glTranslate() is the right way to position objects. You can use glPushMatrix() and glPopMatrix() to save and restore the current transformation matrix.

Lets say you want to draw obj1 and obj2, both relative to the current transformation (instead of relative to each other) you would do something along these lines:

glPushMatrix();glTranslate(obj1.x, obj1.y, obj1.z);draw(obj1);glPopMatrix();glPushMatrix();glTranslate(obj2.x, obj2.y, obj2.z);draw(obj2);glPopMatrix();

You might want to take a look at the NeHe tutorials. They will get you started.