He's my second cousin thrice removed. He and my grandfather both used to sell newspapers and sandwiches on the morning trains in Vincennes, Indiana, when they were boys.
Later my grandfather went to work in the glass factories and would bring a burlap sack on the way home as he walked along the same tracks. Somehow there was always plenty of coal that had fallen from the coal cars - I suspect sometimes someone climbed up and kicked it down. "Well, I never did buy coal for a few years there..."
Apparently his cousin did well enough to buy his own coal. :-)
