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Showing posts from January, 2025

I Didn't Care What They Called Me, As Long As They Paid . . . . .In Cash

When I was younger, I would ask my Grandfather Harry about the family business.  My Great Grandfather Sam was a cooper before he emigrated from Belarus to Canada, and later to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.  His father Avraham (my great-great grandfather) and his grandfather Shmuel Zelek (my great-great-great grandfather) were coopers as well.  Coopers are tradesmen that make wooden barrels from oak staves and lids, bound wrought iron bands.  It is a combination of carpentry and blacksmithing that was essential to packaging goods up into the mid 20th century.  Today, cooperage is mainly for whiskey barrels utilized to age the liquor and add special characteristics. www.barrelsdirect.com Originally, when my Great Grandfather immigrated to the United States, he worked as a heat treater in a Flint, Michigan auto plant making driveshafts.  His brother Ed and him formed a barrel making business that last a few years before they went their sep...