A few months ago I was going through some old photographs at my mother’s and came across the pictures below of my grandfather, Curtin Hummel Reinhardt (Gramp to me), taken in about 1940.

I knew he was a man who always had hobbies and that when he did he got into them in depth. I knew that he collected fish and when my mother met him he had over 29 aquariums at home, the one in the second picture and the rest in an enclosed porch. I didn’t know he also had terrariums like the one beside him on the table. I believe my father was the photographer, taking pictures of his dad with his things.

Gramp also carved pipes. In this photo he is holding one of them. A picture of my mom, his future daughter in law, is on the table behind him as is a humidor with more of his pipes. (I never saw him smoke a pipe.) Beside him is the terrarium he is working on in the second picture and my Dad’s dog, Muggsy. continued . . .