My maternal grandfather, Ben Rommel, owned and operated a service station in rural Illinois. Can you see through the lobby's door to the house next-door? That's the house where I remember visiting my grandparents as a child, in the early 1960s.
Sometime in 2006, I learned that the garage in this photograph was demolished due to contamination of the soil beneath the building. That's when I started writing the story of "Benson's Garage". It is a ficticious business in a ficticious town, near the Mississippi River. The owner of Benson's Garage is NOT my grandfather, that story character is named Burt Benson and although he may share some common history with Grandpa Rommel, they are very different men with distinct personalities and different stories!
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| Ben Rommel (not to be confused with Burt Benson) |
Is that really a picture of Grandpa Rommel!? It's amazing! It looks like it's been tinted. I love this picture (and the story, of course).
ReplyDeleteIt was originally a slide. Maybe that's why it looks tinted? And you're right, it's a great picture.
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