German Heritage and Tenacity

[W.J.Langholz]

I was blessed by having a full blooded German mother and a father that was German French and Danish so there is a lot of German blood flowing in my veins. Some people would say that most Germans are "stubborn" ........I would like to say that most German have a lot of "tenacity" .........it just sounds better to me, maybe it's because I'm German ya think, anyway some of my tenacity has been showing the last couple of days. I started a project to replace the seals in the front strut of my 206. After studying the situation for 15 to 20 minutes I thought it best to pull the maintenance manual. After reading that 15 times over I sent and email to some of my good ol 170 buddy's whom I knew would have some get advice to help me get this job done expeditiously right.............. so I go back to the hangar and talk over the situation with my local A&P IA (who will be looking over my shoulder) At this point I had a small and short weakness occur thinking maybe this situation would be better just to hire him to do this.......then came this German thing again ...so no way was I gonna let this get the better of me even if this is the first time of such and endeavour...I mean REALLY how hard can this be right on the other hand if I could just get 2-3 hours straight to work on this thing, and the weather is suppose to be nice on Saturday(1st day in 2 weeks) and I really want to fly bad, I'm thinking ok hammer this thing out.
WELL I'm into the 3rd (1hour session) and I have come up with more gosh darn-its and Jimminy Crickets than I care to say in fact the A&P, who by the way is only less than a good hammer through away, has learn what a "Good German" thinks of some b%$#@ engineer who designed this thing cause you need a joint between your elbow and wrist and a hand that is smaller than a grizzly paw, to get in this place and you got to have tools that only are special tools available to all non Germans that are not tenacious
I decided that I should probably go home and rest up a bit and let that tenacity thing simmer down for awhile and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow......after all I have 1 knuckle on each hand that has not been scuffed yet and only have a band aid on 1 finger so we got alot of the German Tenacity left to use again tomorrow

And yes when the A&P says to me with that little smirk on his face "Are we having Fun yet" (which he does after every josh darn-it I say) ............ I will when it's all done and back together


W.

[cessna170bdriver]

... I have come up with more gosh darn-its and Jimminy Crickets than I care to say ...W.

That's a LITTLE bit what Karen sounds like when she's having a problem with a DELL computer support person whose first language isn't
English. (She's 100% German, both sides, not diluted with French or Dutch.)

[170C]

Willie, you could have deleted "what" you were working on and we would have known instantly that it was a Cessna (or some other airplane). Boy some of the contorsions needed to do repairs on these aircraft muddles the brain. I usually have a few choice comments about the engineers who designed the item/location of what I am working on. If only they had worked on the project themselves they might have found a better way. (Cessna fuel valves as an example) For most jobs on any planes I have ever worked on you determine the difficulty by how many scrapes, cuts, dings, smashes, etc one gets on the ole body However, its pretty satisfying if, and when, the project is completed and can be deemed successful Sort of like being able to work those young bulls without getting kicked where it hurt the most Hope you get to do some good flying this weekend

[GAHorn]

Hey WILLIE !!!! ... have you considered converting it to a TAILDRAGGER ???

That's the only thing preventing the 206 from being the world's perfect airplane.

(Well...other than pretty, round tail-feathers.)

[Glenn]

All because the wheel is in the wrong spot.

[wingnut]

Willie,
My Granddad on my Dad's side, was 1 of 20 children of German immigrants. (10 with the first wife, 10 with the second; he was in the second litter). I understand my Great Granddad settled in the Dakotas in the 1880's. Tenacious? You must be to deal with those winters (and 20 kids)

[blueldr]

Del,
When did he move to Arkansas?

[wingnut]

Del,
When did he move to Arkansas?

I'm a little ashamed to say I don't know. It's hard (frustrating) to research, mostly because of so many variations in spelling of the last name. In addition to info in previous post, I know granddad was born in New Mexico in 1917, he was either the 17th or 18th of 20. Census records show him here in 1930. But prior to that is hard to follow, although granddad told stories of things that happened here when he was 'a small boy', so maybe came here in early/mid twenties.
He had 10 kids with first wife, remarried when he was 50, and fathered 10 more, of which my granddad was #7 or 8 in that second batch. I would imagine that with 10 kids, back then marraige was more an act of survival than desire, but apparently there was some of that too.
I never met my great grand parents on this side. In my estimation great granddad would have been 60 years old give or take, in 1917 when granddad was born. He is buried a couple miles from my home, but I cant remember what the rock says on it.

[cessna170bdriver]

I have fond memories of several of my great-grandparents, especially my mother's grandparents Mama and Papa B (Bonner's, traced back to early 1600's in England). Papa B, born about 1889, was the baby of 21, all by the same father, the mothers were three sisters. They were farmers, and I used to spend summers with them. Being very practical people, they taught me that indoor plumbing, while a convenience, is definitely not a necessity. When Mama B got tired of me running in and out of the house every hour or two to "go number one" she suggested that I use the bushes in the yard instead. I thought that was the neatest thing ever, but my mother did have some retraining to do when I got back home to our subdivision where there were neighbors every 75 feet or so. While fishing with Papa B in the local farm ponds, he taught me what the phrase "take a dump" means, and how to improvise with materials at hand when you aren't fully prepared... Mama B passed away in 1965, and Papa B in 1969, and I still miss 'em.

[wingnut]

Miles,
I wish I could trace our ancestry that far. Our problem is that we have found Lehmann to be spelled; Leyman, Lehman, Layman, Lyman, Lymen, Lemmen, Lemman, Wymen and etc. I get credit card apps all the time addressed to Bill Layman, Daryl Wyman, Dale Leymin, and yes Blueldr, I've even been called a Lemmon , which is much better than other things I've been called.

[GAHorn]

Large Arkansas families were the norm until WW-2. My grandmother (Glenwood, AR about 50 miles from Del) outlived 4 husbands and mothered so many I lost count. It's amazing the women ever survived...much less outlive 4 husbands1

A distant-cousin was former Chief of Police in Texarkana (Max Tackett) and one day out of the blue I was sitting in a restaraunt playing with a neighboring-table's new-born, only to discover the child and I were related thru the Tackett's. (French spelling was Tacquet.)

One of my family names on the maternal-side (George Anderson) goes back to the 1500's to Scotland where the original George Anderson was an "outcast from the law" so we quit searching. (The family ...Scot and French-Hugenot didn't show any German blood for a long time after arrival in the New World...and even then it was from the low-lands of Belgium/Dutch/Netherlands....but a grandfather and grandmother , both of whom assisted German immigrants on Ellis Island learn English, on the paternal-side both spoke German....and I like beer.)

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

One of my family names on the maternal-side (George Anderson) goes back to the 1500's to Scotland where the original George Anderson was an "outcast from the law" so we quit searching. (The family ...Scot and French-Hugenot didn't show any German blood for a long time after arrival in the New World...and even then it was from the low-lands of Belgium/Dutch/Netherlands....but a grandfather and grandmother , both of whom assisted German immigrants on Ellis Island learn English, on the paternal-side both spoke German....and I like beer.)

This is all very nice George but either you are or your not. This is not like a hand grenade. Close doesn't count. Of course.... if your buying why,... perhaps we'll listen to that story a few times and see it doesn't change sufficiently over time for your inclusion into the family.

[cowboy]

My heritage is 1/2 German and 1/2 Scots/Irish. My wife is 100% German heritage. She loves to tease me about our different family trees. My tree of 6 generations fits on one 8x11 sheet of paper with room left for another generation or two. Her's, on the other hand needs two sheets just to list her 15 uncles, 18 aunts, 69(!) cousins. When the good LORD said, "Go forth and multiply" her family decided to go forth exponentially!

[170C]

George, if you like beer (I have heard you do) then you must be "A jolly good fellow" according to Tom T Hall