I think Grand- Daddy should stand for the best! I think my Grandad had a good heart for the most part. But not really the best. He seemed to have a selfish mean streak about him...as well as a "my way or the highway" bit going on. I suppose that isn't so unusual for men of those days. He left my Grandmother and her five children to seek his fortune in another land called Texas. She ended up living in a chicken coop and an old box car heating bricks to stay warm... He found his fortune after many years, as well as another woman who turned out to be quite a prize for all of us. We called her Nana. She brought him back together with my Grandmother and his children. He was good to them monetarily but then his ole controlling deal stuck its ugly red horned head back out. He talked two of his daughters into "giving" or "loaning" their children to him saying he could raise them better considering his fortune. Well his fortune became their and everyone else's mis-fortune as one committed suicide and the other left everyone behind never to speak to family again for leaving him with such a tyrant as Grand-Father. Grand? When Grand-Father died and everyone met at his home after the funeral....my Nana's niece whom he didn't care for to put it mildly, offered a toast to him. As she stood there holding her glass up with at least and twenty people watching .....her glass "Shattered" right in her hand and no fat lady was singing a high pitch note neither nor!! That was him....had to have the last word even in death. So what's my point? Today I was going thru some old jewelry and what not's that I save for who knows what and I came upon his Army dog tags and his sun glasses he wore everywhere.....for years. I decided to clean them up and as doing so I noticed the ick on the nose pieces....yup old skin... so I took a knife and gently scraped the old "DEAD" (twilight zone music please) skin off the nose pieces. Believe me when I say I felt something strange. Like hello that is my Grandfathers skin falling into my stainless steel sink. And he died in the 1980's. I attempted and did maintain my composure during the exfoliation process and then sprayed everything with anti bacterial spray. I have to say that it just was a "funny" feeling going on. Shouldn't be...he'd dead, the skins dead.....no biggy. (Twilight zone music once again thank you!) I hope if one of my Grand-daughters (so far no boys) finds a pair of my glasses and a piece of my jewelry someday when I am passed out...(means dead and moved on) they can remember good things. That my heart was loving and I wasn't selfish, mean, or angry. The rich part will be OK to remember as soon as that happens. Maybe I should wear his glasses for a year of so....bring on the dough. But what if they bring on the mean selfish part? Oooh, maybe I will just put them back to bed in the jewel box where "all good things" are saved for something someday.... the end. p.s. He told me he rode with Ponco Via! Ya think?
