My Grandfather

So what's collectible about my grandfather? Nothing really, except I have a large collection of photographs and other stuff from my grandfather.

Orville Burnetz Walk served in the Navy during World War 1. He never saw combat (perhaps fortunately for me). He served on several ships in the Caribbean. In this photo he is in his dress whites and holding a saxophone. He's holding a saxophone because he was a musician in the Navy. His rating when he was discharged was Musician, 2nd Class.

It was apparently a different world then. The larger ships carried orchestras for entertainment. Movies (silent films, of course) were shown on deck at night and the orchestra provided music. They also played at on-shore officer's clubs, weddings, and other events.

OB, as he was called, probably had other duties other than playing the saxophone. I have a diary he kept for his first 2 year hitch. He describes sailing from port to port and taking on coal at each port. He describes taking gunnery practice. He was counting the days down to his last day. On the day after his last day he wrote, "Re-enlisted. Damn fool".

I'll post other interesting ship-board photos later. OB also served on the USS Arizona, when it was new and when it was the most powerful weapon ever built. And since I post a lot of baseball cards, I'll post some pictures of the Arizona baseball team.

We're going to be in Philadelphia, our home town, next week on vacation. Among other things, we're going to visit my grandfather's grave site at the Philadelphia National Cemetery.

I've got some posts in draft form so the site won't go completely dark.