Colorful Characters

I lost my grandpa to an at least 15 year battle with prostate cancer on the last day of June. On July 5th we had a memorial dinner in his honor. He wanted no funeral, no viewing, no visitation and no burial. His body was sent away to be cremated. He wanted to be a burden to no one. He wanted no fuss to be made. Well, he didn't know a thing about blogs so ha! Here my fuss shall be made. :-)
I am a grandpa's girl and a daddy's girl. The greatest thing my grandpa ever did, in my estimation, was give me my daddy. But here are a few other remarkable things about his life.
-He was a member of the CCC which was infamous during the first years of FDR's 4 presidential terms. If you'd like to know more there is a fantastic documentary through netflix that our family really enjoyed.
-He was a veteran of WWII. He was in active combat and experienced things that changed his life and personality and character forever. As a country we are indebted and owe the greatest honor to heroes like my grandfather.
-He and my grandmother adopted a baby girl, one of a set of twins, in the late 40's. After they got her home they realized she had been exposed to to much oxygen in her incubator and was blind and brain damaged. They raised that little girl as their own and my grandfather loved her his entire life. That is the most selfless act I can imagine and it says more than anything I could type out about the man. -He was married to my grandmother for over 70 years and they raised three children, had 4 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
-He was one of the loves of my life. He played ball with me and taught me how to pitch. He came to my practices and yelled obscenities from the side - line. Not anything mean-spirited. That's just the way he talked. He had signs in the side of his woody station wagon (that he drove me to ball practice in) that said, "Old Fart" and "Damn I'm Good". His cb handle was "RoHo". He made my grandma want to pinch him all the time for the things he said and did. He ran straight into the face of one of my sister's boyfriends and told him to leave or die. He left. Grandpa was to old and ornery to care much about prison. Two years ago on Halloween he greeted us at the door with a loaded pistol wanting to know, "Who the hell is it?" That was the last time we trick - or - treated there after dark. That was the last time we visited after dark. One of his infamous lines was, "Oh hell." He and my younger brother got rear-ended by a lady and Tim said he jumped out of the car and looked at the woman and said, "Oh hell." When I hear the song, "What This World Needs is a Few More Rednecks" he is the first thought that pops into my head. He was an athiest. He asked me, "You believe there's a God? I don't believe there's a God. I believe you die and there's nothing." Every time I entered his presence he hollered, "Hey sug." Pronounced "shoog". Never sugar. Just "sug". And every time I left him he took my hand in his and gripped it hard enough to hurt and then put his other hand on top of it and said, "You know Grandpa loves you." And he'd drawl out the word "loves" and hang onto it just a split longer than the other words. And yes, I knew. There's a lot of things I'm not sure about in this world, but I KNEW my grandpa loved me. And I KNOW my daddy loves me. He's a character as well, much more refined around the edges because of almost 50 years of work on behalf of the indwelling Holy Spirit, but a character just the same. The quotes ringing in my head from daddy are less funny and more constructive. My father is wiser. He is tempered...sometimes. :-) He says things like this:
"You're killing me smalls."
"Life and marriage ain't about being happy."
"Put on your spiritual armor. Every day."
"If love was some mushy feeling that just came naturally then God wouldn't command you to do it. It's a choice. It's an action. Work at it."
"God gave you two ears and one mouth. Talk less, listen more."
"Give it a rest."
"You're full of malarcky."
"Shut - up."

Now I know that last one seems offensive, but stick with me here. My daddy was drafted into the navy during the Vietnam war. He has worked for 40 years. He has been married for almost 40. He has raised 4 children, is raising 3 more grandchildren, and has buried one adult son. He has been an active, studying, teaching, serving Christian for 49 years - 50 in 2011. He speaks rarely in a crowd and 99 times out of 100 only when he is spoken to. In this world of non - stop chatter with blog posts like this one, twitter, face book, talk radio, television talk shows, children speaking WAY MORE THAN WHEN THEY'RE SPOKEN TO and everybody and their dog having an opinion and a way to publish it......we could use a few more wise, learned, experienced gentlemen like my dad saying, "Shut - up."

On that note, I believe I'll go to bed. Love you Grandpa and Daddy.