Remembering Grandpa B
A call from my father a little before 8:00 a.m. woke me this morning. Grandpa B is gone. His breathing changed at 5:15 a.m. and the Manor Care called for my parent to come in. They and my grandmother held the deathwatch.
With the exception of the time around World War II, grandpa lived his whole life in the Avis/Williamsport area. Born on All Saint’s Day, he was adopted as an infant. He was a rascal of a kid with a prank-playing sense of humor that followed him into young adulthood. He has written two books for the family, unpublished, on his childhood and his stint in World War II, respectively. He volunteered for service when he did not pass the eye exam for the armed forces, and picked up Morse code signals in air traffic control towers in the South Pacific.
He built up a one room school house into a multilevel 3 bedroom house with basement, garage, back porch and den add-ons. He’d picked up the art of business running from his parents, who ran a small local store. He owned and ran a bar-b-cue and a Dairy Queen that we always walked to for dessert whenever we visited. His world was his family- my grandmother Lois, my mother, my uncle, and then their families and us grandkids. He and my grandmother also adopted my sister’s best friend Nicole as an honorary grandkid. Her swim meet picture from middle school is still on their fridge with the rest of us. He was a jazz drummer all of his adult life as well, and had an interest in Custer’s last stand (and probably owned copies of everything written in the subject and those involved. Grandpa knew everyone and everyone knew grandpa.
Grandpa planned elaborate family trips. They went to California, to beaches, to national parks, to New York. He made sure my mother, who later became a director, got to see several shows on Broadway each year. One summer he put 100 miles on the car a day getting mom to and from an early (as in she was still in high school I think-Shh! Don’t tell the cast) directing gig about 25 miles away. And when mom was very ill over the start of her first job in New York, she found out later that he had spoken to her boss and offered to pay for a temporary replacement until she was better, rather than have the job go to someone else because she was ill.
Memory Snippets:
Walks in the woods, drives, descriptions of the town history (e.g. the local pyromaniac), obscure hidden places only someone who’s lived in a place their whole lives would know about.
Trips to Penn’s cave.
Deer spotting, a.k.a. driving at dusk to see how many deer we see. Record=79.
Grandpa grilling roast beef out back, grandpa’s pork bar-b-cu recipe.
His knees. Grandpa slipped on a rainy day outside of a post office and shredded the cartilage in his knee, but refused to get a knee replacement, so every visit he would tell that story and pull his pant legs tight so we could see just how much bigger one knee was than the other.
Getting up extremely early on the cold first day of trout season. Eating freshly caught fish for dinner. Fishing at Pine Crick. Hugging a pike. Tiny frogs along the bank. Breaking open fossil rocks.
Picking blueberries and dewberries. Learning clover is edible and how to make lizards fall asleep by rubbing their bellies.
Father-daughter dances for Girl Scouts. He would go with my father so both my sister and I had someone to dance with at all times.
Any number of interesting rocks brought back with labels from their travels around America. They’re still in my rock collection. Some are very strange indeed.
Junkyard golf, mouse trap, brain teasers, coloring Easter eggs, magic tricks any game in the den. Learning to play Go fish and Crazy Eights.
Corny jokes from a different era (e.g. Prank calling the family store “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” [Yes.] “Well you’d better let him out!”).
Grandpa and grandma at my college graduation.
Silly songs- I remember the songs the most. I have them all on a tape. The Garbage Can song, the Preacher and the Bear, the Boom-boom-boom, Puff the Magic Dragon. My favorite (and I think his favorite too, given the ratio of repetition) was Sweet Violets:
“There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a-
Lectured on horses and chickens and eggs
And he said that she had such beautiful-
Manners that suited a girl of her charms
A girl that he wanted to take in his-
Washing and ironing and then if she did
They could get married and raise lots of-
Sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets
The girl told the farmer that he’d better stop
Or she’d call her father and he’s call a-
Taxi and he did so before very long
For someone was doing his little girl-
Right for a change so to the farmer he said
‘If you marry her, son you’re better off-
Single.’ And so she was left in the lurch
Weeping and bawling in front of the-
Sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets”
Love you grandpa. Miss you.
With the exception of the time around World War II, grandpa lived his whole life in the Avis/Williamsport area. Born on All Saint’s Day, he was adopted as an infant. He was a rascal of a kid with a prank-playing sense of humor that followed him into young adulthood. He has written two books for the family, unpublished, on his childhood and his stint in World War II, respectively. He volunteered for service when he did not pass the eye exam for the armed forces, and picked up Morse code signals in air traffic control towers in the South Pacific.
He built up a one room school house into a multilevel 3 bedroom house with basement, garage, back porch and den add-ons. He’d picked up the art of business running from his parents, who ran a small local store. He owned and ran a bar-b-cue and a Dairy Queen that we always walked to for dessert whenever we visited. His world was his family- my grandmother Lois, my mother, my uncle, and then their families and us grandkids. He and my grandmother also adopted my sister’s best friend Nicole as an honorary grandkid. Her swim meet picture from middle school is still on their fridge with the rest of us. He was a jazz drummer all of his adult life as well, and had an interest in Custer’s last stand (and probably owned copies of everything written in the subject and those involved. Grandpa knew everyone and everyone knew grandpa.
Grandpa planned elaborate family trips. They went to California, to beaches, to national parks, to New York. He made sure my mother, who later became a director, got to see several shows on Broadway each year. One summer he put 100 miles on the car a day getting mom to and from an early (as in she was still in high school I think-Shh! Don’t tell the cast) directing gig about 25 miles away. And when mom was very ill over the start of her first job in New York, she found out later that he had spoken to her boss and offered to pay for a temporary replacement until she was better, rather than have the job go to someone else because she was ill.
Memory Snippets:
Walks in the woods, drives, descriptions of the town history (e.g. the local pyromaniac), obscure hidden places only someone who’s lived in a place their whole lives would know about.
Trips to Penn’s cave.
Deer spotting, a.k.a. driving at dusk to see how many deer we see. Record=79.
Grandpa grilling roast beef out back, grandpa’s pork bar-b-cu recipe.
His knees. Grandpa slipped on a rainy day outside of a post office and shredded the cartilage in his knee, but refused to get a knee replacement, so every visit he would tell that story and pull his pant legs tight so we could see just how much bigger one knee was than the other.
Getting up extremely early on the cold first day of trout season. Eating freshly caught fish for dinner. Fishing at Pine Crick. Hugging a pike. Tiny frogs along the bank. Breaking open fossil rocks.
Picking blueberries and dewberries. Learning clover is edible and how to make lizards fall asleep by rubbing their bellies.
Father-daughter dances for Girl Scouts. He would go with my father so both my sister and I had someone to dance with at all times.
Any number of interesting rocks brought back with labels from their travels around America. They’re still in my rock collection. Some are very strange indeed.
Junkyard golf, mouse trap, brain teasers, coloring Easter eggs, magic tricks any game in the den. Learning to play Go fish and Crazy Eights.
Corny jokes from a different era (e.g. Prank calling the family store “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” [Yes.] “Well you’d better let him out!”).
Grandpa and grandma at my college graduation.
Silly songs- I remember the songs the most. I have them all on a tape. The Garbage Can song, the Preacher and the Bear, the Boom-boom-boom, Puff the Magic Dragon. My favorite (and I think his favorite too, given the ratio of repetition) was Sweet Violets:
“There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a-
Lectured on horses and chickens and eggs
And he said that she had such beautiful-
Manners that suited a girl of her charms
A girl that he wanted to take in his-
Washing and ironing and then if she did
They could get married and raise lots of-
Sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets
The girl told the farmer that he’d better stop
Or she’d call her father and he’s call a-
Taxi and he did so before very long
For someone was doing his little girl-
Right for a change so to the farmer he said
‘If you marry her, son you’re better off-
Single.’ And so she was left in the lurch
Weeping and bawling in front of the-
Sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets”
Love you grandpa. Miss you.