I was born in the house of my paternal grandparents in a small city in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. Though my parents soon moved into their own place I spent much of my childhood with my grandfather who was on a disability pension from the Reading Railroad.
Pop was a natural born storyteller and as we walked about town or rode the trains (he had a life pass) to Reading, Philadelphia and other points he would tell tales of his youth, places he had been, things he had done or imagined, and of the railroaders, miners, Molly Maguires and various eccentric folk.
My Dad had a large library and I began reading at an early age. That led to, first, drawing, then writing as I sought to emulate what I read, heard in my grandfather’s tales and those of other elders or imagined.
After high school I sought to enter art school but was drafted into the Army of our mutual uncle. Though I later had college experience, I must re-phrase Melville’s comment to say the Army was my Harvard and Korea (where Uncle sent me instead of Vietnam) was my Yale.
I have a son, Mike, and a daughter, Nina, and four grandsons.
http://jrlindermuth.com/
(3.17)
2