I spent some time thinking about what Bill said in his Turn Around video.
Who am I fighting for? I thought of my family. My maternal grandfather was the epitome of a self-made man. His name was Alexander Tafel, shortened from Tafelski. He was born in 1910 to Polish immigrants. His first language was Polish.
We don’t know much about his young life. His father was listed as a “crippel” who was no longer named in the 1920 Census. More than likely, he had died. By 1930, Alexander was recorded as a step-son to another man.
At the age of 16, Alexander left the coal mines of Pittsburg PA to work on a coal ship in the Great Lakes. He eventually became a skilled tool and die maker. He married my grandmother in 1935. They had two children.
When WWII broke out, Alexander attempted to enlist. He was rejected because of severe hearing loss in one ear. But his machinist skills were demand. He was recruited to work at Bethlehem steel in San Pedro, California. The family moved to Santa Monica in 1943.
After the war, my grandfather vowed to never work for another man again. He and my grandmother flipped houses. They had an ice cream store on Fairfax in Los Angeles. My mom and her sister would walk around with triple cones in front of the kids coming home from school. The Tafel girls were more than happy to direct the kids to the sweet shop!
My grandfather started an equipment rental business in Bellflower, California. Think U-Haul, before U-Haul was created. He then sold firewood and coal. All of his grandkids worked at the wood yard, either splitting logs (the boys) or helping customers (the girls). We all knew how to stack a cord of wood.
After he sold off all the firewood, he created a storage business by covering his property with rows of aluminum storage buildings. He was one of the first self-storage businesses in LA county in the 1970s. Again, all of his grandchildren worked the property when we spent any time there.
Grandpa Tafel expected hard work but he also had a playful side. He has been gone for over 25 years now, and I miss him even more as time goes by. We never talked about his feelings for America, I think because there was never any question for him. He was a poor laborer who was able to control his destiny through sheer determination. America was how he was able to succeed.
I felt compelled to let you all know some of what I am fighting for. The picture is of him in 1926 on the coal ship.
God bless America. I will defend her to my dying day.