My grandfather would've been 97 today

[1gobluedem]

I miss him. He was a very interesting man, fun to be with, larger than life. In the year between when my grandmother died and he died, he would call me every Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. Even now, all these years later, when my phone rings on a Thursday night, I think it's him. He had a very loud voice and never did quite figure out the purpose of an answering machine; if he had to leave me a message it was always a bellowed "Call Grandfather!" followed by the phone crashing down. We always suggested that instead of using the phone he should just open the window and yell.

His family had a shipyard on the Detroit River for many years; they made Victory Ships in WWWI. My grandfather loved boats all his life and kept one on the river all the years he lived in Detroit. He visited Alaska with his boy scout troop in the 1920s and drove across the country with his mother in Model A Ford -- from Detroit to San Francisco -- when he was only 14. His parents gave him the Model A for his fourteenth birthday but his mother wouldn't buy him roller skates because she thought they were dangerous. Interestingly, though, she bought roller skates for every other kid on the block.

He built furniture as a hobby and made my parents' dining room table and a teacart for me that I treasure. Whenever he made a piece of furniture, he'd make a miniature piece to keep. His own taste was for 1930s and 40s Art Deco and had a dining room table custom made from windshield glass; it sat fourteen and weighed 800 pounds. He was always the first to get the latest gadget and bought a color TV, dishwasher, microwave, trash compactor, and convection oven before all the bugs were quite worked out so they never worked exactly the way they were supposed to which made using them very exciting. He built a revolving stage for the Civic Theatre so they just had to turn it to the right set. He looked just like Teddy Roosevelt and played the TR character very convincingly in a Civic Theatre Production of Arsenic and Old Lace. His favorite drink was whiskey and water but he always drank beer on Sundays at the Stagecoach Inn in Marshall, MI. I often joined him in his later years. A big round table he built is still in the back corner of the bar.

Happy Birthday, Grandfather. I miss you and will love you forever.

[Breeze54]

1. What a nice post about your fond memories of your grandfather.

I'm sorry you're missing him today. :(

I never really knew my grandparents and I barely remember them but I can relate to missing parents.
My father would have been 98 last September and my Mom would have been 94 last January. I think it's
hard for all of us when our loved ones that have passed, birthdays and anniversaries of their deaths
come around. Both my parents died in January, a few years apart from each other.

I hope your day will be a peaceful one. :hug:

[auntAgonist]

2. yes, ... Happy Birthday to your Grandfather!

I wonder what he'd think of the way things are today. I know he'd be proud of you, that's a certain.
Thanks for sharing a bit about him. A model A but no rollerskates :rofl:

:hug:
Cherish your memories.

aA

[KSinTX]

3. To your Grandpa

I don't know if your Grandpa made it to 90 or not but those are some blessed yet stressful years. My mom's 98 and still going strong but every evening phone call I get puts a catch in my throat. Here's to those nanogenarians.

[LisaM]

4. Sigh. He was my grandfather too.

After he died, I still called his phone number for months, just to be able to still do it. I loved him so much.

In our family, if you ask someone if they want "a drink", you get a whiskey and water. Anything else needs to be specified.

He and I shared a taste for rare beef, strong cheese, and licorice. He used to call me his only "grandson" because we also both liked cars. He had a model train track and we all became an "N" guage model railroad family because that was his favorite. He built a dollhouse that we played with that had real electric lights. He also built a fiberglass replica of a 1937 Cord convertible that was in the Auburn/Cord/Dusenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana. We used to go there with him for the big car show every Labor Day weekend, and drink long-necked Stroh's in the Moose Lodge.


I use his line sometimes when I am ordering a rare steak at a restaurant - "just chase a cow through a warm kitchen!"

[1gobluedem]

5. Kick for my grandfather

Thanks for the nice comments!