Do you think your tough?

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Messages 1 - 18 of total 18 in this topic
steveA

Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 4, 2014 - 10:22am PT
I found this photo in a shoebox full of photo's, at my grandmothers house.

She died at 104, and told me the photo was of her grandparents, They were born in PEI, ( Prince Edward Island, Canada). The old guy, Jean DesRoches, was born in 1799, and lived to 94. They had 10 children.

Post up pictures of your earliest ancestors, if you have them.
apogee

climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
Jan 4, 2014 - 10:28am PT
My answer:

No.
T2

climber
Cardiff by the sea
Jan 4, 2014 - 10:36am PT
I love your sense of humor locker

(Edit) 9.9 times outof 10
steveA

Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 4, 2014 - 10:42am PT
Locker,

I was waiting for that. I knew it wouldn't take long. Ha,Ha
Wade Icey

Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
Jan 4, 2014 - 10:59am PT
Do I think my tough is what?
MisterE

climber
Feb 6, 2014 - 02:04am PT
You want tough?

Loenid Rogozov, the only surgeon on a 1961 Antarctic expedition, giving himself surgery after suffering from appendicitis:

thebravecowboy

Social climber
Colorado Plateau
Feb 6, 2014 - 02:07am PT
Thank you Wade.

Another self-appendectomist: Dana Lamb.

And nope, I am a giant wimpy-man, but that's ok. Iphones and sh#t. Who needs spatial awareness or dexterity or guile when it's all there in my china-made-mind?
bigbird

climber
WA
Feb 6, 2014 - 02:08am PT
Lorenz saladin amputated part of his frostbitten hand on the Khan-tengri in 1936 and then attempted to disinfect it with gasoline... He made it off the mountain but died of blood poisoning a couple of days later...

Super tough....


Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Feb 6, 2014 - 02:11am PT
Old photos can be cool, although it seems people rarely make copies,
so they end up with only one branch of the descendants.
Here are a couple which I had posted on a Mothers' Day thread:
P.S. As we all know from climbing, when things get really tough, nobody is taking photos!!
Lollie

Social climber
I'm Lolli.
Feb 6, 2014 - 08:17am PT
Post up pictures of your earliest ancestors, if you have them.
No... the earliest I know about was way before cameras, the early medieval times. But even so, it's rather easy to conclude they must've been pretty tough. They defied the pope and they lived in the Arctic.

But me, I'm not tough. A delicate flower in a gentle breeze. A porcelain doll. :-)

wivanoff

Trad climber
CT
Feb 6, 2014 - 09:26am PT
I have no photo to post. But, I have a newspaper article about my grandfather. The article included a photo of both grandparents, my father and my aunt. Everyone mentioned in the article has since passed.

"The Bridgeport Post - Saturday June 9, 1934
Battle Waged in Congress to Keep Family Here United

Death in his native land at the hands of the Soviet government if he is deported awaits Nicholas Ivanoff, of 512 Harral avenue, this city, former lieutenant in the Imperial Navy of the Czar of All Russia. His deportation may take place shortly unless Congress makes changes in the immigration laws of the United States.

Ivanoff came to this country in 1924, and today, for the first time, the law threatens to reach out and snatch him from his wife and two American-born children all because diplomatic relations have been resumed between the United States and Soviet Russia. A House bill to prevent deportation went on the calendar of the House of Representatives in Washington today. The bill will come up shortly before the House and Senate for consideration.

Also affected are many other White Russians here.

Ivanoff's Offense:

Stricken with fear of what the future holds for Nicholas Ivanoff, members of the family briefly recounted the "offense" committed by the former naval officer which resulted in the issuance of a warrant for him by the "Red" government of present day Russia.

It was during the turbulent days of 1919 when all Russia was plunged into civil strife and class uprising, the aftermath of the overthrow of the rule of the Czar, that Ivanoff's story begins.

Bands of peasants, tasting freedom for the first time, holding guns in hand and able to shoot at their former masters, roamed the streets of Odessa. Ruthlessly, they hunted for friends of the Czar, government officials, military officers and the richer people, dragged them out of their homes and killed in cold blood.

As in cities throughout Russia, bands of so-called "White Russians" or those opposed to the present day government gathered and fought off as long as possible their one time former charges. It was a hopeless battle.

Leut. Ivanoff, then first officer aboard a 7,000 ton transport, realized the precarious position of his friends. In the dark of one night which followed a bloody day of civil war, the boat he commanded slipped into the harbor of Odessa. Through prearranged signals, some 4,500 White Russians were able to gather and get aboard the boat, which took them to freedom.

Learning of the escape the "Reds" immediately swore out warrants for Leut. Ivanoff. It would be only a matter of hours after he is caught that a military court would sentence him to death before a squad of picked marksmen.

Came here in 1924:

In 1924, Leut. Ivanoff came to this country, the shadow of death temporarily removed. He married and established a family. A son, William, 9, now attend Wheeler school and a daughter, Valentina, five, plays at home with her father's colorful uniform of the Imperial Russian Navy. Mrs. Ivanoff, an Austrian by birth, is a naturalized American citizen.

A year after entering America, Ivanoff returned to sea. He made several trips from Miami to Cuba.

Difficulties come to the fore when America and Soviet Russia resumed normal relations. As an alien Ivanoff is liable to deportation. Touched by his plight, Miss Blanche Humphrey, executive secretary of the International Institute of the YWCA, on Beach street, immediately took an active interest in the case. Frantically she joined hundreds of other social workers in attempting to bring about the passage of legislation in Congress which would permit Ivanoff and hundreds of others like him, desirable aliens, to remain in the United States.

Ivanoff is an employee of the Sikorsky Aviation company."

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 6, 2014 - 11:49am PT
Mr E's vrach Rogozoff wins, hands down.

My wife is related to Andrew Jackson. He was pretty tough.
She's also related to John Deere, but not closely enough to really matter.


Me? Irish potatoe refugees - pretty tough.
Bohemian gypsies - pretty tough.
Norwegian fishermen - pretty tough
...and then there is Uncle Stirling - damn tough, if a trifle over-done once.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Feb 6, 2014 - 12:50pm PT
Ri-kesten.
Known for his shamanic abilities, a hunter doing leather-work, living on other people's ground in a former rye barn, left a bunch of children, lived the last years of his life in the house of my grandmother's grandparents. I'm quite sure this guy would have made Lee Marvin cry by staring into his eyes for a few seconds. His left eye is still alive. Look into it and the abyss is staring into you...
and then there's the myth
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Feb 6, 2014 - 01:18pm PT
Self-appendectomy is pretty much near the top of bad-assedness.

Maybe only thing cooler would be self-brain surgery, having to correct for the reversal of image in a mirror. I tried getting a tick out from behind my ear once, using a knife and looking in a mirror. Pretty tough, the knife keeps moving in the opposite direction as my brain is trying to tell it.
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Feb 6, 2014 - 01:31pm PT
OK, this inspired me to surf a bit for more stories. There are various stories of arm amputation after lobster-pot winches, corn huskers, rocks, etc. pinned the limb. All gnarly. Here's a different one:

Ramírez Pérez lives in rural Rio Talea Mexico which has 500 people and only one phone. In March of 2000 the 40-year-old mother of seven was alone in her cabin when her labor started. She assumed her birthing position by sitting up and leaning forward. At midnight after 12 hours of continual pain and little advancement in labor and rather than experience another fetal death that occurred from her last pregnancy Ramírez decided to operate on herself. She drank from either a bottle of rubbing alcohol or 3 small glasses of hard liquor” (different accounts vary). She then grabbed a 15-cm knife and began to cut. Ramirez sawed through skin, fat and muscle and after operating on herself for an hour she reached inside her uterus and pulled out her baby boy who breathed and cried immediately. She says she cut his umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and then passed out. When she regained consciousness she wrapped clothes around her bleeding abdomen and asked her 6-year-old son to run for help. Several hours later the village health assistant found Ramírez alert and lying beside her healthy baby. She was then taken to the nearest hospital eight hours away by car and underwent surgery to repair complications resulting from damage to her intestines incurred during her C-section. She was then released from the hospital and made a complete recovery.

Interesting Fact: Ramírez is believed to be the only woman known to have performed a successful caesarean section on herself. Her case was written up in the March 2004 issue of the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 6, 2014 - 01:32pm PT
Marlow, was he Sami?
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Feb 6, 2014 - 01:35pm PT
Reilly

No, he was not sami. He was forest-Finn.

Had Ramírez Pérez been related in any way to anyone I knew, she would have had my vote... tough beyond imagination...
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Feb 6, 2014 - 03:26pm PT
Bill,
Great story about your grandfather.
Not only tough, but bold and just!
Messages 1 - 18 of total 18 in this topic
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