This month marks the five year anniversary of this site. I started it to appease family members who wanted to keep up with our family after Maci was born. It quickly became a site that I used to rant about
silly things. I had a small cult following, but it really
embarrassed Steph and did not keep any one informed. Thus, I turned the reigns over to Stephanie and rarely posted anything again. Today, I do have something newsworthy to talk about.
Yesterday morning my grandfather
died. He was 92 years old so it was not unexpected. In fact it is rather remarkable that he made it this far. He had lived through several heart attacks and open heart surgeries, two bouts with cancer, and a few strokes. He overcame all of those and lived a long productive life. His death has made me reflect a bit on his life and what I will miss about him. He was part of what Tom Brokaw labeled the "Greatest Generation". I lived with my grandparents for two years and I have to agree with Tom Brokaw, they truly are the greatest generation. It's sad to see him go, because I think so much of what my grandfather stood for has been lost on later generations.
My grandpa was a tireless worker. He was always suspicious of my work ethic because I was from California. Every time he asked me to do something he qualified it with something like "I am not sure you can do this because you are from California." His favorite work related quote was "Look at all this work..Who is going to do it? I am too old and you work like Sh**."
One of my favorite moments with gramps was trying to cut a branch off of one of his trees in the back yard. We used a rope saw that someone had convinced my grandpa to buy a number of years earlier. I think he bought it because he felt sorry for the salesman; he had never used it before that day. We threw the rope over the branch and he was on one side of the rope, and I was on the other. We started sawing and sawing. I would pop up when my grandpa pulled down, and then he would pop up when I would pull down. I didn't realize just how funny this was until I saw my grandma doubled over in laughter while watching us. I guess watching an 18 year old boy and 80 year old man work a rope saw is pretty funny. In spite of the ineffective rope saw, we did eventually get the branch down.
Grandpa could be a pretty tough nut to crack. Those of you who know me know that I am quite sarcastic and rarely very serious. I am also easily drawn into heated debates with family members. I think all of these traits can be traced back to Gramps. He loved to give me a hard time. When I was living with him, a girl called to talk to me. Gramps told her I was in the basement smoking Marijuana and asked her if she still wanted to talk to me. On a different occasion a girl called and Gramps told her that I had broke my leg (not true). She asked if I was okay and gramps told her that they had to take me outback to shoot me.
Gramps was fun, but if you looked closely, he was also deeply caring about other people. I don't remember all of the details of this story, but I remember how my Grandpa told it. My grandparents have lived almost their whole lives in Rexburg, ID. It is mostly surrounded by potato farms. A lot of migrant workers move there to work on the potato farms. One cold day (there are a lot of them) a family of workers hit my grandma's car with their car. It did damage the car and it shook up my grandma a bit, but grandpa was not too concerned with that. All he talked about was how sorry he was for the family in the other car. They were not wearing coats and it was cold. He was worried about that and cried when he told me the story.
Driving with Grandpa was always an adventure. When I first went to live with him, about 14 years ago, he picked me up from the airport in Salt Lake. Most people can make the drive from Salt Lake to Rexburg in about 3.5 hours. I believe it took us about 6.5 hours. A few years later, he made his last drive down to Salt Lake while he was at the wheel. About half way there, he made me take over after proclaiming "I can't see the road anymore." One morning he offered to drive me to school in the snow. He tried to stop by slamming on the breaks. That doesn't work that well on ice and we ended up doing a 180. It looked like we had parked on the curb going the other direction. Gramps just looked at me and said, I guess this is where you should get out.
More than anything, my grandpa taught me how to appreciate the things that are truly important. He saw a lot of things during his life time. He helped raise 7 successful kids and was married to my grandmother for over 60 years. He served his country in world war 2, but he rarely talked about it because those "who saw action don't talk about it." He made a very good living, but you would never know it by how he lived. He had money because he didn't spend it on things he did not need. He was the very definition of frugal. My grandma had to hide his old boots that he held together with a rubber band so he would not wear them anymore. He loved spending time with his little grand kids much more than he loved spending money. I remember him walking around carrying little babies and handing out cookies to little kids. Grandpa spent his whole life serving those he loved. If there was work to be done, he wanted to help. I am really proud of my grandpa, and I know I will be a better man as I try to make him proud of me.
