Posted by
GaryB on Sunday, June 17, 2007 3:43:49 PM
My Grandfather
I want to talk about my Grandfather and what he meant to me. It has been 32 years since granddad died. I think about him as much today as I did after he died. I see his pictures all over the house and they bring comfort to me even today.
Granddad was not a towering man. He was only 5'8" but he towered over me as a person. It was not that he was famous or that he did extraordinary things in his life. It was the way that he lived his life. He was quite and respectful and the patience that he had was something that to this day has eluded me. I can not remember a day in his life that he ever raised his voice to me. If I was doing something that I was not supposed to be doing he would quietly stop me and say "Gary you know better"? that was it.
Why did I listen to him when I would not do so to others? The answer is that he lived by example. He did not have to tell people that he was a Christian, it was evident in the way he lived. Grandmom and granddad would read the bible after breakfast every day that they were married. I have the bible that they read from and you can look through it and there are the dates that they read each passage. There are 50 years of there devotions. As I look back through the bible I can see what they were reading the day that I left for the service, or the day that I was married (the first time).
One of my early memories of Granddad was when I was around 10 years old. I would go over to his house and we would wait for the mail to come. The driveway was long and I loved that because that I meant that it would be even more fun. When the mail came granddad would put me on an old furniture mover and push me all the way down and back. I had so much fun when my granddad would do this. The wind was in my face and I was holding on for dear life, even though we were hardly moving. Granddad did not give me a lot of toys or stuff instead he would give himself to me.
Another memory was his hands. I would look at his hands and measure them against mine. His was always bigger than mine. We did this a lot. I guess this was a way for me to measure myself against him. I always came up short.
Another time I remember when my granddad was building a garage behind the house. I wanted to help but granddad did not tell me to go away. Instead he gave me a hammer and a handful of nails and put me in a corner and told me to have fun. He watched as I put a box of nails in one big circle in the corner. He knew that he would have to take them out at some time so he could finish the garage. He never complained, he just let me do what I thought was helping and then later when I was gone he corrected my help.
One of the worst days of my young life was when granddad retired and they went to St. Petersburg to live. It was not easy for me not having him there. On the other side though when school was out we would go to Florida and spend the summer with them. Granddad had not been very good at retiring so he took a job downtown restoring old cars. I can remember getting up after granddad had been to work and would decide to walk to his shop so I could have lunch with him. It was over fifty blocks to get there but that did not matter because I was going to see my granddad. We would have old stale sandwiches that I loved and a warm drink. Granddad would give me a quarter and send me to Webb City to see the mermaids on the top floor. They were really just girls in mermaid suits but you could not tell me at that age that they were not real. I would then walk my fifty blocks home to wait on granddad to come home.
When granddad had turned 70 years old they decided to leave Florida and come back to Georgia. This time they decided that they were going to build a house in Georgia big enough for both of our families. This was great news for me even though I was a teenager now as was close to graduating from high school.
At the age of 72 he started building the house. He did this with the help of my Father and I if you can believe that I was any help. He did this by himself. When he was standing up the walls he put together pulleys to lift the house because of the length and weight. To this day I am still in awe of a man that at the age of 72 can build a house by himself. Every now and then we drive up to the school and see if the house is still there and to this day 45 years later it still stands just like it did my granddad built it.
The last memory I want to share is the day that my granddad cried. The same garage that I had helped granddad build had a little room attached to it and this turned it to my room. I was now out of high school and I needed my space. One night I was having a party with some of my friends. We were drinking and had the music too loud. My granddad came out to tell me to get it under control and turn the music down. When I came out of the room I was quite drunk and fell down in front of granddad, he reached down to help me up and I could see tears coming down his eyes. I had made my granddad cry. He then turned around and walked back to the house. The party was over.
I never told him I was sorry for letting him down. It has now been 40 years and today I want to tell my granddad that I am sorry. I love you.
Gary