This summer I spent the first week at my grandparent house. I help my grandfather put fence posts around his farm, and then helped him put up barbwire. During this time my grandfather told me stories of his life and taught me a few things like fixing electronics and new things about computers. Truthfully, I probably listen to my grandfather more that I listen to my parents. That is because I think my grandfather is the wisest person I know.

      My granddad's full name is Lewis Neelands. He is 85 ½ years old and has a Ph. D. in physics. He grew up on a dairy farm in Michigan. He told me that he did not like living on a farm and he hated wearing clothes made from flour sacks. He thought it would be great to wear a real white shirt every day.

      In high school his physics teacher encouraged him to go to college. He went to college and got his degree in 1942, then he went to work at MIT in the Radar Laboratories. After the war he joined the General Electrics Company's Electronics Laboratory. He was in charge of the development of telemetry and guidance systems. The telemetry (tracking) system he developed was used by Bell Telephone Labs for their Nike missiles and the California Instititute of Technology used the guidance system for the WAC Corporal missiles. In 1962 the family moved to Floreida and he worked for General Electric doing projects for NASA.

      Granddad believes he was just born lucky. He said "I could fall out of an airplane and I'd land in a haystack." I think he means nothing bad ever happened without making his life better. His teachers encouraged his interest and talent in physics and he spent his entire career doing the work that interested him and loved it. He said he never had any hard lessons, but I know some tough times happened. When GE's part of the space program was closed, Granddad was forced into early retirement. This was right when they built a new house and Grandma had to have an operation. He couldn't afford to be retired, so his got a job with their church and ran the church retirement home for about ten years.

      One of the things very important to Granddad was civil rights. When they moved to Florida schools and businesses were still segregated. Granddad and Grandma helped found The West Volusia Council on Human Relations, worked with neighborhood clothing projects, and worked in a pre-school for under-privileged children. Because of their civil rights activities the neighbors were sometimes angry and the house got egged and vandalized. Granddad says the one lesson he would teach the world would be tolerance.

      I asked Granddad what his favorite quotations were. He said he had no favorites but a couple always stuck in his mind. Once was from his mother's cousin when he got married. He said "I told her I'll make a living if you make living worthwhile". I think that's how Gradad feels about Grandma, too. The other he doesn't really approve of is "Get thee behind me Satan--and push". I think that is his attitude about bigotry. His sense of fairness won't let him ignore it.

      The nice thing about my granddad is that he doesn't get mad when you make mistakes.. One time I was driving his garden tractor around to flatten gopher holes. After running one over I turned around to look at it. When I turned back, I was driving into the barbwire fence. I crashed the fence and broke an irrigation line. Granddad was not mad, just afraid one of the barbwires flew up and hit me. Luckily I had ducked and did not get a scratch. Now granddad has one more story to embarass me with.

      My granddad's wisdom shows by the way he treats people with kindness and respect. Even though he is old and retired, he keeps busy helping people. He can still look at things with a sense of humor and helps me put things in perspective. He reminds me of the saying "the key to immortality is to live a life worth remembering".