With
this post, we remember Andrew’s father, Gil, whose 85th birthday
would have been today had he not been taken from us in March of this year. He was a very fine fellow, a great Father and
Grandfather. A former Track and Field star in college, it's especially fitting to remember him during the London Olympic Games since he was a huge fan of the quadrennial event. One and all know him as
“Gil” and there’s a wonderful story behind why.
Andrew’s grandfather Bert, Gil’s father, was also Gilbert. However, he
was quite the bon vivant and single. He
would bring many a date out to visit Andrew’s family on the North Shore of Long
Island while he lived in Murray Hill in New York. Andrew was one of 5 children and his father
and mother married young. Bert may have
been a doting grandfather but he passed himself off as Gil’s brother. Thus his
lady friends never hung the label Grandfather on him. So Bert stayed Bert to every one of his
grandchildren and the name stuck long after his happy re-marriage. When Gil himself became a grandfather, he carried on the family
tradition and his grandchildren called him, not Granddad but Gil. Now, unbelievably to me having seen Andrew
in action baking, apparently Gil did not have much of a sweet tooth but the one
thing in the world that he could not resist were Butterscotch Brownies.
