More Memories - My Granddaddy

I did a blog for my Granny yesterday so I wanted to
be sure and do one for my Granddaddy also.

That man was bigger then life to me and
I loved him so much. Granddaddy left us
when I was in either the 7th or 8th grade
(that would be about 36 years ago or so).
He had lung cancer. That was my first dealings
with that wicked disease, later in life I lost
several close family members to it in some form
or another. To hear that my Granddaddy had this
was scary; to know that we would probably
lose him was hard to take. If I remember
correctly, six months after hearing that
news, he was gone.

Like my Granny, I have memories of him.
He worked at the local drive in (that was
when there were still a lot around). He
ran the projector at night and cleaned t
he parking lot during the day. When we
visited we always went a long to help out.
To us, my brothers and my cousins and I,
it was not a job because we always seemed
to have so much fun doing it.

We would each have a burlap sack that was
as big as each one of us and we go around
the lot, roll for roll picking up paper and
trash. When we had our sacks full we
would ride on the top of the car or in
the trunk to the end of the lot where the
dumpster was to empty our sacks and
then we started out again.

I remember a time that my Granddaddy
let my oldest brother, my uncle (who
was younger then my brother), my cousin
and I ride home from the drive in, in the
trunk of his car. We had to hold the trunk
lid barely opened so we could have air but
we could not let it close on us. Oh my gosh,
as a Mom and a Grandmother myself now
I would have a fit to know my child was
riding like that!

Above the snack area at this drive in
and right outside where the projector
was there was a patio type area with
outdoor seating, that is where my cousin,
Kathy and I saw the movie “Gone with the
Wind”. My first time to ever see it.

When I was in elementary school I grew
fast, shot right up there, and I was tall
for my age. Problem with that is, I did
all my growing then, only to stop and
have everyone pass me up for me to
remain in my adult life….short! But
as a child I was tall and skinny (that is
a thing of the past also). One of my
memories of Granddaddy was that he
always called me String Bean. Not a
nickname I really wanted or thought
was the neatest one to have, but it did
not bother me that he called me that. I
felt special. Then there was a song that
he always sang when I was around “Hey,
hey, good looking, what you got cooking”.
For all I know, he could have sang this to
my cousin’s also, but in my mind, he was
singing that to just me. I so loved that man.

My Granddaddy had a side job also, he
raised worms! Yes, you read that one
right. He raised worms and people would
come by to buy up worms for fishing.
Those were some big, fat, juicy, creepy,
crawly (are you reading this Kathy?)…worms.
I was never afraid of those things but
my Mom (Granddaddy’s daughter is).
He fed these worms lettuce, cabbage
and tomatoes. He may have fed them
other things but that is what I remember
seeing thrown on the worm beds.

Granddaddy was a gentle man, a man
of few words, tall and dark and once
again, I wished I had thought to sit and
listen to his life as a child. I am sure that
those are stories I would have carried
with me and shared with my grandkids.

Thanks for stopping in. Please your
comment and a memory of your Granddad.
Pam