Today I miss my Grandpa B. a lot.
We were talking in class today about trees and I offhandedly mentioned the names of a couple of the leaves they were talking about. The second grade teacher widened her eyes, and was like,"Wow! You know what these are?" I realized that the only reason I do is because of Grandpa B.
Funny all the time that you think you will have with people and that's never really the way it turns out. I always thought that when I grew up I would have Grandpa teach me all the names of all the trees in the whole world. He was just amazing like that. We liked to quiz him sometimes as we tromped through the timber in our oldest "play shoes" trying to avoid stick-tights and leaping over fallen logs and dodging through underbrush. You could ask him the name of just about any tree and he could tell you.
He grew up on the same farm in rural Kansas that I first met him on, in what I remember as a great big farm house that seems to have shrunk with with passing years. It was the family farm but my Grandpa was the last brother around still farming. When I was little he did just that. He farmed. I remember sometimes when we would come to see them, if it was a bad time of the year, we would see him very little. Then there were no "horsey-rides" as we called it when we would clamor aboard his back as he paraded us (sometimes multiple us'es) around the room on all fours. He would be out early in the morning doing chores and come home late at night.
The best thing, if it wasn't a bad time of the year, was to catch him as he was about to go feed the cows. I could usually convince him to let me carry a bucket of grain out from the silo to the bins. Of course I wasn't strong enough to heave it over the sides, nor did I carry a full 8 gallon bucket, but I remember being pretty pleased with myself that I had helped Grandpa with the chores. But very best of all is if you could get him alone, if only you had seen him sneak off to go do chores, and then having Grandpa all to your very own self was like a little girl's very best treat! He was gentle and loved teaching about anything. You could ask him any question in the world and he would answer in that soft spoken, but very knowledgeable Southern Kansas drawl.
He was a builder too. Even after he retired from farming, he would do carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work for people all the time. He told us once that he could do duct work for central air too, but the certification fees were so high, it didn't make it worth his time. I never doubted that he probably could have built anything. I dearly treasure the jewelry boxes that he made for each one of us girls. Grandpa wasn't one to be idle very long. He used to let us come with him when he was working on building the house for my Grandma back in the timber. We would rollerskate in the basement on the smooth concrete while he worked away in some other part of the house.
And he was a storyteller. He could tell the best stories about growing up with his mischievous family on the farm, about the other soldiers in his division in the Army, about farming, or even just a silly anecdote from day to day life. He always made it fun and exciting to listen to.
I guess the main reason that I miss him today is that today was him and Grandma's anniversary. I always thought that was cool because it fell the day before my birthday, so I always felt especially close to them just for that silly reason. I think I always thought that Grandpa would be there to see me be the one to walk down the aisle. He would be there in his western cut suit with those dress boots all shiny and his eyes sparkling with happiness. I'll miss that he won't be there.
The best thing to remember about my Grandpa though, is probably the gentle rise and fall of his voice reading the Christmas story aloud to us. Grandpa was quiet about his faith, but that didn't mean it wasn't there all the same. He was so faithful at making sure that we were quizzed on the real meaning behind Christmas, and we didn't ever want to disappoint him. My mom even helped us memorize the passage from Luke one year to surprise him.
I only got a spanking from Grandpa once in my life.Apparently we were giving Grandma just a little too much trouble and being a little too rambunctious. I guess once was enough to scare me straight because Grandpa was STRONG, and I never wanted to get a spanking from him again!
He always made sure to give us all a hug before we parted every time we saw one another. I miss Grandpa's hugs and the smell of the dusty barn lingering on his work shirts. I love riding in his old truck that my brother drives now for that exact reason; I can still smell that old barn and it makes me feel close to Grandpa.
One of my friends the other day showed me a shirt she had found at a thrift store. She was excited because it was flannel, plaid, western cut, and had beautiful pearl snaps down the front and on the cuffs. (That sort of thing is all the rage with these hipsters now days.) To me though, it was the perfect picture of something Grandpa would have worn, and it made me miss him.
