This one is easy and I've been blessed being around great family & friends for years, but it was my grandfather on my mother's side James (Jim) Richard Pellegrino who taught me so many things and has shaped the man I am today.
First he always preached, "Treat people like you would like to be treated." That is the golden rule, but I heard it first from him and he practiced it everyday. It did not matter who you were, he always put a positive spin on things and taught me about Atticus Finch and never judging a man before walking in his shoes and that was well before others utilized that quote.
My Grandfather was always about Family and being true to one's commitment, "Den if a man cannot be true to his family, who can he be true to?" Football was near & dear to his heart as he was a high school standout and had opportunities to play college ball, but focused on his education and was the first in his family to graduate college (Union College).
My winter vacations during school I would stay with my Grandparent's and he would take that week off too (worked as a Deputy Director for New York State) and everyday we would go to the public library and sit and read out of town newspapers and check out books because he would tell me reading can take you anywhere you want to be and beyond. We would usually leave to go have lunch and I used to say, it's too bad the library didn't offer coffee and sandwiches and he would say years later, he should have bankrolled my idea with Barnes & Noble.
One more major thing, my Grandfather was born in 1915, he was pronounced dead and toe tagged on his porch in the pandemic of 1918, however, they did not have enough room for him on the funeral cart, so they were going to come back for him and a neighbor gave my Grandfather mouth to mouth ( very new back then) and revived him. He used to say, he was living on borrowed time.
So History, Politics (being involved), family & football being dedicated to your career in order to provide for your family and that Education was the silver bullet to poverty as well. Loved JFK and never forgave the City of Dallas or the State of Texas for what happened on the 22nd of November in 1963, but I enjoyed him every day until his death in July of 95 at the age of 80 years old.
My father and I have become closer over the years, but my Dad tended to be tougher on me in sports, school and other areas and I'm thankful for that too, however, my Grandfather always made me feel special, like I was above the rest being his first grandchild and he had 10 and a couple of years ago all of us were together at a rehearsal dinner and someone brought up that my Grandfather always favored "Den" and why do you think that was? And I responded as I looked at all my cousins...."Isn't it obvious."
