Friday, 11/3

My grandfather died thirty years ago today. And in a very small way, it changed a little something in your life.

I don't think any of you knew my maternal grandfather, Frank Schwemin. He worked at NMU for many years and called square and round dances throughout the area before dying of emphysema on November 3^rd, 1987. It's funny, but in a way he lives on, as his oldest grandson has the same dorkily long limbs and slightly sunken eyes as he did. So every time you see me you see a bit of my grandfather.

But that's not how his death changed your life in a very small way. When my grandfather died I was working in Flint, suffering through a horrid job in a horrid locale. At the same time I came home for his funeral a job at TV-6 opened, a job almost exactly the same as I was doing down in Flint. Up to that point, I had always thought that my future lie somewhere other than Marquette. I don't know why I did; call it the impetuousness of youth, I guess. But coming home for his funeral made me realize that moving back to Marquette might not be the worst thing in the world. So while I was going to funeral and family gatherings I managed to sneak in a job interview before heading back to Flint, where I waited to hear if I got the job.

A few days later I found out it was given to someone else.

That might've been the end of it right there. I might've resigned myself to finding a new job somewhere else and then hoping that the girl I had met in Flint might wanna look for a job there, too. But as it turns out, the person hired for the TV-6 job worked at a Marquette radio station. That meant that his job had to be filled, and while I hadn't really thought about going back into radio, a few months later I found myself moving back to Marquette to fill that position. And while that particular job was almost as bad (if not worse) than the one I had in Flint, it had three things going for it—it was in Marquette, not Flint. The girl I had met in Flint decided to take the leap and move up here. And it allowed me to connect with a guy for whom I had worked in high school, and when the afternoon air slot opened up at Joe Blake's WMQT, I took it and haven't looked back since.

That's why my grandfather's death 30 years ago today changed your life just a small, tiny bit. If I hadn't decided after he passed away that I wanted to move back to Marquette you'd be listening to someone else every afternoon, and I'd probably be working at some job somewhere I didn't like, missing out on the chance to live in an amazing city with an amazing woman, an amazing family, and an amazing lifestyle.

And that all started because of what happened 30 years ago today.

(jim@wmqt.com)

(ps—enjoy your weekend. And, as is (sadly) becoming normal, stay warm & stay dry!)