Victor Loforte

I don't think he retired from the railroad.  When I was older than the railroad incident (Mutual age ~12y) his garage was his 'shop' for his plumbing business.  Before second, he work for A.J. Sweet plumbing, maybe A.W. Sweet but I think he really disagreed with the owners over something (seems like it was behavior/attitude/policies or forcing unionizaton -- Gpa was adamantly against unions and in favor of agency.  So by the time I could drive (if not sooner) Grandpa started his own plumbing business.  I believe he retired from his own plumbing business.  

His garage was on the south side of the house with the little well out front, with a driveway that went from the road to the face of the garage, and the garage face was set back about 40 feet from the face of the house.  There was a car port in front of the garage that was big enough for 1 or two vehicles.  The garage had a large window and an entrance door just to the right side of the window.  You go in the door and that is where his office was. 

UNDER the office was a dugout that he kept covered with planks.  No it wasn't for the still.  It was for mechanic work.  Before the window and door were there, he could drive the car into the garage, crawl into th dugout, and do car work on the underside of the vehicle.  It was later that he converted it to the office.   Entering the hall, there was some kind of room to the left.  I dunno anymore what it was.  To the right was a pipes and fittings storage room.  It was very simple but very functional.  That is the room where I helped him wire 3-way lights (my first 3-way job).  Further ahead (west) down the hallway was the main shop (later main room).  He had a wood burning stove just to the left as you enter the room.  That is also where he had the two deer heads hanging on the left (south) walll.  You could open the back of the  garage to bring a vehicle in.  He had an out-door on the same end as the furnace but on the opposite side of the hall.  It went out to the pumproom and to his awesome garden...   I mean awesome! 

That's another account. I'll tell you about his shoveling strategy... Well, I'll tell you now:  I went out to the garden when he was working it.  He was digging and turning the soil with his hand shovel.  (He had spent years prepping and building the soil -  adding all the right stuff to make it rich.  Anyway, I asked him if he turned the whole yard by shovel.  He said 'yes'.  I asked him if it was hard or how he didn't get worn out.  He said he did the whole job by just doing lots of small shovel fulls.  Snce that conversation, I have used that strategy on many big projects to prevent getting burned out.  

Oh, the dogs' yard was outside adjacent the pipe room.  Let's see, there was Liver (black dog) and...I forget the other two dogs.  And there was a fig tree between the kennel and the back of the house.  REAL FIGS!