I never met my paternal grandfather (he died when my father was a teenager back in the 60s). Paternal grandmother died sometime in the 1980s but she lived on the east coast when we were living on the west coast so I have only vague memories of one of her visits. My maternal grandfather died in the late 90s but we'd been out of touch since we traveled around and by the time my grandmother died in 2001, we'd been overseas almost 10 years. I remember my grandfather having a good sense of humor, a good singing voice, and telling lots of jokes with puns. My grandmother was a mean old woman when we were little (didn't think kids should make noise, climb trees, or play in the dirt- and I was a loud tree-climbing monkey of a kid who dug for worms in the dirt). When we first moved down here, we befriended an older couple (old enough to be my grandparents) and the lady was taking care of her elderly father. He would sit in a side bedroom by himself (with the door open) while the other adults drank coffee and chatted. I always liked and respected elderly people so I would go sit in the room with him and ask him to talk to me. I no longer remember any of his stories, but I was later told that he always looked forward to my visits because he liked having someone to talk to.
I dearly miss my elderly friend, Cordell (the son-in-law of the aforementioned gentleman). He grew up in a large family & his father was crippled at a young age and died when Cordell was only 16- so it was left to Cordell to financially support his mother and 6 sisters (he also had an older brother but the brother was married & moved out & felt no inclination to help). His nickname in high school was "Romeo". He joined the army during WW2 and went to China and India. He later worked at a department store and then as an insurance bill collector before opening up a fish & shrimp shop. He loved to garden and always had good fresh veggies and fruits. I used to pester him to tell some of my favorite stories over and over. When he got together with another friend, CG, I would just sit and listen to them chat about their childhoods. There used to be a group of at least 5 men who would come over and tease each other and talk about the old days. It dwindled as they either got put in nursing homes or passed away. In retrospect, I wish I'd had a camera and recording device with me to record some of the stories. I can re-tell some of them, but not with quite the same flair.
Other than making dinner and cleaning up dog crap, I got nothing done yesterday. I was up in the middle of the night and then went to sleep sometime in the morning and didn't wake until after 6pm. I made stuffing with corn & chicken again.
Edit: I'm still awake and was watching youtube vidoeos on flooring installation and came across this one. From what I understand, the man passed away in 2011 but man, he was skilled. He was entertaining as well.
