Grandpa was called back to take care of his parents around 1925, his duty as the youngest. He farmed their little patch plus worked off-farm, then bought the place next door. Still worked several jobs, building roads or loading train cars with fruit.
He was working for one local general store, when they had a fire in late 1929 or 1930. The family that owned the store couldn't scrape the money together to rebuild, but the insurance company man offered the business to Grandpa. He bought it for less than the value of the inventory that was salvageable, I can't remember if it was $300 or $3000. They cleaned things up and moved into a building across the tracks. He took one of the original family brothers on as partner, because he was the butcher and Grandpa didn't know how to cut the meat.
The store was his life for the next 35 years, providing a decent living, in exchange for long hours. He would talk of all his customers as we drove around the area, times when he loaned a family $300 to get a new well, or $2000 for a downpayment on the farm. All while never making more than $10K in a single year.
Most all the customers were on credit, some by the month, some by the year. When he retired and sold out in 1965, he kept the receivables as part of the deal. We cleaned the attic out to remodel 40 years later, and found the box of ledgers and letters to and from people who still owed money, most so thankful for carrying them through those tough times. Most of the folks who beat him out of money were family members.
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Today's Featured Article - Hydraulics - Cylinder Anatomy - by Curtis von Fange. Let’s make one more addition to our series on hydraulics. I’ve noticed a few questions in the comment section that could pertain to hydraulic cylinders so I thought we could take a short look at this real workhorse of the circuit. Cylinders are the reason for the hydraulic circuit. They take the fluid power delivered from the pump and magically change it into mechanical power. There are many types of cylinders that one might run across on a farm scenario. Each one could take a chapter in
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