My Grandpa & Grandma in Puerto Vallarta, 1950’s. She was from an affluent British family, engaged to another man, and while on vacation there, my grandpa stole her away and took her back to New Orleans. He was there on the G.I. bill becoming a muralist. It was true love all the way till the end!
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If I had 1% of the coolness and elegance, I’ll be delighted. Beautiful people. Beautiful picture.
What incredibly beautiful people.
Your grandma looks like Aubrey Plaza
Proto hipster
Hot af
So Grandpa was a US veteran and Grandma was a British heiress. Sounds like a good move plot!
Sooooo 1923 then?
This is him trying his hand at bull fighting while in Mexico, he was immediately gored in the thigh. As kids we always asked to see the scar. At his house in Louisiana he had the newspaper clipping and a whip/cape. He was one and done though, didnt make it a career. 1/2
https://preview.redd.it/h6ktt2l7hkla1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=f682eb13738a2a3a1bf58aa45c2b08088a9f9787
This is him trying his hand at bull fighting while in Mexico, he was immediately gored in the thigh. As kids we always asked to see the scar. At his house in Louisiana he had the newspaper clipping and a whip/cape. He was one and done though, didnt make it a career. 2/2
https://preview.redd.it/jfvydt5ihkla1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b2da586fa3796bb45bfa421b56e1e3a5a977420f
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https://preview.redd.it/4zja305lhkla1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=8dc7a7486489084be0e2d13fefadd409ed29bafa
This is blowing up and people are bringing up stuff/asking a lot of questions so Ill just add some more story to this pic
https://preview.redd.it/ojtlmovmhkla1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=599dfd330d75820c2fcba6624d6839500e0ab0c0
He was in the navy, joined after pearl harbor as he said “was a vicious, cowardly act”. Which is funny because he was the biggest hippie for most of his life.
After he got out on the GI bill down to Mexico, he was an artist there and dabbled in bull fighting.
Then, when he moved to New Orleans, he was a full time artist for a while but eventually worked his way up to being the head of the psychology department at Tulane University and was a professor for many years.
Her family married into the Goldwyn family (Like MGM studios Metro Goldwyn Mayer). So they were kind of a big deal, back then, family of inventors, politicians, etc. Made her doing this all the more scandalous.
Sadly, she died two years before I was born (cancer), so I never got to meet her.
I did get to spend lots and lots of time with my Grandpa though.
While working/living in New Orleans, they gradually acquired a large property a couple hours north, in the woods, on the Bogue Chitto river. He literally bought it an acre at a time until it was 40 acres IIRC.
They would go there on the weekends with my mom, aunt, and uncle, it was dubbed Taproot. The started with a small cabin type house and kept adding on to the bottom, eventually a second floor. When they retired, they moved out there full time, and it was heaven on earth.
They took in any animal that ever needed it so there was no shortage of stray cats and dogs over the whole property that were well cared for.
When my grandma got cancer, he went to a high point of the property, overlooking a small lake (huge pond), and built “the retreat” a one room raise loft. He built it by hand, mostly by himself (my dad (his son in law) helped with electrical and some other items). He built this for her to live out her last days in peace.
She became too sick by the time it was done, and never actually stayed there (it was a little bit of a hike to get to). He did manage to build a cart, stuff it with blankets, and wheel her up to it so she could see his hard work.
When I was of age, I would take my girlfriend (now wife) and we would stay there. It made him so happy to see it being used.
You could find old college term papers/tests from the 80’s that he was grading, he used it as a retreat too.
Eventually, the old house was constantly flooding, so he built a new house on higher ground, and that’s where he lived till the end.
His name was Jefferson Sulzer. Parts of my family are named Sultzer, since my **great** grandpa was blacklisted as a communist for associating with some while he was a ship builder wayyyy back in the day. So he changed his name, and that is why my grandpa, his siblings, and kids are Sulzers, but others are Sultzers.
He was extremely generous, and almost everything out of his mouth was quotable and sage advice. She was as well from all I was told. Her name was Nina Sulzer.
He liked to sip tequila, a tradition the whole family still does to this day in his honor, and we do the toast he liked to do in spanish.
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**Copy/paste my comment on his time as a muralist in Puerto Vallarta:**
So, he was working under David Siqueiros while in Mexico (fairly famous guy in that realm, Siqueiros was even portrayed in the movie “Frida”). They were apparently painting the interior of a courtyard, (him and other artists, with Siqueiros). This guy was apparently Communist (and so the artists that he was teaching by association were as well), and the local military sort of ousted them and disbanded his program because the ranking officer was fascist at the time or something (forgive me, politics arent my strong suit).
They painted over all of the murals, all except my grandfathers. He never told me why his survived (either subject matter or location I assume). But unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures.
When he got back to the states, he stuck to normal sized paintings, doing some for local hotels, painting out in the street on pirates alley in New Orleans, and then just for pleasure.
**Other tidbits about him:**
A relative very close friend of my Grandpa’s was Larry Borenstein, who founded Preservation Hall in New Orleans.
Another close friend, and my mom’s godfather, was Clay Shaw. He was accused of and went to trial for the assassination of JFK. My family was in the courtroom for parts of that trial to support him, as the awful D.A. had it out for Shaw with baseless accusations, and even outed him as gay (at a time where you could lose everything for that). My mom always mentioned as a little girl that she even ran past the bailiffs to give him a hug.
There was a movie about it “JFK”, Tommy Lee Jones played Shaw.
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One night, in New Orleans, someone broke into the foyer and stole their pet iguana named “Lord Jim”. My grandpa ran out of the house in his underwear and shot a pistol into the air. I’m pretty sure my grandpa was the only one that lizard liked anyway, so the rest of the house wasn’t as distraught.
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One of my grandpa’s proudest moments was getting to put the honors graduation sash thing around my brother’s neck at his Tulane graduation. My grandpa had retired from there a long time ago, but got to don his fancy professor robes once more to officially graduate my brother as a doctor. This was around 2010 or so I think.
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https://preview.redd.it/zzcexu0ohkla1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=90a4a39ebda665dfbc8b902cbda68fb93db44671
Here he is trying to fit in with his Mexican buddies
https://preview.redd.it/e8ojpzlqhkla1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=daf667e534dc274c0c4be843968a8ad11f6f876b
This is my tattoo of something he sketched in a book. Found upstairs in stacks of stuff one weekend at his place.
The tattoo artist scanned it to make the purple stencil thing that goes on, and he cut out the whispy wind, birds, and the signature. So we had to start over with all of that, because as much as Im sure the tattoo artist hated it, I wanted it dot for dot identical haha
https://preview.redd.it/oep96sroikla1.jpeg?width=1023&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=27b260643043cdbec236a0f5c80e1a81fc0ba5a4
Ill post some of his art. A lot of his larger paintings he did when was younger were all sold at the time as it was his job at the time. Larger stuff he did later in life was often given away to family members, a lot was lost in hurricane Katrina and various other floods.
This was one he did labeled “harlequin self-portrait”
https://preview.redd.it/r6x2tx81mkla1.jpeg?width=2798&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=df0b5d733d76e1c2e6036aa840369a3dca104d5c
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces)
https://preview.redd.it/zhq56bzgmkla1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=7ce1a9c56b3966e6083e9cda676714732184e485
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces)
https://preview.redd.it/1h184stsmkla1.jpeg?width=1606&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=1cba1f3e7e91868871a6e76cb1bfe3fda3dd9511
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces) This one done under a pseudonym while he was street painting in Pirate’s Alley New Orleans.
https://preview.redd.it/i270j72vmkla1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=4a78fbae9408b8130607d410ebe5cb199a9340f8
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces)
https://preview.redd.it/2npsvxwzmkla1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=966dc8b6ef85d2c8675fd23165318e9376cfb855
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces)
https://preview.redd.it/8wlrmqv1nkla1.jpeg?width=2308&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=0cefbb982b45ece456271386ea8e55c3f2ff5c4d
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces)
https://preview.redd.it/lrn0ar44nkla1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=5202acbd1ae5149f9f271d38700f50e64d2276bc
More of his art (small sampling of small pieces) Termites got to these, (he didnt take great care of most of the art he did). I have since framed these together
https://preview.redd.it/tyjx86v5nkla1.jpeg?width=3627&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=90e29d7aba9e642891614971e17ee09736be3f8c
Damn I feel sorry for the other guy. Imagine your woman goes on vacation and comes back with a new whole ass man😩
feel bad for the other guy
I’m a Tulane PhD student! I’ve heard of him!
More Art from my mom and sister, New orleans
https://preview.redd.it/tqtobsacilla1.jpeg?width=2467&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=890a857bf66266238cd7e73b7bf2bebbb8de04bf
More Art from my mom and sister
https://preview.redd.it/3qbppm3eilla1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=84d79df19bd4aa7ac5586e6248c5015a172abf14
More Art from my mom and sister
https://preview.redd.it/6ukm50lfilla1.jpeg?width=4030&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=063590f5f96690995014eafffabb79cb35aff4dc
More Art from my mom and sister
https://preview.redd.it/py7zn6kiilla1.jpeg?width=4030&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=c5c0a2de101650e7f75867add992247d95d426f8
More Art from my mom and sister, this is the house he retired to in the woods, before the second story and other add-ons. Overlooks a river in southern Louisiana
https://preview.redd.it/uzendbwjilla1.jpeg?width=3243&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=244c38e7a80601ee455420302578c9bb6b106836
More Art from my mom
https://preview.redd.it/6nzeozknilla1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=cd558d804be7ba57386a5b0063955971abd57ab0
More Art from my sister, this appears to be my Grandma
https://preview.redd.it/optn4l03jlla1.jpeg?width=2909&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=5a334f161ae20bf9ba03ea4dea3a26826d62a953
Another pic
https://preview.redd.it/ka1gf5z5jlla1.jpeg?width=302&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=ca8d70d6db7b919c611645631bdb73b1fa8c95f4
This is possibly one of this subs best photos and stories ever.
This is the cart he built to bring her around the property when she was too weak with cancer to make it to the retreat he built for her
https://preview.redd.it/luwq6n13hmla1.jpeg?width=1632&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=419355ac82e0d1ac75f7a93583752ffb80d3e7c8
Him at my brother’s Graduation
https://preview.redd.it/obynpxlglmla1.jpeg?width=717&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=a46a84f676f40b1748952ad92accc58266a7f117
Grandma
https://preview.redd.it/iolwqvbjlmla1.jpeg?width=816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=bb564f6369981e8e0f9ddead5330d69971fc7b1a
Working around the property in the woods
https://preview.redd.it/2xe8guqllmla1.jpeg?width=432&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=59a9f677c0ef7011e0d0957374d765a97d804995