And now grandpas
Jul. 13th, 2004 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisMight as well cover this whole thing completely and give proper due to the grandpas...
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<P><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Might as well cover this whole thing completely and give proper due to the grandpas...
</P><P align=center><IMG src="http://www.susandennis.org/lj/bars/divider_bluenblack.gif" align=center ?></P><P>The Great Hugger's husband (Mom's daddy) was a nice guy but kind of a casper milketoast. He worked for more than 50 years in the stationery printing section of an office supply shop. He did letterhead. He had glaucoma and terrible headaches for years. He turned into a broccoli 25 years before he died at age 90.
BUT before he took the mental left turn he was a wonderful grandpa. Every single Sunday we were there, after church and after dinner, he would invite us kids to walk with him to the drugstore. I don't know why my sister and brother never wanted to go but they never did and I never missed a chance. The trip was to buy the Sunday Afternoon Ballgame Cigar. And... since I went with him, I got the cigar ring. And I loved those things. I wore mine proudly. As I got older, I could make one last until about Wednesday if no one made me take a bath.
And the baseball game. If you are weary of my constant baseball news/interests/entries... you can blame Grandpa. Every Sunday afternoon - out on the screened in porch, me and Grandpa and Dizzy Dean and PeeWee Reece. The cigar and the ring.</P><P align=center><IMG src="http://www.susandennis.org/lj/bars/divider_bluenblack.gif" align=center ?></P><P>Daddy's father - the husband of the mean ugly woman - was German. I mean seriously German. He had run away from home on the Rhine River as a teenager, lied about his age and joined the British Navy. He sailed in great ships across seas until one night, while they were in port somewhere, he found out that England and German were at war. The big oops. So he and his buddy hop off the ship and run. They turned out to be in Galveston, Texas but that took a bit to figure out since neither of them spoke a word of English.
He never lost his thick German accent but his English got pretty good. He retired as the only engineer at Frisco Railroad to obtain the title without formal schooling. He was a kidder of the highest order. I loved him because he would tease my sister unmercifully and she never got that he was teasing.
And he was a writer. A writer of letters. Tons of letters to everyone. He had a Royal typewriter (which I still have!) and he pounded out letter after letter, making careful carbons of each. He wrote to Sonny and Cher to ask Sonny to get Cher to wear more clothes on the TV show, please. He wrote to Lawrence Welk to express his concern that the Champagne Music Lady wasn't getting enough air time.
But his most famous one (and I still have the carbon) was to Eugene McCarthy when he was running for President. He had some serious issues to cover with McCarthy so his letter starts off: "Dear Senator McCarthy, Should you be elected..." He sent me the carbon with my own letter where he complained that he never heard from the "misdirected Senator". He did, however, hear from Sonny and Cher and from both Lawrence Welk and from the Champagne Music Lady and most of the other people he wrote to.
</P><P align=center><IMG src="http://www.susandennis.org/lj/bars/divider_bluenblack.gif" align=center ?></P><P>I was so lucky to have known all my grandparents - even the mean old bitch - the first one of them waited until I was in college to die so I have long, full memories of each. I only had one cousin, one aunt and one uncle. All but the cousin are gone now and he's more of a hermit than I am. But even so I have a rich vault of family stuff.</P></FONT>
</P><P align=center><IMG src="http://www.susandennis.org/lj/bars/divider_bluenblack.gif" align=center ?></P><P>The Great Hugger's husband (Mom's daddy) was a nice guy but kind of a casper milketoast. He worked for more than 50 years in the stationery printing section of an office supply shop. He did letterhead. He had glaucoma and terrible headaches for years. He turned into a broccoli 25 years before he died at age 90.
BUT before he took the mental left turn he was a wonderful grandpa. Every single Sunday we were there, after church and after dinner, he would invite us kids to walk with him to the drugstore. I don't know why my sister and brother never wanted to go but they never did and I never missed a chance. The trip was to buy the Sunday Afternoon Ballgame Cigar. And... since I went with him, I got the cigar ring. And I loved those things. I wore mine proudly. As I got older, I could make one last until about Wednesday if no one made me take a bath.
And the baseball game. If you are weary of my constant baseball news/interests/entries... you can blame Grandpa. Every Sunday afternoon - out on the screened in porch, me and Grandpa and Dizzy Dean and PeeWee Reece. The cigar and the ring.</P><P align=center><IMG src="http://www.susandennis.org/lj/bars/divider_bluenblack.gif" align=center ?></P><P>Daddy's father - the husband of the mean ugly woman - was German. I mean seriously German. He had run away from home on the Rhine River as a teenager, lied about his age and joined the British Navy. He sailed in great ships across seas until one night, while they were in port somewhere, he found out that England and German were at war. The big oops. So he and his buddy hop off the ship and run. They turned out to be in Galveston, Texas but that took a bit to figure out since neither of them spoke a word of English.
He never lost his thick German accent but his English got pretty good. He retired as the only engineer at Frisco Railroad to obtain the title without formal schooling. He was a kidder of the highest order. I loved him because he would tease my sister unmercifully and she never got that he was teasing.
And he was a writer. A writer of letters. Tons of letters to everyone. He had a Royal typewriter (which I still have!) and he pounded out letter after letter, making careful carbons of each. He wrote to Sonny and Cher to ask Sonny to get Cher to wear more clothes on the TV show, please. He wrote to Lawrence Welk to express his concern that the Champagne Music Lady wasn't getting enough air time.
But his most famous one (and I still have the carbon) was to Eugene McCarthy when he was running for President. He had some serious issues to cover with McCarthy so his letter starts off: "Dear Senator McCarthy, Should you be elected..." He sent me the carbon with my own letter where he complained that he never heard from the "misdirected Senator". He did, however, hear from Sonny and Cher and from both Lawrence Welk and from the Champagne Music Lady and most of the other people he wrote to.
</P><P align=center><IMG src="http://www.susandennis.org/lj/bars/divider_bluenblack.gif" align=center ?></P><P>I was so lucky to have known all my grandparents - even the mean old bitch - the first one of them waited until I was in college to die so I have long, full memories of each. I only had one cousin, one aunt and one uncle. All but the cousin are gone now and he's more of a hermit than I am. But even so I have a rich vault of family stuff.</P></FONT>
Cool
Date: 2004-07-13 03:16 pm (UTC)All I wanted to know...and then some!
Re: Cool
Date: 2004-07-13 03:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-13 04:00 pm (UTC)My grandfather was a winner in a contest to name the San Diego Padres. He and one other guy won and he had lifetime tickets to the Padres games. He was a huge baseball fan. Your stories bring back such great memories of him.
The very first picture I ever saw on our TV set when my dad was hooking up the antenna was a SF baseball game. I thought if that's all you get on TV, no big deal. I was about 7 years old then.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-13 04:12 pm (UTC)