Grandpa

Grandpa's chair with his two dollies and one gentleman
me, my sister and my cousin

Grandpa's chair (This is the one I will remember always as his) was a favorite for five little grandchildren.  We loved to climb on him while he sat on it or sit on the footstool and lean back against his knees.  What a treasure to have a grandfather who loved to hug his grandchildren! 

My cousin, me, Grandpa, and my little sis

Driving to the dump with Grandpa, we must have pestered him with lots of questions about when are we going to get there? and where is it?  So he would tease us by pointing out the passenger window with his finger pushing our nose that direction.   He loved to tease us.

Tickling was another thing he loved to do.  "How do you feel this morning?" he'd say almost every morning.  Didn't matter our answer we knew what was coming.  Grandpa would tickle us all the while, asking "Do you feel good here? or here?"

Me, in the front with my two cousins in the back.

When my older cousin (by 3 weeks) and I were 3 and 1/2, Grandpa's youngest grandchild and my brother was born.  The five of us were fairly close in age.  What fun we had at Grandpa and Grandma's!  For a long time while I was little they had a pool.  We always were in that pool during the summer.  I remember popsicles that were brought out just to coax us to take a break.  Countrytime lemonade takes me back to Grandpa's house.   Seems like that was a staple there.  And the cookie jar was always full with a cookie or two and icecream before bed.  Another memory was Noxema - Grandma used it on our sunburns when we'd been in the pool too long. 

Grandpa used to tease us and tell us with a gruff face "Your dad's a gentleman!"  We would argue till we were blue in the face that he most definitely wasn't.  He loved this story.  Another story he liked was the two nickels and one dime story.  I think it started when my mom and her sister were little, but if memory serves he did it to my sister and I.  Mom was given two "big, fat, shiny" nickels and my aunt (the older one) was given one "teeny weeny little" dime.  Oh, my aunt would get hopping mad because it wasn't fair.  He chuckled over that one quite a bit. 

The man I loved was a quiet man, but when it came to his family his heart was wide open.  He loved to make us laugh.  It must have been very hard for him to watch one of his daughters take his dollies and one gentleman half way around the world.  He loved all of us so.  He gave us all so much of himself.