My maternal grandfather – like all my grandparents – was an amazing person. He was born in Lithuania, and like many East European Jews, left around the turn of the century. His journey was complicated as on his way to America he got sick and was not allowed to leave England for a year. He eventually got to America where – despite not finishing high school – he spent a career with the government, sending 2 of his children to medical school and the third to university.

I was fortunate to have him in our house for the last few years of his life. He was neither a sports fan nor a collector. I was about 9 and a huge baseball fan and very much into collecting. I’ll never forget him giving me a baseball card while standing in his room. I remember where I was standing when he gave it to me, that it was a sunny day, and that I was awfully psyched. It was a card he got not long after arriving in New York. The card was quite beaten and ripped but I loved it for its age. I don’t recall how he got it or why he kept it.

That card had quite the history with me. I traded it once to my friend David. I think I got half his cards in return for it. I figured it was pretty well beaten, so I might as well get a bunch of newer cards. Later I got David’s entire collection, including my Grandfather’s card, in return for a baseball glove. Not quite the acquisition of Babe Ruth but for me at the time almost as good.

A few years later I traded the card again at a card show. I have no idea who I got for it but it was probably a beaten card from the 1960s. Stupid teenager. The image of the card remained though I lost the physical card.

Fast forward about 30 years. I was in a baseball card shop with my kids when the proprietor showed me a T206 of John McGraw. Thunderbolt. The card was the same style as that card my Grandfather gave me. Made me feel 9 again, and I flashed back to getting the card from my Grandfather. Three days later I went back to the shop and bought the McGraw card. I then bought a book on T206s, The T206 Collection, and the first thing I looked for was that card. I found it. George Browne. And I distinctly remember that card was a Piedmont. Chicago.

I went on a T206 binge and I had to get a George Browne. My Grandfather’s card was Browne on Chicago, but as my Grandfather spent most of his life in Washington DC, I got a Washington card. My favorite T206.

Looking back on it I can’t understand how I could have let go of my Grandfather’s card, even once, let alone twice. But I did. I wish I could get the original card back. And I really wish I could learn the story of that original card but that story is lost. It does remind me though to get other stories from the people that are around to tell them.

Having another copy is almost as good because it still connects me to him and brings back every one of the memories that that card took me through. I tell my own kids this story all the time and I am glad to have this opportunity to keep him alive in them.