When I was very young my grandfather on my dad's side passed away. I don't have a lot of memories of him because he wasn't around that much. My grandmother had separated from him and raised my father and his sisters on her own. We did occasionally see him, but the only memory I have is of him giving us a nickle if we would empty is ashtray. He was a tall man at over 6 feet tall and he loomed over us kids. I don't ever remember him being mean to us, just most of all I don't remember him.
My grandfather on my mother's side was very different, he was active, he read, he invented things and even though sometimes he couldn't handle four little girls, we knew he loved us. There were many times when my grandmother and grandfather would take us places. Most of the time it was to the Moose Lodge ( http://www.mooseintl.org/public/Area/History.asp) that they belonged to. They always had some event going on and children were always a big part of it. Christmas parties, Halloween parties, Fourth of July parties, and we went to them all with our grandparents. It is one of my favorite memories of them. Summers out here can reach triple digits and all my grandparents had in their house was an old swamp cooler that my grandfather had rigged up. So to beat the heat he used to hang the hose off the back of the patio roof and let us kids run through it. It wasn't much, but us kids thought is was great and at least we were'nt hot. Always in the garage inventing this or that, he was a master machinist and was always working on something.
He taught me how to dive. It was funny because sometimes he had so much patience and other times he just couldn't tolerate anything. We were all at my grandparents place, and us girls were playing and bickering and giggling and he'd just had enough and stuck us each in a corner with a piece of tape over our mouths. My mom to this day can't believe he did it, but I think we got the better of him that day. I'm sure that I got my love of reading from him and my mother. His favorites were country and science fiction and he loved Isaac Asimov the most. It seemed his mind never stopped working, but he had a weak heart and he passed away right after my mother and step-father got together. But I will always remember our times together.
No comments:
Post a Comment