My grandfather, George McKenzie, a “leap year baby” born February 29, 1904, always enjoyed referring to his age by the number of birthdays he had celebrated. Thus, were he still living, George would just now be celebrating his 30th birthday!
For me, he was a family connection to two of my favorite parts of American history – the Old West and the Great Depression years.
George was born in Oklahoma Territory (Oklahoma became a state in 1907), where his father, William, worked as a cowboy for twelve years. This likely accounted my grandfather’s love of western stories. From my father I learned that George was an avid reader of Zane Grey novels during my father’s childhood years. He said George was sometimes known to stay awake long into the night reading Zane Grey’s latest work. During my own childhood, I have cherished memories of watching episodes of Gunsmoke and Bonanza while the family was spending an evening at Grandpa’s house.
By the time the Great Depression was in full swing in the 1930s, George was living in Illinois, married, and the father of four children. Like so many others, he was often without a job. He eventually accepted a job with the WPA driving a truck as part of the road and bridge work being done in the area around Litchfield and Hillsboro. The WPA, the Works Progress Administration, was one of the Federal government’s New Deal agencies that provided paying jobs to the unemployed, mostly in construction work.
A bridge in a low-lying farmland area a few miles west of Hillsboro was built during those Depression years, and George was part of the team that built that bridge. When the concrete for the bridge’s pillars was poured, the weather was very cold, especially at night. To allow the concrete to properly set up in the cold temperatures, fires were built around the pillars and kept burning through the night. George was the man who stayed up through the night tending those fires. My father, still a young boy at the time, was able to be with him during those nights. As of the summer of 2008 when I saw it, that bridge was still standing and still safe for automobile traffic!
When I think about my grandfather, that “leap year” baby of 1904, I also think of how much change has happened in the past 120 years. He did not survive to see home computers, or cell phones. However, he lived through some incredible times during his life, including: the beginnings of the film industry; the first airplanes; the development of the personal passenger automobile; World War I; the rise of radio; the Great Depression; World War II; jet aircraft; the debut of television; satellite communication; and man’s first walk on the moon!
His story is a wonderful part of my family’s intersection with our 20th Century American history and heritage.
MATTHEW McKENZIE 