You can tell a lot about my great-grandfather by what he tells stories about. In his memoir, Gidgiddo tells stories about driving across the continent

Man Loses Finger, Gains America - by Santi Ruiz

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2023-01-24 15:30:04

You can tell a lot about my great-grandfather by what he tells stories about. In his memoir, Gidgiddo tells stories about driving across the continent, back and forth, and buying large quantities of fruit: fifty oranges, or grapefruits, or ten pounds of dates. He tells stories about the wildness of America: encountering snowstorms and hurricanes, or vast swarms of insects, or driving sleepless a day and a night and a day and being only a third of the way home. He tells stories about times he refused to make a profit from a sale, or when mechanics fixed an issue with his car for free. He’s proud to tell stories about spotting a business opportunity, like making a few hundred dollars to start a business in California by cleaning furniture for hotels. He was a man from the old country, but he liked to tell stories about America.

These stories come from a set of tapes he recorded toward the end of his life, which his son my grandfather, also named Louis Lataif, faithfully transcribed the year after he died, shortly after I was born.