One died before I was born. The other was alive into my early 30s but I never really saw him outside of birthday dinners at outback steakhouse. I never learned grandpa stuff, but it's all good. I got jobs that taught me grandpa stuff- working on cars, lumberjack, etc. I don't know why they hired me when I was green, but they did and I learned a ton!

No andd I still remember them from my kid days. Now I'm sad.

Paternal side, never knew my blood line grandmother. She died when Dad was a kid.  Just knew his step mom as grandma. Grand dad was a man’s man. WWI got burned by mustard gas.  Came home to Alabama and in the late ‘30’s got elected as Sheriff in Jefferson County (Birmingham). Before that, big land Baron that sold a lot of his land to the steel industry.
Got called back to prep for WWII. Got promoted to an officer. Went to war in the Pacific and was a Bird Colonel under McArthur.
He died when I was around 14 or 15.

Maternal side, I have a very faint memory of an adult figure I think was my grandpa. He died when I was 3 or 4. Before that, not much contact because we were a military family that moved around.  He worked for Seaboard Coastline RR.  He’s the man that was responsible for bringing the railroad union to the south east. The railroad bosses literally tried to kill him.  This was back when unions were a good thing. Northerners owned the railroad and thought all southerners should still be slaves.  White or black.  
Shortly after he died (Spartanburg, SC around 1967) there was a serial rapist/robber/killer roaming the area that would read the obits and go after the widow and do his thing.  He picked the wrong person. Old Ruby unloaded all 6 through the kitchen’s back door as he was trying to pry it open.  Deputy found him dead in the creek behind her house the next morning after grandma yelled over to the neighbor to call the Po-leese.
She died when I was 15.

My paternal grandfather died when my dad was a child. Obviously I never knew him.
Both my grandmothers died when I was a child.
My maternal grandfather lived with us for several years before he died. I was 18 when he passed.
I still miss him.

Thankfully they were,including my step grandad.

They were wonderful and caring men and I miss all 3 of them everyday ????

I remember two of my great grandfathers and also the mother of one of them.  Both of my grandfathers were alive into my adulthood.

I was born in 1970.  My paternal grandfather died in 1980.  He was an engineer in a steel plant in northern Ontario.  Learned the trade via correspondence course. During the depression he supplemented his income by starting a lumber company with a sawmill to provide railroad ties to the ACR.  He was also an architect. He would draw plans and a Toronto architectural firm would review and stamp them. In return he would do project management work for the firm in N. Ontario. This man is part of the reason I think my father was such a high achiever.  He put a lot of responsibility on my father at a young age.  My dad told a story of having to ride his bike with the transit across the handlebars (13 to 15 years old?) to the site of a bank being built so the forms could be laid out because he my G-father couldn't leave the steel plant.

My maternal grandfather (Opa) was a Dutch sailor. He died in 1984. He traveled the world prior to WW II. He shipped oil from N America to Europe during WW II for Shell Oil.  After WW II he moved his family to Venezuela for the oil boom happening there at the time. They lived in a BP compound where my mother learned English.  (It is funny.  She speaks with an English accent rather than a Dutch accent.) Shortly after mother graduated HS, they moved to Canada to be near other family that left the Netherlands shorty after WW II hoping to get a job at the steel plant my other G-father worked at.  Unfortunately, my Opa could not use his marine engineers license on land and returned to the sea within a year and moved back to the Netherlands and retired from seafaring in the late 60's. (My mom, of course, met my dad in this small window of time and stayed behind.)

They were both good people but unfortunately, they were both long distance relatives, so I didn't know them extremely well.

Lived my first 33 years with all my grandparents alive and in my AO. Being the oldest grandkid, I spent a ton of time with all of them. Really makes me feel like a link in a great chain rather than some unbound independent unit like the state would prefer.

My grand pa was an outlaw moonshiner...he went to prison when I was 10 for killing two revenue agents that fucked with his business.  He was a top KKK guy as well. We rode around in an old F100 Ford and he always had a 1911 on the dash and a Remington 10 gauge dbl barrel sitting between us. He also owned a large industrial type pig farm...dude was the southern version of Bricktop. ??

Moms dad passed when I was 8 and dads dad passed when I was 10

All of my grandparents lived into my (early) adulthood. Was also fortunate enough to have spent meaningful time with 4 great grandparents.

My paternal GF died at least 20 years before I was born. He was a POS alcoholic so no great loss there. No idea how old I was when my maternal GF died as I never saw him (or my maternal GM) again after my mom died when I was 5yo. My dad died when I was 23yo so I have kind of a warped perspective on the whole thing. Having lost all of my parents so early in life, I'm always kind of amazed when I hear about people in their 40's, 50's and even 60's who's parents (or at least 1 of them) are still alive.

i'm sad to say i didnt get to know my grandparents like i should have and thats on me. my last grandmaw passed a couple years ago and i took her time on earth for granted. my grandpa on my moms side was a cane cutter growing up and a welder in the sugar mills. my grandpa on my dads side worked at a radio station and was in the coast guard from some time. both were great men and i regret not knowing them more.

on the other hand my wife still has both her grandfathers and one grandmother left and we go see them as much as we have time for. all of her grandparents speak fluent cajun french and i got to sit and listen to them speak the lost language at her grandmaws funeral last year. it was really awesome but also sad at the same time. fuck the department of education for forcing out a beautiful language. i still ask them to say a few things in french just try to pick up on some of it. aside from the basic c'mon ca va and ca va bien, etc... i have a hard time retaining any of it. my MIL can understand it, but not really speak it as well as she can interpret it. both her grandfathers were in the military. one was a marine and the other was in the army. amazing lives they have led. listening to the stories they tell about how times used to be is something ill always remember. her grandpa on her dads side was one of 19 and her great grandma who passed a couple years ago was one of 20. they grew up in houses smaller than 1500sq ft. mind boggling to think about. i could go on and on about it.

Maternal grand parents died in the early 1920s.Paternal grandfather died in 1919. Paternal grandmother died in 1964,I was 11.

Are you implying we only had one?

Paternal Grandfather was born in 1883. Died when I was 15. Maternal Grandfather born in 1906. He died the same year. One died in March one in November. I have known my 2 grandsons since birth, they are 8. In fact my wife and I practically have raised them. My piece of shit daughter is doing everything she can to deny us access. I don’t think I will see them in adulthood.

He lived until age 92 so yes.

Nope. Both grandfathers and grandmothers were dead before I was born.

My dad‘s dad died when I was I think a sophomore in high school. My mom‘s dad died when I was I think around sixth grade

One grandfather died before I could remember, and the other died when I was in middle school, so no.

On the other hand, both grandmothers were unusually long-lived, reaching 99 and 100, so I had them in my life until my late 20s.

I have read this entire thread.  Glad OP started it.  Sad and smiling at the same time.  Some great stories here, and it’s good to stop and remember.

Treasure the time you have, those fortunate enough to have it.

Maternal grandparents lived next door the whole time I was growing up. Used to spend the night at their place every weekend.
Lawrence Welk, then Dukes of Hazzard
Paternal grandfather passed 3 years before I was born. Grandmother passed when I was 4. My dad said I was just like his dad.

I knew both of my grandfather's well into adulthood. My maternal grandfather lived to 87, he was a mill worker and farmer his whole life. My paternal GF lived to 92, he was a tobacco farmer and owned/ran a small country store for many years.

Died when I was 6 (paternal), my mother was orphaned at a young age.  I never spent much time around her adoptive family.  May have met her 'siblings' once, I don't remember.

No, not even when I was a kid - I don't think I ever met him before he passed away, all I ever knew was my grandmother.
In fact, even my dad passed away when I was just barely in my thirties.

Neither of my grandfathers were alive when I was born.

Paternal Grampa died when I was 14.
Maternal Grampa died when I was 39.

Paternal Grampa was always hopping the fence and I got some great illegitimate cousins out of the deal.  

Maternal Grampa was a grumpy old bastard but I still found him amusing.  

I miss all my grandparents and my exes grandparents.   They were all great people.  Now I'm a Grampa.   I got work to do corrupting them grandbabies and telling them stories about their stupid parents and my awesome grandparents.

I knew both my Grandfathers and 1 Grandmother. All were a wealth of knowledge to me as a youngster.....
rr

I've outlived three of my grandparents. Both my father's parents died long before I was born, and my mother's father skipped out on his family when my mother was a toddler, and died when I was nine. I did have my mother's stepfather up until I was ten, he died at 50 from lung cancer.

The only blood grandparent I knew (grandmother) lived to 101, and while I loved her deeply, I would have preferred to have had the other three grandparents to balance things out.

But to stay on topic, not having grandfathers around was definitely a negative factor for me.

Lost all 4 grandparents starting in my late 20s. One of my favorite memories is going to the Arizona Memorial in the early 80s with my Dad, then, a current active duty sub sailor, and my Granddad, a WWII tin can sailor radioman. Went back to the Memorial last year and the visitor demographic had changed drastically but, I have to say, the respect for the solemn occasion seemed to stay the same.

my grandparents both remarried on my moms side so all 3 of my grandpas were ww2 vets. 2 were self made millionaires and the 3rd was an alcoholic who died puking with his head in toilet is how my grandma found him after his last liver kidney transplant when i was age 9 i think.

age 11 my grandpa that raised me died of sickle cell anemia which he got from spraying pesticides on a hi-boy spray tractor without a mask for decades over thousands of acres. monsanto caught up with him. he told me if he knew he was going to live this long he would have taken better care of himself. when he died he owed the us govt death taxes on about 80 some thousand acres or something so we had to sell like 90 farms to pay the govt death tax.

he was a real estate broker who bought and divided farms for resale. he started with just 2 horses and a plow coming home from ww2.

that just leaves my grandpa edwin a. shively who made it big after ww2 seabeas blowing stuff up stateside with dynamite. he helped build a large portion of wright patterson afb in dayton ohio. later he got contracts with proctor and gamble supplying them with machine parts after his company let him go he had kept all the invoices and supplied the contracts himself.

he built eds used appliances as a side hustle which became the biggest of its kind in the area. one of his warehouses in dayton i got to play in and work at as a teen had bomb casings in it and machinery to make bombs still in place from ww2.

starting at age 23 or so i would stay at his house in dayton ohio when i was a vendor at the dayton hara arena gun shows. he always coached me on enhancing my biz practice and picked my brain about ongoing deals i had. he was an old school wheeler dealer that would have given oscar shindler a run for his money.

he died a fairly normal death of cancer at extreme old age and wasnt in extreme pain just gave out a deep breath and sigh and gave up the ghost one evening under watch and care of my uncle when he knew he was on his way out. that entire ww2 generation i knew were all severe workaholics. they were like perpetual motion to be around. nothing like that exists today in the natural world.

I had two great grandmothers,  one passed when I was 8 , the other when I was 16 . Two grandfathers , one passed at 86 when I was 17 , the other lived to just before his 94th birthday when I was 44 . Grandmothers were usually right before or right after grandfathers.

Yes. Gramps was a great man. I was his first grandchild. He was WW2 vet. D- Day. Army Corp of engineers. Drew the short straw and had to do beach entry running artillery. He was in the 42nd Infantry Division. From France to Bavaria & Austria.

He hated fish pretty much his whole adult life due to the nasty fish stew they were forced to eat in England waiting for D-day.

When he came home from Europe he married my grandmother in New Jersey and they both drove out west to Torrance CA where he did training for beach entry’s. He  attended Howard Huges engineering school and hired on at Garrett Aerospace division in Torrance and Retired from there in the early 80’s.

We spent a lot of time together. He drove fast, loved cars, great at pool “billiards” he would call it, wood working, model trains, and RC airplanes.

He died at 92 years old. I was there holding his hand. Sure do miss gramps. I can still hear his “hello”

When the army showed up to do the salute at his funeral several of his friends cried and came up to us saying Bill never told us he was in the war. He is missed.

Paternal grandfather outlived my other grandparents by quite a bit. Even outlived my dad by about 15 years . Died about 8 years ago when he was 86. Grandma was doting when I was a kid. She slipped into dementia when I was 14 or so. Died while I was in college. Spent summers on their farm shaped who I am.

My mom’s dad lived in Arizona and died when I was in first grade. I only remember him visiting once when I was in kindergarten. I remember he was sitting with the same tv station on because he didn’t know how to use the remote. He was a cook in WW2. Really wish I would have been able to get to know him. Grandma on my mom’s side was an abusive alcoholic my mom cut out of her life. Never met her and my mom even left his funeral before she got there so we wouldn’t see her. She died about 10 years ago. Wouldn’t have even known if it weren’t for a cousin mentioning it in passing on Facebook.

My mom’s dad died before I was born. My other grandfather passed when I was in my mid twenties. I spent a lot of time with him and my dad fishing on the St. Clair river as a kid. Unfortunately right as I graduated HS he had a series of strokes and was pretty much an invalid his last few years.

I knew one granny until I was about 16 and she died, the rest I vaguely recall.

All of my grandparents were still alive when I was adult. I even had two great grandmothers who were alive for a short time during my so called adulthood.

I only have one grandmother left. She is 102 headed to 103 in Oct.

My paternal grandfather passed away in the pulpit while preaching a sermon about Heaven...........I was 9 years old and I was there and witnessed it. My maternal grandfather died when I was in my early 30s

Neither of them were alive at the time of my birth. My Maternal Grandfather died 6 years before my birth. My Paternal Grandfather was executed by the Russians in Katyn Forest. There was much memory and heritage lost in the years before my birth, and an entire way of life was lost never to be reclaimed. I have spent a great deal of my life trying to research family history, but the gap with an entire generation eliminated compounds the difficulty. Historical discontinuity is a real thing, and it has ironically reinforced my sense of Americanness. With the absence of connection to my immigrant old world roots, my connection to the United States and its traditions has been the primary shaping force in my life, stronger than class, religion or family.

I was 18 when my maternal grandfather died, and 23 when my paternal grandfather died.
I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandfather and wish I had spent more time with my paternal grandfather.

All my grandparents were gone before I was a teen.

Paternal grandfather died when I was 15.

Paternal grandmother and both maternal grandparents died within a year of each other when I was in my early 30s

Nope.  Step grandfather on my mothers side was.  Only saw him a couple of times since he lived some 1,700 miles away.

I was pretty lucky, grew up with both sets of grandparents local, but both passed by the time I was in my early 20's.
Mom's dad died when I was in tech school.
Dad's dad died when I was 23.  Officially it was a heart attack.  In reality it was depression.  My dad had passed suddenly 2 years prior and my grandma had been recently put in a home for dementia.  One morning, my cousin found my grandpa passed away, sitting in the cab of his truck at the farm.  He had parked 25 feet away from where we spread some of my dad's ashes.  He never parked there when he went to shoot guns; to me I think he knew something was happening and he was ready.

Mothers parent both died when she was a kid, grandmother on my fathers side was still alive when I was a child.

We had “adopted” grandparents, worked out great.

My korean war vet grandpa passed 2 September's ago. And I'm 35. We fished, shot guns, and he got me into reloading. Miss him and wish they lived closer

Yeap. Both of them and both my grandmothers were alive well in to my adulthood.

Listening to them speak of their lives as they lived during the Great Depression, WW2, the 50's through the 70's, and how they were flabbergasted when this new internet thing came about...

Don't kid yourselves... we have easy lives compared to them.

I learned a lot about "what is right in front of you", and doing the right thing. Go to church. Be humble. Earn money every chance you get, save for yourself and family, give every time you're able, make time for your family and yourself (i.e.: go fishing or play golf :) ).

My maternal g'pa a B24 pilot in WW2, my paternal g'pa was an aid to a general and a jeep jockey messenger in an arty HQ (70th ID).