Gone

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This is me with my grandfather, Sylvester Davis, c. 1959. I'm the one in the bunny suit.  Sylvester was an executive for Gulf Oil.  He was an eidetiker and had a pronounced fondness for alcohol.  I take after him in at least one of those things.  He carried the oil flow figures for the northern hemisphere in his head, and if he had ever screwed that up he would have been fired.  The oil business at that time was not known for empathy or consideration.  For three days Sylvester was the only telegrapher at the New London nightmare.  He relayed all Walter Cronkite's dispatches for UPI.  He was a very smart man.  I have only the vaguest memory of him, I just remember a big man with a hat taking me to get ice cream one day.  Years later I retraced that trip and it was about 60 feet across an empty lot.   He died in 1961.  I am not a year old in this picture, which may have been taken in Castor, Louisiana.  He completed second grade and no more.




3 Gulf execs.  Sylvester on the right.  1940's, judging from the car and clothing.  Probably taken in Houston.  Notice the hat.
I feel sure that I would have loved him had I known him.
Captains of industry!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion




Happy motoring.

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