspersed work sessions with naps. He followed his doctor's orders in that area to the letter. They had two cats, mother and daughter, named Penny and Whiskers. Grandpa had them trained to sit up and beg for doughnuts. And when my father gave him an electric razor he thought it was best used as a punching bag for the cats. Grandpa used a straight razor for most of his life. Myrtle Clare Bachelder was born on March 13,1908 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and died May 22,1997 in Chicago, Illinois. Grandpa sent her to a girls school run by D. L. Moody, possibly during her senior year of high school. I believe this action was to break up a budding romance. This experience soured Aunt Myrtle on organized church functions for the rest of her life. A well intentioned action went sour. I have yet to see any good results from a 'Christian Reform School', whether it is Moody's or Lester Rolloff's, or any other. At best the child sent there learns how to survive, by giving the appearance of conformance. In Aunt Myrtle's case she succeeded in spite of, not because of, that experience. She received a bachelor of science degree in 1930 from Middlebury College and a masters degree in education from Boston University in 1939. She was a high school chemistry -13-
