Happy Birthday Gramps!

Gramps. Figure Skater. Fisherman. Baseball Player. Ventriloquist. Railroad Worker. Provider. His given name was Howard Axel Olson. His stage name was The Great Chesterfield. He was born 126 years ago today in Chicago.

Gramps was a ventriloquist in Vaudeville as a young man. He passed that talent along to his eldest son Howard Minor Olson, my uncle, and they toured together for a while. My uncle went on to have a 60 year career as a ventriloquist and magician, but I’ll save all that for another posting. I just mention it here because it’s a way in which Gramps lives on. One of my uncle’s figures is still in action, and he may have come from Gramps originally.

Gramps was a man of many interests. I can’t attest to his talent because much of what he did was before I came upon the scene. He lived with my family since before I was born in 1949, and I lived with him until I was almost 20 years old. He’d had a shock of white hair ever since I can remember. My nickname, Kayo, came from him as far as I know. After my mother left when I was about 8, he took care of me and his son, my father. (My father had had a nervous breakdown.)

Gramps told me stories of his youth. I heard about days playing hooky from school and hiding under the wooden sidewalks of Chicago. I heard about him doing figure eights on the ice. I heard about baseball with, or against, Satchel Page. I remember one story about attempts by robbers to steal Gramps’ suitcase. The robbers must have been surprised by its contents. The contents, I’m sure, would have looked like a dead body to the unsuspecting. Well, that was no dead body. That was just Jake, his vent figure.

Gramps kept his interests alive in later years. He belonged to The Old Timers’ Baseball Association, Vent Haven Museum in Kentucky, and Show Folks of America. We made a trip to the Vent Haven Museum in Kentucky in the early or mid-1950s, and Gramps regularly received a Christmas card from Sophie tucker, the last of the Red Hot Mammas.

Gramps was a gadget man. He had cameras (still & moving), a projector, a machine that spliced the movie film, a tape recorder, and more. There were books in the house when I was a kid. I’m sure they came from Gramps’ side of the family. I think I got my love of gadgets & books from Gramps. I also have many interests, as did Gramps.

Gramps read books, and he talked about writing a book. I believe his interests and his learning kept him young. I think it’s also what made him so interesting to me as a young child and young adult. I think it’s why he is still so often on my mind. I should have written more about him before now, but I waited until this morning to write this. There is so much more, but there isn’t time or space for that now.

Gramps has been gone for decades already. He passed away in 1977. However, I talk to him every year on his birthday and then some. I think he knows that he lives on in me. He may be long gone, but he is certainly not forgotten.