User:Mynty/Sandbox 2

 A Simple TimeLine 

Sterling was born Dec 1908 in California

A brother was born 1911 (he had an older brother and sister)

Graduated High School 1927

Started College 1927

Father died 1928

Finished College 1929

Worked at various jobs 1929-1934

Married Margaret in 1933

First child, Mary, 1934

Started work for Post Office in 1934

Second Child, Ralph 1939

Bought a Ranch in Northern California 1943

Quit PO to work in Timber 1947

Moved to far Northern California 1947

Third Child, Marling in 1949

Bought property and built house 1949

First Child married 1952

First Grandchild 1953

Second Grandchild 1954

Third Grandchild 1956

Fourth Grandchild 1957

Second Child Married 1963

Fifth Grandchild 1964

Sixth Grandchild1965

Seventh Grandchild1966

Eighth Grandchild1968

Ninth Grandchild1969

Tenth Grandchild 1970

Third Child Married 1971

Eleventh Granchild 1973

First Great Grandchild 1976

Wife died in 1978

Many Great Grandchildren

And Great-Great Grandchildren

First Child, Mary, died 1990

He died in 1992

Measuring a life is difficult. This man went from horse carts and gas lights to microwave ovens and men walking on the moon. He saw the growth of automobiles, planes, radio, TV and movies. So many changes that they are hard to realize. Although change is what living is all about, we as humans, seem to fight it so hard. Yet, I look at his life and wonder how he managed to do it. He started out in a farm house picking fruit and driving a horse and wagon, then went forward to the first trucks and cars, and learned how to install telephones. Although he never remembered the first time, he was blessed to see Haley's Comet twice in his life. Never out of work, even through the Great Depression, he went back to being a rancher, with a mail job on the side. Then went even farther away from city life and worked in the forest. He saw his first child move away and his second child go into the Army. The second child went to  "police actions", which is just another way of saying 'War', in Korea and Viet Nam. As he aged he tried to keep up a little by playing video games with his grandchildren, and learning to heat water or coffee in the microwave. Losing his wife after forth-five years of marriage was a shock, and his third child came to live with him and brought her two children. Then fourteen years later he lost his first child to cancer. This was when he realized that he had lived long enough. Just a little over a year he passed quietly in his sleep. If I could describe his life in one word it would be CHANGE. The world changed so much during his lifetime, I sometimes wonder that it did not make his head spin and his mind reel, yet he weathered it well.