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10 Things About Grandpa



Lester Langley
WWII Army Sergeant 
Before he met and married my grandma.


I have a lot of stress in my life right now.  Things aren't going so hot with my boys.  There are days I feel like I'm going to crack in half.  Life isn't always easy, and sometimes, it's downright hard.  I find my mind thinking about my grandpa a lot lately.  A LOT.  I don't even know what to say, and this is my meme!  I just know that I miss him.  He died when I was sixteen and I think I've grieved ever since.  

10 things I hope my kids remember about  him when I'm gone:

1.  I loved him so very much.  He made me a Winnie the Pooh house when I was two.  I kept it until a dog destroyed it about 7 years ago.  He sang "You Are My Sunshine" to my sister and I...  and also played it and other tunes on the harmonica.

2.  Once when I was three (and remember it to this day) I ran into the kitchen because I thought I heard his voice - it was the newscaster on the TV.  I was so confused, and my mom was startled because the sun wasn't up yet!

3.  That he was in the Civil Engineering Army Corps and he survived both D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.  There is more, but that's for a WWII prompt.  ;)  Later in life he lost his leg due to a logging accident.  All my life I knew him with a wooden leg.  I once heard a tape where he told my grandma that if anything happened to him, look in his leg, he had put money in there.  :)



4.  He knew how to sit and enjoy life.  It's an art that I'm still not good at.  It irritated him that I wouldn't sit still and listen to him.  No one knew about ADHD back then, and it didn't stop him from trying.  ;)

5.  He loved animals, the farm, and his family.  FIERCELY protective of family.  He loved giving us rides on the tractor, and he enjoyed "following" us around town via the CB. 

6.  Once when my mom was around ten years old she kept chasing chickens.  My grandpa warned her not to do it, and she did it again.  So he tied her in the chicken coop so the hens could learn to not be afraid of her.  

7.  He's the one that got me hooked on old westerns.  He was a huge fan of Gunsmoke and The Rifleman, but watched others too.  My personal faves are Bonanza and Here Come the Brides (with Big Valley and Alias Smith and Jones as runner ups).

8.  I know I mentioned fishing on Foss Lake, but I have to stress, he was REALLY into fishing.  He owned his own boat and trailer at the lake for fishing getaways.  He took us regularly until I developed a phobia of them.  Then he took everyone else and lamented to my mom that he missed his Little Lake Skimmer.


9.  He was addicted to Vantage Cigarettes and Folgers coffee.  I have a thing for coffee mugs even though I don't drink the stuff - especially plain white ones.  I still see his plainly in my mind.  He once tried to quit smoking but it didn't last.  It's funny, because I wanted him to quit so badly back then, but now I look at his and my grandmother's photo where they're cutting their anniversary cake and he's got a cigarette in his hand wrapped around her arms...  and I just ache all over to give him a hug again.    We loved him, vices and all.



10.  My saddest memory:  I was angry about someone drinking something of mine.  Happened a lot in those days, and as a teen and the oldest of six, I didn't handle it well.  I was a pretty angry teen.  So anyway, I'd gone over to his house and I was just mad and my grandpa had suffered a stroke.  (That's my second saddest memory - my grandpa in the hospital after his first stroke, unable to speak or write but still tried to write "I love you" for me.  It hurt so much to see him in pain like that.)  So he was there and still unable to speak, and he started putting water and sugar and lemon in a cup and handed it to me.  Taken aback, I asked my mom, "What is he doing?"  She said, "He made you lemonade so you wouldn't be angry anymore."

That's who my grandpa was.  


Pictured as I remember him with sisters Lynn on the left and Della on the right.
1984

♥

Your turn - what 10 things can you write about your grandpa (or grandpa figure) in your life?







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