Your grandfather did those things to survive. Refrigerators didn't exist you had ice boxes may e if you were wealthy. So food wouldn't keep people canned food to preserve it so they could eat. You want fresh chicken you had to slaughter it, or buy it from a butcher who recently slaughtered it.
They didn't clothing stores like we do know, or grocery stores. You want fresh fruits they were only available in season.
If he didn't shovel coal in his furnace he would freeze to death. Many did from that or from carbon monoxide from said furnace. Hell indoor plumbing only became a thing in the 1920's. At least on a Practical level. Most areas didn't get electritcy until after WW2.
You will quickly figure out how to kill to survive if you find yourself starving with a knife in hand.
You have learned more by the time you are 18 than he did by the time he was 40. At least for book knowledge. Street smarts and expirence not included. We are teaching calculus to high schoolers. Half of his high school class wouldn't have had a 5th grade reading level in today world.
Standards change. Accept all of them and not just the tiny fraction you can see. Or in the words of an iwa jima vet I once knew. I fought so we can disagree. That is the right. For that I will never forget him.