I spent most of my summers in Old Saybrook, Connecticut staying with my grandparents.  Most of all the relatives thought that Grandpa Newton was a very grouchy, strangely quiet man who didn't like the commotion of all of us around him.  I got along just fine with him.  The only complaint he had was me slamming the back screen door.  He would yell at me each time I did it, but being a kid I just continued every time I would open it.

He spent most of his time sitting in the back yard at 20 Sea Lane, Old Saybrook.  I remember him sitting with his pipe and always having a blue can of Granger pipe tobacco with a picture of a distinguished gentle man with a beard on the face on it.  I remember that face so well on the front of that can.

He use to save the cans for nails, screws, etc. to put into his shed that must have been the size of 3 feet by 5 feet.  He spent a lot of time out there in that shed, hiding from everything.

After several years he built the garage in the back yard and that became his private place.  He did a little woodworking in the garage - this was about the time I was a teenager, late 50's, early 60's.  I remember getting him the paint at a discount for his garage and house.  The colors were Silver Gray, Burgundy and White.

He had two cars that I can remember, a 1932 Chevy which he later gave to our family.  The other car was a four door 1949 Black Chevy.

He was a man who knew how to get away from everyone, especially the kids.

Grandma and Grandma owned a black cat when they lived on Vine Street in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut.  I was smaller than and tried to get that cat from underneath the Couch and he scratched the hell out of my arm.  From that day, I have never trusted cats anymore until I was married and we had Puffy (our white) cat.