Growing up, the answer to the question "Who do you admire most?" had always been my Grandmother. From birth through childhood, she is the person I was closest to growing up. I told her my secrets, my goals and my fears. She would bolster me when I needed it and shoot me down when I needed it. Sometimes, as I can now recognize looking back, young men need to be knocked down a peg sometimes.

 But as I age, I find myself changing my perceptions of who I admire most. Don't get me wrong, I still strongly identify with my grandmother. But age and experience are also making me realize how much admiration I have for my grandfather.

 He would work endless hours, a schedule which would require a lot of time away from his family. He loved his family deeply but didn't always like to show it for fear of being seen as soft. He was a grouch who also enjoyed time to himself to think and reflect and to tinker. He was a thoughtful man who loved Opera but would watch it on TV while sipping a beer and eating potato chips. The older I get, the more I find myself relating to him. I too work a lot of hours which takes me away from my family. I love my family more than words but feel I have to be a little "tough" on the boys so they grow up knowing the world owes them nothing. I am a grouch who enjoys time to myself to read or to research a hobby. The more of my life that I live, the more I feel I am able to understand his life and how he thought. I see him in me now. I never really have before. I look at the backs of my hands and see what look like his hands. I find myself calling my sons "Pison", which is Italian for "little buddy". It's what my grandfather called me growing up and what Italians called him when he was a G.I. in World War Two.

 There are marked differences as well: he could fix anything, I can't. He had no fear of needles. They scare me to death. He was kind of a country kid and I am a city boy. But we share the same blood; his runs through me. He was an amazing man and a complex one: I realize that the more I age.

 Quote Of The Day: "Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe, aren't even aware of." Ellen Goodman

 This Day In History: Financier Bernard Baruch coined the term "cold war" in a speech in South Carolina on this date, April 16th, 1947.

 Something You Should Check Out: From 1947, Babe Ruth Day was celebrated throughout professional Baseball. Watch this video  showing Ruth speaking publicly. Also included in this newsreel, film from one year later..when he died from Cancer.

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