gabriele wrote:
It is, April. He offered it to my brother first who didn't want it... But I knew he would be heartbroken to see it going to the dump. My Dad didn't get much formal education as he fled (in the dark of the night...) from the Russian occupied Eastern Germany just after the war and had to get through somehow on his own without family support. I believe he was very intelligent nonetheless and something like the encyclopaedia quenched his thirst for knowledge. Such different times... I'm glad we are part of the easy information age now.
(((hugs))) to you, April.
I am late to this party since my daughter and 3 grandchildren are (mostly) here for the next week but I thought I would let you know, Gabriele, that we also are proud owners of a 1973 edition of Encyclopedia Britannicas---something like 24 volumes!!! I have often wondered what will happen to this set when we are no longer around because it was a staple in our household when our kids were growing up and it is, in many areas, as current and accurate (or perhaps more so in many ways) as it ever was. We used it extensively...and I still find myself looking things up in it now and then....particularly things of an historical nature!! The detail and completeness on many topics is incredible!! It came with a 3 volume Webster's unabridged dictionary which is still AWESOME....as well as a section in the 3rd book of common foreign words in 6 languages, including Yiddish!!
I find your father's story very endearing and can relate to it in many ways as my father came from a very poor family (however, without the horrors your family may have endured in Eastern Germany) in Chicago. He vowed early in his life to use his head rather than his back to support himself and his family so he highly valued education and certainly never stopped learning. I greatly admire people who are self-made and very often self-educated. They are usually "smarter" than most academic elites who seriously lack common sense or the ability to, figuratively, "put 2 and 2 together," as my mother would say!
Last edited by JetmamaDiDi (2/26/2017 8:45 pm)
I absolutely love him, and he’s an incredible person. We have this friendship that I have no doubt in my mind is a life-long friendship. Getting a chance to know him away from training for Dancing With the Stars, I think we've gotten a chance to know each other in a different way, which of course just makes you closer. Meryl
We fell in love, but our way. Maks
.........they will probably be considered antiques one day and could be valuable.....even though to me just the sentimental value would be priceless for the memories of your dad 
