Grandfathers Are Special

 

“You want to go for a ride?  Well, climb on up there, son”, I heard
the silver haired gentleman say to his grandson
as he held the horse by the bridle with one hand and the saddle horn
with the other.  I continued to watch as he allowed the boy
to feel in charge by handing him the reins, yet he still
held the horse with a lead rope.  The look on the boy’s face
was priceless as his Grandpa continued calling out instructions
to the boy who called him “Paw-Paw.”

Whether you call him Grandfather, Granddad, Grandpa, Pap-Paw,
or some other variation of the word, Grandfathers are unique
and hold special memories for all of us.

As I watched this Grandfather with his Grandson, I wondered
how many times I had heard the question, “You want to go for a ride?”
It’s something most children remember since it is fairly common
to see a Grandfather giving rides in wheelbarrows, wagons,
sleds, or even high upon what must seem like giant shoulders
to a tiny child.  He will quit carrying the children after they get
very big but he doesn’t let on or admit that they are too heavy
for him.  Instead, you will hear him say something like,
“Hey Buddy, you’re getting old enough to carry something yourself,”
as he hands a 20 pound tool box to a young boy who struggles to
carry it with pride because he has to show his Grandpa that he can do it.
Then as the children grow, Grandpa begins teaching them to ride
things by themselves.  The important thing is not so much
in what they learn to ride but it’s in mastering the ride.

Grandfathers like to teach such things as how to make music with
a mouth harp, harmonica, or simply how to put a blade of grass
between your thumbs and make it squeal.  He will teach you
how to make all kinds of sounds and he might even show you
how to make a turkey call from a medicine bottle.  Grandpa is
often the one who shows you how to comb the woods for mushrooms
and teaches you how to tell which ones are edible.  He might even be
the one to give you your first pocketknife and show you how
to keep it sharp, so you can whittle together on the front porch.

Grandfathers are somewhat like Grandmothers because they keep
a lot of stuff around but Grandfather usually keeps his stuff in
the garage, shed, or workshop. This is only because Grandmothers
tend to fuss about Grandfathers bringing too much junk
into the house. Grandpa’s area becomes his very own personal
miniature “Home Depot” and it is the place he likes to be.
In his workshop will be old coffee cans and jars containing
bolts, nails, and screws of all shapes and sizes.
He has just about everything but he usually can’t find
what he needs and has been known to spend hours looking
for things.  The shop is also full of  ropes, cords, pieces of leather,
and parts of engines along with lumber, saws, and all sorts of
tools both old and new.  Grandfathers love things like drills,
flashlights, and screwdrivers and they believe you can never
have too many of them.  There are rakes and shovels lining the walls
and plenty of super glue, duct tape, wire, and WD-40 on the shelf.
If Grandpa can’t fix something, it probably can’t be fixed.

One of the first things Grandfather’s teach the grandchildren is
how to keep a secret.  “Remember, Partner, we aren’t telling
anybody about this, especially Grandma.  Somehow the truth
always surfaces and we find out things like how Grandpa
went fishing without any bait or how he couldn’t get any money
from the ATM machine because he couldn’t remember his PIN number.

Grandfathers have a bit of magic surrounding them.  I know a Grandpa
who has a magic refrigerator that always has treats for the kids
and yet another Grandfather who has a Dr. Pepper tree up in the woods
back of the house where, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper
can be found there after the long trek with grandchildren up the hill.
How did it get there?  Well, it’s a magic Dr. Pepper tree of course!

Grandfathers are known to eat strange things and are notorious for
saying, “Here boy, try some of this.”  Most Grandfathers have eaten
everything from venison to rattlesnake.  They also eat Spam,
better known as “Stuff Posing As Meat.”  If he is fresh out of Spam,
he will offer pork rinds, frog legs, or pickled pigs feet.
Just be careful about eating anything Grandpa calls,
“sweetbreads” or “rocky mountain oysters” because you’d
never believe what that stuff really is.

One of the best things about Grandfathers is that they like to tell stories.
They tell about living through The Great Depression or when they
were in the war and far from home. They do tend to exaggerate a little
when they tell about when they were boys and how they walked
six miles to school in a blizzard, uphill both ways, when the snow
was ten foot deep and it was 30 below zero. There are stories
about Grandfather’s most dangerous exploits but with
a moral to the story and a stern warning not to try things
that he had to learn the hard way.

Grandfathers often teach lessons to their grandchildren through
old sayings that are full of truth.  These short adages tend to stick
in the memory because they make a point and they are often humorous.
Here are just a few that I have picked up from Grandfathers,
some in their own particular vernacular:

“You can’t get blood from a turnip”

“A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it”

“You don’t have to get down and waller with the hogs to know they stink”

“Even a blind hog finds an acorn ever once in awhile”

“A man deserves the kind of horse he has to ride”

“Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to
open your mouth and remove all doubt”

“Never try to herd black cattle in the dark”

“Right is right and wrong is wrong, and wrong is never right”

“If you lay down with dogs, you're gonna get up with fleas”

“Always look out for kids and old folks cause they can’t look out for themselves…and never do nothin’ to hurt them.”

There are three kinds of men:
-The ones that learn by reading
-The ones that learn by observation
-The ones who have to touch the electric fence for themselves.”

“Always drink upstream from the herd”

“Never tell the barber his prices are too high before he cuts your hair.”

And my favorite: “A good horse is never a bad color”

Grandfathers can have a powerful influence on their grandchildren by
teaching perseverance, loyalty, sacrifice, and hard work through
their many life stories.  They lived in a time when a man’s word
and a handshake were more binding than any piece of paper
drawn up in a lawyer’s office.   They believed that
an honorable man kept his word and that a good name
was more important than riches and that's
a belief worth passing down to grandchildren today.

By
Pamela R. Blaine
© May, 2003