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| Jack Lewis Harden , circa 1940 |
Jack Lewis Harden, my maternal grandfather has had a large
influence on my life. He was born on
December 20, 1919 in Vermillion County, Indiana to Delphia Maude Keiser and
William E. Harden. He was their third
and youngest child. In 1920 the family
lived at 956 South 3rd in Clinton, Indiana.[i] The family would then move to various
locations around Indiana, depending on where they could find work.
Jack was always interested in the latest electronic gadgets
that came along. He would purchase the newest
items when he could afford it. Then he
would show the gadget’s capability to anyone who would listen.
My grandfather LOVED the west. He would take long trips out west, with or
without the rest of his family. These
trips were often spontaneous and he would leave before dawn. Perhaps his love for the west occurred when
he was a young man and worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps Camps (CCC
Camps) at the Pipe Creek Monument in Arizona.
After retirement of his regular job he worked at different National Parks
in the West.
Probably my favorite memory of my grandfather is when he
worked on road construction in Indiana.
Most days he would buy a candy bar and put it in his shirt pocket and
forget about it. Working outside in the
summer, the candy bar would become melted and it was often squished as he
went about his daily work routine. When he got home from work he would put the
candy bar in the freezer.
One day I must have looked in the freezer and saw several candy bars. I asked
about them. He had forgotten that they were
there and he told me I could have them.
Every time after this, I would ask if there were any candy bars in the
freezer and could I have them?
This became quite the routine. I think that he sometimes put candy bars in
the freezer on purpose, just for me.
He died October 4, 2001 in Terre Haute, Indiana.[ii]
[i]
1920 U. S. census, Vermillion County, Indiana, population schedule, Clinton, Ward
4, ED 101, page 176 (stamped), 20A
(penned), dwelling 181, family 192, William Harden; Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 January 2015); citing NARA microfilm
publication T625, roll 472.
[ii]
Personal notification from Harden family, 4 Oct 2001.
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