My_Grandpa

JOHN It was a nice sunny day and the birds where chirping and kids were running up and down the streets. We were in the car and had just turned into my grandparent’s neighborhood on a spring afternoon. It was Easter break and I was going to stay in Geneseo with my grandparents for a couple of days while my parents were out of town. I remember watching the kids riding their bikes down the black topped streets thinking what am I going to do out here for 4 whole days. We pulled into the driveway and my grandpa was out there washing his car. He took great pride in his big red buick that was over 10 years old and didn’t have even a scratch on it. I remember my mother warning me to put a smile on my face and at least look happy to be there. “Hey kid are you ready to work for the next few days”, my grandpa said as I walked up the driveway. I just smiled and was thinking about how mad I was at my parent’s for leaving me here. Later on that night after my mom had left my grandpa took me out to the garage where he said I was going to work. His idea of work was teaching my how to make things. At age 7 I remembered thinking I don’t need to know how to make things I just want to play with my dolls. We first made a bird feeder and I got to hang it up and watch the birds. He later taught me all of the different kind of birds that came to visit over the next several days. Next we made a doll bed. I was very happy about this because I had somewhere for my baby to sleep while I was there. Over the next few days I made both my mom and dad a present. Whenever we were working on something my grandpa would tell me what each tool or sander did while we used them. “Later there would be a quiz”, he would always say. All in all the 4 days I had dreaded turned into the best 4 days of my Easter break and I had formed a relationship with my grandpa. Sir John or Uncle John is what everyone in their small town called my Grandpa. I never understood why when I was a kid. I figured the Sir John came because he built the church that he and my grandma went to and the uncle john was because he must be related to all of these people. I never thought too much about it until I was at his funeral and people had gotten up to talk about him. That’s when I figured out why he was called by these two names. My grandma became paralyzed from the waist down from a brain tumor. My grandpa waited on her hand and foot for over 20 years. She was a very bossy and demanding woman and he never once complained about it. Uncle John was not because he was related to everyone but because he was the guy you could call to help you out and he would be right there. He would do anything for anybody. My grandpa was a big man and always had on blue jeans and a t-shirt with black tennis shoes. He walked with a limp like his knees were locked but that didn’t stop him from getting wherever he needed to go. He had big eyes and fluffy white hair with a big bald spot on the top. He always was chewing a piece of gum. There was never a time we would go to his house that he didn’t have packs of gum sitting on his portable dishwasher in the kitchen. I can remember as he got older and couldn’t build and do as much stuff outside that every time we came over I would find my grandpa in the kitchen cooking or sitting in his big brown leather recliner chair rubbing his knee. There will never be a better cook than my grandpa. I can picture him with his shaky hands with the blender mashing up the potatoes for Christmas dinner. That is what I remember about Christmas the most growing up was not the expensive presents but the home cooked meal that he would cook for the whole family no matter how old he got. Growing up I didn’t think my grandpa was much fun because he wasn’t into sports and all the stuff that I was into. He always made jokes and I remember being a teenager and all my aunts and uncles laughing and I was thinking this isn’t funny. I remember every time I went with him to the store and we would stop and get gas. While pumping the gas he would clean the windshield off and stick his head in the window and say “Where you folks from.” It was things like those that I have come to appreciate now that I am older. No matter what the situation was or how sad it may be he would find away to make everyone smile or have a laugh. As I am older and watching my own mother who picked up this trait from him I now can appreciate all the situations that he made lighter for us all. My grandpa was a soldier, a cook, a carpenter, a husband, a provider, a dad, and most important to me my Grandpa. He valued family more than anyone I have ever met. He had six kids and 13 grandkids and no matter how old we got or how far we were when it came Christmas afternoon we knew we better be at my grandpa’s house. They don’t make men like my grandpa anymore. There is not another guy like him. He has had the biggest impact on my life but it did take until I was an adult to figure that out. What I would not do to have a few more weeks with him. I would have a few more laughs and the chance to tell him how important he has been in my life.