On 19 Sep, 15:53, DAClark wrote:
-- Where did grandfather learn his trade? Did he take formal
-- apprenticeship? What platitudes about his trade did he enjoy, that
-- you might remember? Did his work find an artistic outlet?
-- Thanks...

I don't think there was such a thing as a "formal apprenticeship" when
he was learning the trade. He'd be 105 if he were alive to today, so
we're talking at least 80 - 85 years ago when he began laying brick.
If he learned the trade the way he taught it, it was from experienced
mason's willing to help hard working people trying to support their
families.

Two things I remember very clearly:

1 - The smell of Lestoil as we washed our hands together when he got
home from work. I'd be visiting, waiting for him to come home, and
we'd go down to the basement utility sink to wash up before dinner. He
had this old wide mouth jar filled with Lestoil and he'd pour a big,
thick dollop into our hands.

2 - We were pouring a new stoop at my house in NYC. He explained the
reason why you had to make sure each step had exactly the same rise
and run: "The feet remember." You can't explain it much simpler than
that!

If you want to see some of his work, just drive past the old paper
factories in Holyoke, MA. He laid thousands amd thousands of bricks
for those buildings.