If he was still living, today would be my grandfather's 101st birthday. It's going to be hard to describe this wonderful man who had a profound impact on my life. I was lucky enough to grow up with my maternal grandparents just 6 doors down from my house, and later in my teen years, they lived with us. Needless to say, my sister and I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house. We spent almost every weekend with them through our elementary years. We had our own bedrooms. It was truly a home away from home. Needless to say, spending all this time with them in my formative years allowed me to build an extremely close relationship with both of them but particularly with my grandfather, or "Grampy" as I usually called him. "Grampy" and I were cut from the same cloth. We both spoke our minds, tended to "fly off the handle" as he would describe it or "blow our tops," probably because we are and were both very passionate individuals with specific opinions and thoughts that we would fight to the death in defense of. Truth be told, stubbornness was certainly a trait I inherited from him, but I also get my ease of talking to people from him, my love of laughter and my love of music and singing was inspired by him. Music was always in his household and particularly "The Sound of Music." I grew up singing "Edleweiss,""Do-Re-Mi," and "Climb Every Mountain." One of my fondest memories is my grandfather singing "The Lord's Prayer" accapella at my wedding.
As I stated earlier, he loved to laugh, and he loved a good joke. He had a loud hearty laugh, something else I get from him, and as his laughter died down after a joke, he'd say, "Oh, that's comic!"
He liked to be comfortable. You'd never catch him in a suit and tie unless he had to be. He liked his pants baggy and his collar unbuttoned. In fact, if he was home for the evening, he was usually walking around the house in his boxer shorts, covered by a button-up shirt with a long shirttail. He referred to this attire as "fancy pants."
He drank hot tea with milk always and he spoke backwards all the time as in switching first letters of words. This proved many times to get him in trouble. I remember once when he was describing the ingredients of a Thanksgiving dessert to an aunt who was particularly stuffy he listed one of the ingredients, brown sugar, but he said it backwards as shrown bugar. She was not amused. I just laughed.
One of his prize possessions in his later years, I'm talking past 65, was a 1968 blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Convertible. It had a glass packed muffler, and if you don't know what that means, that's what makes those classic muscle cars make that loud "VROOOMMM" when you take off. He loved that sound! I remember riding with him in my teen years. We'd pull up to a red light. He'd look over to the car next to him, and then turn to me, wearing the little driving cap he always wore, and say, "You think I can beat 'em?" When the light changed to green he'd floor it. Never anything unsafe, he just loved making that "VROOOMMM!," beating the other car away from the light.
He loved life and everything about it! He was married to my grandmother for 50 years, and unless he was sick, he brought breakfast in bed to his "Miss Tippy Toe," his pet name for her, every morning. He was always thinking of others, and he loved animals, especially dogs. He called every dog he came across "Friend", and there were many times that he brought home a rescued turtle from the road.
He left me way too soon, just 5 months after my 19th birthday. My great sadness is that my children never got to meet him. They would have loved him as did I.
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