April 4, 2011: Days in the life.

Welcome. We’re gonna try something new …

Before there were blogs, or even the Internet, there was a series of month-by-month calendars, hanging on the wall of a modest blue house on a busy street in Stamford, Connecticut.

Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, my father’s father used those calendars to keep track of daily happenings that caught his fancy.

Births, deaths, weather reports, presidential elections, church picnics, space flights, hurricanes … all those events, and many more, found their way onto the calendars.

In his neat, distinctive hand, accompanied by puckish illustrations,  my grandfather was keeping a journal. You might even call it a primitive, private blog, a personal chronicle of important events, albeit one free of navel-gazing or self-obsession.

(My mother once told me that, when she visited the in-laws’, she would spend time looking at the latest calendar to see what whimsy my grandfather had posted — er, drawn — there.)

What we’re going to do here, at the pace of one entry per week, is post some of my grandfather’s more interesting calendar entries from the period beginning in 1961 and ending in 1975. Those were eventful years for him, his family and his nation, and there’s a lot to pick from.

I’ll add context and comment to each calendar entry. Some weeks, I’ll focus on family history. Other weeks, American history will take center stage as we take a broader look at an event. Sometimes, I’ll gaze into my own navel — er, relate my grandfather’s experiences to my own life today.

And still other times, when things get too serious for their own good, I’ll just riff and have fun. My grandfather would have enjoyed that. (You can learn more about his life on the About page.)

Consider yourself invited to join the trip. Plans call for a post every Monday, so keep checking back. Feel free to share comments, criticism, or other feedback. I’m also interested in building a blogroll of others who are exploring family history through their blogs, so if you know of folks doing something similar, please pass their URLs along.

Thanks for reading. Don’t be a stranger.