One of the many memories I have of my maternal grandfather, Paul Sevald, is that he always dressed well. He was a machinest by trade but he always wore a dress shirt and suit. The whole get-up including those elastic bands around your sleeves to hold them up. A white (only white) hanky with his initials embroidered on it peeking out of his breast pocket, folded just so. And garters to hold up his socks. You don't see them anymore. His shoes? always polished and his curly hair never seemed to need a cut, he looked like he was fresh from the barber. He wore a hat to church on Sunday, the kind Harry Truman wore. If I close my eyes I can still see him on a Saturday afternoon at the Sears on Six corners in Chicago. While my grandma and I shopped, he people watched. He would buy a bag of nuts and position himself at the escalator watching the folks go up and down. He would later comment on the hats the ladies wore and he wasn't at all pleased if a woman wore pants or didn't have her gloves on while "out on the town". He only "dressed down" if he went fishing out on Navy Pier and even then there was a neatness about him. Shirt always tucked in, suspenders in place. But no hat...that was for Sunday.
my grandfather
Paul Skoglund Sevald
b. 25 August 1894 Kragerø, Telemark, Norway
d. 5 September 1971 Chicago, Cook, Illinois USA
