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My Grandfather
The most influential person in my NAPA involvement is my grandfather, Jake Warner. As you see in this very bundle, he has published 500 journals in 500 consecutive months for NAPA, no small feat, with many of them being quite long. As a child, I spent a great deal of time in my grandparents house, as they lived close by. Many times, my entertainment was setting type and printing – mostly just one or two copies of some ephemera on a proof press. Grandpa recently informed me that there are still some galleys of my projects in his printshop, that have probably been set for 15 years.
Many times when I visited my grandparents, an issue of The Boxwooder would be in some state of partial assembly. I had the joy of always reading it when it came in the bundle, and feeling proud that it was written by my grandfather. I was always a very strong reader at an early age, but I’ll admit I remember so little of many issues, that I ought to go back and reread earlier ones. I also can specifically remember many conventions where The Boxwooder took home multiple laureates, and I can remember when the bundles had good competition for the laureates.
As my grandfather publishes every month without fail, and frequently of his own composition, it is difficult to write anything that he has not already told you himself in his journals. So, I will give you some interesting tidbits, most of which you likely already have read.
My grandfather grew up in Kentucky, and went to college both before and after serving in World War II. The official story told to me on why my grandparents moved to Maryland was for my grandfather to attend Johns Hopkins University for graduate school. They lived in DC for a few years before moving to Greenbelt. My grandparents have been in their current home for more than forty years.
My grandfather is an innovative cook. He has some standby recipes, but has never hesitated to try interesting new recipes he finds on the internet, and has good enough judgment on the recipes that I cannot recall a meal I did not enjoy, even when he explained it was a new recipe to try. He also has no issues trying foods that might sound odd at first, always giving things a chance.
He has had a computer since before I was born, and definitely spent a lot of time learning to write programs to help with many things around the house, from his own financial software to recipe books, to the address label program currently used by NAPA for bundles and the National Amateur.
My grandfather has had many other hobbies besides printing and programming. When I was very young he indulged my stamp collecting interests with frequent trips to the Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. and my science interests with trips to the Goddard Space Flight Museum in Greenbelt. I believed I memorized both museums and am amazed by his patience. Especially that in a city of free museums, he usually only took me to the one museum. I believe my grandfather collected stamps, because for years he received a newspaper called Linn’s that had to do with stamps. I don’t recall seeing it in recent years, so I do not know the full title anymore.
When I was about 10 years old, one year my grandmother decided to have a model train go around the Christmas tree. My grandfather decided that he should then get out his old model trains that he had created when my father was younger, and set them up in the living room. After they didn’t leave the living room for months, he eventually cleaned space in the basement and built a full model train set up which he ran frequently and worked with.
Again, all of the above is from my viewpoint. Since much is from the view of my childhood, I would not be surprised to find that not was all as it seemed. However, all of this had a lasting impression on my life. I did not send this journal, unlike my other journals about individuals, to him for advance review and comment.
I will admit that out of my 22+ years of membership in NAPA, there have been times where I have simply been a typical child more than a member. However, conventions always inspired me to be more active. I was still very surprised in 2008 when I did my first graduate project about amateur printing, a case study of Arthur Graham’s makeready approach, that I realized not only did it truly interest me, but that my professors liked the concept as well. That project blossomed into a term paper for a Folk Arts and Technologies class, which turned into my thesis, something I never would have done without that history behind me.
My grandfather also has an interest for real trains – and when I entered graduate school, it was his love of the subject that made me feel at home working for a year in a train museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
I believe it was his encouragement of my computer use, and my study of math, that put me on a path to a respected engineering university for my undergraduate degree. While I was not successful in obtaining a math degree and switched my focus to history, he gave me an educational background to do anything I wanted to do with my life. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life deciding what that is, but I’ll have fun doing it.
I’m sure all of you know that he rode a bike very frequently for many years, and rode centuries that he would write journals about from time to time. I hope to ride my first century this year. I’ve completed the first step – watching and helping Marc learn how to ride for the first time.
I have been immensely blessed in my life to have such a grandfather in my life, always taking the time and interest to involve me in things that mattered to him. And of course, there’s the patience of putting up with the homework I would assign him when we would play school.
One of my greatest pleasures this year was being able to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with my grandfather to celebrate his 90th birthday. I hope I will be with him for many more.
Material content not read or pre-approved in any way for publication by the subject, Jake Warner. This journal written, printed and published by Alice Brosey of the Wellesley Lane Press, Knoxville, TN. Distributed privately and through the National Amateur Press Association. Designed with Microsoft Publisher 2007 and printed on an HP LaserJet 1320.