My maternal grandmother, was born in 1885 in Winterset, Iowa. I knew her quite well, and she was fascinating because her dad was a Civil War veteran, and on Sherman's March to the Sea, so I listened to a lot of civil war stories just one tongue removed as it were. She died at age 99 in 1984, still sentient. My maternal grandfather was born in 1884 in Red Oak, Iowa. I knew him barely, since he died when I was 5, but I lived with my grandparents in Iowa for 6 months when I was 4, so I knew him a little. My paternal grandparents I barely knew, but my paternal grandfather lived with us a few months when he was deep into senile dementia. He was born in 1874, and his wife in 1880, both in Brooklyn (they were neighbors actually as kids). A guy I hiked with when he was an old man, whom my mother knew in Iowa, and moved to Sherman Oaks, CA was born around 1895 or so. The dad used to call him "the fossil."
