Sunday, December 31, 2017

I miss talking to Dad about these "Lives"

Aunt Gertrude makes reference to Dad giving her reading lists. Here is a reading list I found as we were clearing out the family home. Just a business card of Grandfather Chitty's from the 1920's with Dad's notations of "look up these lives." I miss talking to Dad about these "Lives", they are as interesting to me today as they were to him in 1934.

I found a Lewis Chitty Consolidated business card of Grandfather Chitty's when we were clearing out Mom and Dad's home Sewanee home of 56 years in 2002. The OVER-SEA brand was the company's premium brand. 
There were handwritten names on the back of the card. I recognized my Dad's handwriting. My guess is that he wrote these notes in 1934 after he returned from college at The University of the South. The Lewis Chitty Consolidated name is circa 1928. Grandfather's original partner was Lewis. In roughly 1928 ABC Sr. bought the Consolidated operation. Dad would quote that the Chitty & Co. sales were $8.5 million from the 11 Chitty & Co. branches around the State of Florida.
I miss talking to Dad about these "Lives", they are as interesting to me as there were to him in 1934. I looked up each of these historical figures (links below are to Wikipedia). Speaking of Wikipedia, Dad would have loved clicking from one reference another as I do. 
A few of the figures were new to me like SwinburneGalsworthy and Epictetus. One of my more admired historical figures, Spinoza*, also made Dad's list although we never talked about him. I wish we had!
Lewis chitty business card
“Look up Lives”
Circa 1934
Arthur ChittyJr.
J.B. Hibben**
 *-Spinoza-In Ethics, Spinoza to demonstrate a "fully cohesive philosophical system that strives to provide a coherent picture of reality and to comprehend the meaning of an ethical life. Following a logical step-by-step format, it defines in turn the nature of God, the mind, human bondage to the emotions, and the power of understanding -- moving from a consideration of the eternal, to speculate upon humanity's place in the natural order, freedom, and the path to attainable happiness."
**-credit to sister Em for deciphering Dad's handwriting for Montaigne, Butler, Anatole France, Ibsen, Hibben, Lessing, Epicurus and Rabelais.

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