Brightest crayon in the box

This is the story of Pat O'Rourke, a good ol' chap of mine who lived
down in Temple Road, just accross the street from my good ol' granma
(may God have her in heaven). I used to go and play checkers with
ol' granny O'Malley every afternoon, particularly in her last years after
Doctor Malone (also in heaven, I hope, what a saint) diagnosed on
her a terminal disease. Yes, poor ol' grandma, yet one was aware that
with age things like that could happen, not necessarily because one is
sick but plainly because of age... memory loss, also... yes, that also
happens with age.

What was I talking about?

Originally posted by Seitse
This is the story of Pat O'Rourke, a good ol' chap of mine who lived
down in Temple Road, just accross the street from my good ol' granma
(may God have her in heaven). I used to go and play checkers with
ol' granny O'Malley every afternoon, particularly in her last years after
Doctor Malone (also in heaven, I hope, what a saint) diagnosed on
her a termi ...[text shortened]... age... memory loss, also... yes, that also
happens with age.

What was I talking about?

Yes, my dear Jay, you are right. As I was saying, Pat O'Rourke lived down the same street as my beloved grandma, where I used to go every afternoon to play checkers and drink the tea. My beloved grandma, yeah, she loved tea more than anything else in the world -one day she told me her three loves in life were tea, to play checkers, and her grandson (who, in this case, happens to be this ol' man writing now). So, she used to prepare the tea as soon as she heard me crossing the door of the fence on the frontyard, and by the time I was inside her house, the board of checkers was set and nexto to it, on a lovely tea table, grandma's amazingly old tea set with everything ready just to pour the milk, the cubes of sugar, and enjoy some steamy hot cup of Earl Gray. Lovely woman, indeed. We sat there for hours, playing once and again, drinking tea and, every once in a while, interrupting the match to talk about her memories. One day, she told me, she met Nathan O'Rourke, back in the dawn of the last century. The last century! Can you imagine that? It is so easy to say it, certainly, but we are speaking about 1900. 1900! This century is so mgic, because it is really a breakthrough, don't you think? I remember I used to tell my good grandma that: "Can you imagine the next century, grandma?" Of course she knew she would not make it up until now, because she was sick, as the doctor say, and also it was hard to think about those things when one is lacking... lacking... what is the word?

Originally posted by Seitse
Yes, my dear Jay, you are right. As I was saying, Pat O'Rourke lived down the same street as my beloved grandma, where I used to go every afternoon to play checkers and drink the tea. My beloved grandma, yeah, she loved tea more than anything else in the world -one day she told me her three loves in life were tea, to play checkers, and her grandson (who, in t ...[text shortened]... was hard to think about those things when one is lacking... lacking... what is the word?

Yes, memory, indeed!

Thank you very much, my dear Jay. You are a fine, kind chap.

So, as I was saying, grandma O'Malley met Nathan O'Rourke in the dawn of last century. According to grandma, he was one of the slowest persons she ever met in her entire life, and she made it very clear that he never had that unmistakeable fragrance of alcohol that is unequivocal tag of dipsomaniacs. "No, he was not in love with the bottle" she said, to make clear the man's stupidity was pure and simple personal achievement, and then told me an amazing story about this man leaving into the U.S. for years and then returning home to tell wonderful tales about his time as pilot of a Curtiss Jenny biplane, chosen to be the first one used to carry mail by air by the United States Post Office. According to this man, he was about not to fly the plane in protest, because he was enraged by the fact that the stamp, if carried by him in the Curtiss Jenny, would cost not 3 cents but 24 cents, yet he was in need for the job and finally decided to fly. However, when he was about to take off the first time (somewhere between the first and last of May, 1918), a man approached him in the take-off field and offered him lots of money in exchange for letting him check all the mail to be sent. He, of course, refused -grandma said; but the man insisted so much that Nathan, weak of heart as he was, accepted something symbolic in exchange and not money, so it would become clear that he was not driven by greed but by pure Christian solidarity. The man gave him 4 stamps. And Nathan kept the stamps as a reminder of the weird story and to show them to his family and friends when returning to Ireland. He ended up losing the stamps in his wooden travel box, grandma said, and maybe it was still in the attic of Nathan's home.

Grandma laughed a lot the time she told me that story and pointed out, unadvertedly, that the grandson of Nathan lived right accross the street and she feared that maybe the poor chap was as stupid as the grandfather.

I did not mention a single word that time, yet my heart started beating vigorously from that day on. Right accross the street lived a man in which attic, perhaps, there was an inverted jenny.

Shall I continue?

Originally posted by Seitse
Yes, memory, indeed!

Thank you very much, my dear Jay. You are a fine, kind chap.

So, as I was saying, grandma O'Malley met Nathan O'Rourke in the dawn of last century. According to grandma, he was one of the slowest persons she ever met in her entire life, and she made it very clear that he never had that unmistakeable fragrance of alcohol that is uneq eet lived a man in which attic, perhaps, there was an inverted jenny.

Shall I continue?

Originally posted by Jay Joos
Please excuse my ignorance and stupidity.... what is a "Inverted Jenny"?

I found the story very interesting until those 2 words cropped up and now im stumped !!!!

Sorry !!!!!!

Please carry on.......

Originally posted by Seitse
No problem at all, my dear Jay. Look, here is some explanation of the inverted jenny in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/airmail/objectshowcase/stampcovers/object_stampscovers_usairmail_jenny.html

A true treasure! Isn't it?

Originally posted by Seitse
No problem at all, my dear Jay. Look, here is some explanation of the inverted jenny in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/airmail/objectshowcase/stampcovers/object_stampscovers_usairmail_jenny.html

A true treasure! Isn't it?

It's the yellow-green one. This is why some fire engines are this color nowadays. However in LA we use the traditional red ones.

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
It's the yellow-green one. This is why some fire engines are this color nowadays. However in LA we use the traditional red ones.

Originally posted by Jay Joos
[b]This is all very interesting....thank you all....please carry on Seitse....

[WORD TOO LONG]/b]

Originally posted by shortcircuit
Martin and Lewis you guys ain't

Originally posted by Jay Joos
[b]This is all very interesting....thank you all....please carry on Seitse....

[WORD TOO LONG]/b]

Originally posted by Jay Joos
Where are you Seitse !!!???