Moving up in class

Moving up in class

     Greg and I had many conversations about the concept of "moving up in class" that was inspired by horse racing but was also about family dynamics. We used our parents as examples of a desire to see their kids have a better life than they did. In the case of Grace and John, two high school grads produced three college graduates, one MBA, one PhD, and one J.D. The Creason's had never gone past 8th grade until my father's debatable High School diploma in 1930. Then two Masters degrees and honorable professions of service to the people. I always told Greg that for my Dad it was more basic and his concern was that we rose up from his country Randolph, Missouri simple boyhood to the sophistication  he had seen in New York. More than anything he wanted us to know fine dining, the joy of a nice hotel, travel to foreign lands and the ability to socialize with class people. Some of that was found to be unimportant in our love generation morality but by the time we reached middle-age the imagined good life was a legit goal. Greg was never one to skimp or go cheap in anything he did. By miles the gifts he gave me for Christmas each year were excellent and the best of their like. He would not dream of picking up something at a yard sale but had to go to Williams Sonoma for Creuset cookware that will be in my daughter's pantry when she is 77. As he called it living a grad-student life was anathema to a man who when given the choice of cuts of beef would always choose filet. No Value Village chairs in this guy's house but actually beautiful furniture. He was a carbon copy of his godfather who always struggled to escape his poor childhood and one-room schoolhouse youth in the Show-me state. BC loved fine dining, well-tailored suits, Cadillacs all shiny and new plus a mink coat for the wife. Funky was not a word Greg would have wanted to hear referring to anything he owned and he just was not interested in bargain basement anything. Let  me make it clear, the man was not a snob about anything but he took great pride in his familiarity of clasical music, the theater, fine-dining, original art and treating his friends like they had class also. He understood that real culture meant treating people with kindness and generosity despite occasionally flipping off a guy driving like an asshole.  It was no mistake that he married a Smith lady who knew exactly what he stood for and where he was going since she knew the path already. His urbane and kind offspring are a credit to their mater and pater. Looking back over seventy years I would say without hesitation that while Greg moved up in class from South Gate to La Crescenta he never lost sight of where he started on McNerney street.

                                       the founding fathers