Saturday, February 06, 2010

A virtual visit with my grandfather's brother

I'm mostly posting this for family, who seem to have an easier time finding my blog than they do anything on YouTube, but I'll provide some context anyway:

My mom's cousin, Ian Lind, just posted this video of his father, John Lind, whom I mentioned on this blog three years ago. My great-uncle John is suffering from Alzheimer's, and apparently this visit to John's nursing home was one of the better ones in a while.

It's fun seeing John talk, even in his illness, because he reminds me so much of my late grandfather, his younger brother, who passed away in 1991 when I wasn't yet 16.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've inherited the gene that keeps hair from going gray. John is 96 and still hasn't gone gray. I remember how fantastic he looked when he visited Long Beach for his 60th high school reunion, and how he complained that all his old girlfriends had somehow become old.



As I understand it, John was kind of central to the multicultural Hawaiian surfing scene in the mid-twentieth century. If you're interested in surfing history, definitely check out the John Lind collection at Ian's blog.

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