When he was just sixteen months old, Sidney's father died, leaving his young wife with his business to sell in Lexington, Missouri and with the need to return to her own state of Michigan where she had family to assist her. Growing up fatherless with four siblings who were deaf-mutes put responsibilities on the child Sid. He was serious and determined. He knitted mittens and scarves for Doughboys when school children did such during World War One. He mastered household skills from necessity, learned to fish and to drive a car as the nation became enamored of the automobile. He was captain of Flint's Central High School's football team and graduated from there in February 1927. He attended the University of Wisconsin for a year before the Great Depression ended his tertiary education.
Growing up as he did in Flint, it was natural for him to seek employment with the automobile industry. From then on every job he had related in some way to automobiles...from working on the assembly line, to opening his own auto body repair shops, to teaching welding and Jeep repair at Fort Holabird during World War Two, to selling tools for automotive repair to body shops. He developed an interest in antique autos and acquired brands unfamiliar today: Essex, White, Huppmobile, Franklin, and others. His collecting cars led to his membership in car clubs and participating with one of his collection in the grand openings of major roads and bridges or in parades.
In 1935 he moved to Baltimore. Here he could indulge his love of seafood. He had a particular fondness for oysters, crabs and Chesapeake rockfish (striped bass). Going to a certain restaurant at Four Corners north of Baltimore was almost a ritual. His pleasures included playing poker and pinochle, going for Sunday drives, swimming at the old swimming hole near Pretty Boy Dam with his kids and dog Rookie. Although he did not put flowers on graves as so many people did then, he did visit with friends and relatives as far away as Hagerstown,Maryland, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Washington, D.C, Westminster, Maryland and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on a Sunday. Before he was married, he and his brother George enjoyed trips to Texas and Mexico, and to Canada, but with hard times came curtailment of travel. He and his wife Bert intended to take a cross-country trip after his retirement. That did not happen.
In 1947 he moved his family from Baltimore County, Maryland to Adams County, Pennsylvania where he and Bert restored a derelict stone house to modern livability. They enjoyed the work, the history, the discovery that the house had been a hospital following the battle of Gettysburg, the bucolic life on their ten acres. At that time Sid was a traveling sales representative for H.K.Porter automotive tools; often he was gone 2 or 3 weeks covering his territory. Circumstances changed and in 1953 Sid opened his own body and paint shop (using H.K. Porter tools!) in Baltimore County, Maryland. The family returned to Maryland.
Even though he spent most of his life in Maryland, Sid's formative years were in Michigan and thus, he had a vocabulary that was different from his wife's. His was a pail to her bucket; he said baby carriage but she
said baby buggy. He said pavement; she said sidewalk. He said toilet, she said commode. Sid said blanket, Bert said cover. He pronounced words such as roof, dog, fog and broom in the way he had been taught which was unlike the Maryland way. This caused some family merriment.
He died mid-word talking to his wife. He simply winked out on the night of November 30,1972. He frequently had said that he lived at the best of times--he had known horse and buggy age and then had seen men walking on the moon!
(Biography by Carroll Trine Lisle)
Growing up as he did in Flint, it was natural for him to seek employment with the automobile industry. From then on every job he had related in some way to automobiles...from working on the assembly line, to opening his own auto body repair shops, to teaching welding and Jeep repair at Fort Holabird during World War Two, to selling tools for automotive repair to body shops. He developed an interest in antique autos and acquired brands unfamiliar today: Essex, White, Huppmobile, Franklin, and others. His collecting cars led to his membership in car clubs and participating with one of his collection in the grand openings of major roads and bridges or in parades.
In 1935 he moved to Baltimore. Here he could indulge his love of seafood. He had a particular fondness for oysters, crabs and Chesapeake rockfish (striped bass). Going to a certain restaurant at Four Corners north of Baltimore was almost a ritual. His pleasures included playing poker and pinochle, going for Sunday drives, swimming at the old swimming hole near Pretty Boy Dam with his kids and dog Rookie. Although he did not put flowers on graves as so many people did then, he did visit with friends and relatives as far away as Hagerstown,Maryland, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Washington, D.C, Westminster, Maryland and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on a Sunday. Before he was married, he and his brother George enjoyed trips to Texas and Mexico, and to Canada, but with hard times came curtailment of travel. He and his wife Bert intended to take a cross-country trip after his retirement. That did not happen.
In 1947 he moved his family from Baltimore County, Maryland to Adams County, Pennsylvania where he and Bert restored a derelict stone house to modern livability. They enjoyed the work, the history, the discovery that the house had been a hospital following the battle of Gettysburg, the bucolic life on their ten acres. At that time Sid was a traveling sales representative for H.K.Porter automotive tools; often he was gone 2 or 3 weeks covering his territory. Circumstances changed and in 1953 Sid opened his own body and paint shop (using H.K. Porter tools!) in Baltimore County, Maryland. The family returned to Maryland.
Even though he spent most of his life in Maryland, Sid's formative years were in Michigan and thus, he had a vocabulary that was different from his wife's. His was a pail to her bucket; he said baby carriage but she
said baby buggy. He said pavement; she said sidewalk. He said toilet, she said commode. Sid said blanket, Bert said cover. He pronounced words such as roof, dog, fog and broom in the way he had been taught which was unlike the Maryland way. This caused some family merriment.
He died mid-word talking to his wife. He simply winked out on the night of November 30,1972. He frequently had said that he lived at the best of times--he had known horse and buggy age and then had seen men walking on the moon!
(Biography by Carroll Trine Lisle)
When he was just sixteen months old, Sidney's father died, leaving his young wife with his business to sell in Lexington, Missouri and with the need to return to her own state of Michigan where she had family to assist her. Growing up fatherless with four siblings who were deaf-mutes put responsibilities on the child Sid. He was serious and determined. He knitted mittens and scarves for Doughboys when school children did such during World War One. He mastered household skills from necessity, learned to fish and to drive a car as the nation became enamored of the automobile. He was captain of Flint's Central High School's football team and graduated from there in February 1927. He attended the University of Wisconsin for a year before the Great Depression ended his tertiary education.
Growing up as he did in Flint, it was natural for him to seek employment with the automobile industry. From then on every job he had related in some way to automobiles...from working on the assembly line, to opening his own auto body repair shops, to teaching welding and Jeep repair at Fort Holabird during World War Two, to selling tools for automotive repair to body shops. He developed an interest in antique autos and acquired brands unfamiliar today: Essex, White, Huppmobile, Franklin, and others. His collecting cars led to his membership in car clubs and participating with one of his collection in the grand openings of major roads and bridges or in parades.
In 1935 he moved to Baltimore. Here he could indulge his love of seafood. He had a particular fondness for oysters, crabs and Chesapeake rockfish (striped bass). Going to a certain restaurant at Four Corners north of Baltimore was almost a ritual. His pleasures included playing poker and pinochle, going for Sunday drives, swimming at the old swimming hole near Pretty Boy Dam with his kids and dog Rookie. Although he did not put flowers on graves as so many people did then, he did visit with friends and relatives as far away as Hagerstown,Maryland, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Washington, D.C, Westminster, Maryland and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on a Sunday. Before he was married, he and his brother George enjoyed trips to Texas and Mexico, and to Canada, but with hard times came curtailment of travel. He and his wife Bert intended to take a cross-country trip after his retirement. That did not happen.
In 1947 he moved his family from Baltimore County, Maryland to Adams County, Pennsylvania where he and Bert restored a derelict stone house to modern livability. They enjoyed the work, the history, the discovery that the house had been a hospital following the battle of Gettysburg, the bucolic life on their ten acres. At that time Sid was a traveling sales representative for H.K.Porter automotive tools; often he was gone 2 or 3 weeks covering his territory. Circumstances changed and in 1953 Sid opened his own body and paint shop (using H.K. Porter tools!) in Baltimore County, Maryland. The family returned to Maryland.
Even though he spent most of his life in Maryland, Sid's formative years were in Michigan and thus, he had a vocabulary that was different from his wife's. His was a pail to her bucket; he said baby carriage but she
said baby buggy. He said pavement; she said sidewalk. He said toilet, she said commode. Sid said blanket, Bert said cover. He pronounced words such as roof, dog, fog and broom in the way he had been taught which was unlike the Maryland way. This caused some family merriment.
He died mid-word talking to his wife. He simply winked out on the night of November 30,1972. He frequently had said that he lived at the best of times--he had known horse and buggy age and then had seen men walking on the moon!
(Biography by Carroll Trine Lisle)
Growing up as he did in Flint, it was natural for him to seek employment with the automobile industry. From then on every job he had related in some way to automobiles...from working on the assembly line, to opening his own auto body repair shops, to teaching welding and Jeep repair at Fort Holabird during World War Two, to selling tools for automotive repair to body shops. He developed an interest in antique autos and acquired brands unfamiliar today: Essex, White, Huppmobile, Franklin, and others. His collecting cars led to his membership in car clubs and participating with one of his collection in the grand openings of major roads and bridges or in parades.
In 1935 he moved to Baltimore. Here he could indulge his love of seafood. He had a particular fondness for oysters, crabs and Chesapeake rockfish (striped bass). Going to a certain restaurant at Four Corners north of Baltimore was almost a ritual. His pleasures included playing poker and pinochle, going for Sunday drives, swimming at the old swimming hole near Pretty Boy Dam with his kids and dog Rookie. Although he did not put flowers on graves as so many people did then, he did visit with friends and relatives as far away as Hagerstown,Maryland, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Washington, D.C, Westminster, Maryland and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on a Sunday. Before he was married, he and his brother George enjoyed trips to Texas and Mexico, and to Canada, but with hard times came curtailment of travel. He and his wife Bert intended to take a cross-country trip after his retirement. That did not happen.
In 1947 he moved his family from Baltimore County, Maryland to Adams County, Pennsylvania where he and Bert restored a derelict stone house to modern livability. They enjoyed the work, the history, the discovery that the house had been a hospital following the battle of Gettysburg, the bucolic life on their ten acres. At that time Sid was a traveling sales representative for H.K.Porter automotive tools; often he was gone 2 or 3 weeks covering his territory. Circumstances changed and in 1953 Sid opened his own body and paint shop (using H.K. Porter tools!) in Baltimore County, Maryland. The family returned to Maryland.
Even though he spent most of his life in Maryland, Sid's formative years were in Michigan and thus, he had a vocabulary that was different from his wife's. His was a pail to her bucket; he said baby carriage but she
said baby buggy. He said pavement; she said sidewalk. He said toilet, she said commode. Sid said blanket, Bert said cover. He pronounced words such as roof, dog, fog and broom in the way he had been taught which was unlike the Maryland way. This caused some family merriment.
He died mid-word talking to his wife. He simply winked out on the night of November 30,1972. He frequently had said that he lived at the best of times--he had known horse and buggy age and then had seen men walking on the moon!
(Biography by Carroll Trine Lisle)
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