#My grandfather

[pinkblanc]

[fieriframes]

['CAUSE, HEY, THE RECIPE'S ONLY ABOUT A HUNDRED YEARS OLD. YOU HAVEN'T CHANGED MUCH. NO, ORIGINAL BAR. A BEER COOLER AND EVERYTHING. THE BEER COOLER WAS BUILT BY MY GRANDFATHER'S COUSIN. STILL STAYS COLD. THAT'S THE ORIGINAL CASH REGISTER--WORKS LIKE A CHARM. WOW.]

[greentea-honeyeyed]

I love looking at photos of my family

[0rdinaryeric]

My father and grandfather

[angelshizuka]

Thinking about how I never met my grandathers...

My paternal grandfather died years before I was born and my maternal grandfather died when my mom was 3 months pregnant with me. Though, based on stories I've heard I guess it's a good thing I never met him. Closest thing I ever had to a grandfather was my grandmother's boyfriend, but he died when I was 6, so my memories of him are very sparse. I do remember him having a little farm with a pond, horses, sheep and chickens.

All I've really known in terms of granparents is my maternal grandmother (who's still alive), because my paternal grandmother already had dementia and died when I was 9, so I barely got to know her. I just knew her as that old lady at the retirment home my dad took me to sometimes.

[thelittleredwitch]

To the man who taught me how a lady should be treated

To the man that represented a standard in which I should hold to other men

To the man that never understood the phrase “take a break”

He gave me my own definition of “superman”

A full time father

A part time farmer

A husband of 64 years

A genius, overlooked

A barber and a dentist, Dad being the victim

Poor guy

“Stop picking on me” a phrase uttered more than I can count

A red wooden chair overlooking the cow pasture

A stained white coffee cup

The smell of loose tobacco burning an old pipe

A feeling in time more than just a familiar smell

Mr. fix it

No problem went unsolved

But just in case plan B was good ol’ duct tape

A yellow sticky note on grandma’s night stand

“Went to the barn” with a “U” drawn in a heart

An afternoon in his recliner with the morning newspaper

Asleep mid-sentence, snoring loud enough to rattle the windows

“What did you do now?” grandmas question to new scrapes or bruises

Worried Mother Hen

Band-aids, and bag balm would heal anything

But the actual solution was the kiss at the end to make it all better

My partner in crime

One raspberry for the pale one for us

One raspberry for the pale two for us

A body of 85

With a heart that equals 6

Stealing grandma’s cookies

4 lost chocolate chip

Ooohh nooo, Shhhhhhh!

Our countless shenanigans

Those were not the first and won't be the last

His tiny partner in crime

“Maw, We’re gonna go capture the corn in the garden”

Darn! That elusive corn

We “caught” a full bag

Corn silk hairs followed us inside and left a trail all over the house leading to the kitchen

As I trailed behind

Moving my little legs as fast as they could carry

Eager to learn

Always ready to help

It was just farm work

“Grandpa!”

He tossed loose straw at my head

His normal teasing:“How would you know I love you if I didn’t tease you”

To the grandpa that played with me when I was little

That helped me with my math homework

That “picked on” me and messed up my hair

Who taught me not to grow up

You were always there for me

Now I need to be there for you

You've always made me smile

Now, Ironically, cause my tears

I know you can’t remember all those times we’ve had

It’s not your fault

I know you can’t remember how to do the things you use to

It’s not your fault

I know you forget where the bathroom is sometimes

It’s not your fault

We can’t stop time

But we will be here for the rest of your time

And love you as we always have

I have never told you how much you mean to me

I don’t admit how often I cry.

I don’t tell you that you are and have always been a hero without a cape

My hero

My hero in blue overalls, a truckers hat, and scuffed, dirty work boots

I have never shared how much it all ment

Or how the smell of your tobacco takes me back in time

Back to being 5 years old again

Snapping the buttons to my matching overalls

Kicking our lucky rock

1,2,3 Good Luck

I wish I could make you remember all the things I’d like to say

I wish I would have realized how fast the clock is ticking

I wish

But, for now we can be grateful for the time we have left

And appreciate each passing day

Seeing the bright side as always

I can say that I was there for the pictures,

the holiday dinners,

the day trips to Amish Country

Something I wouldn’t change for money, the farm, or anything else in the world

I can say I’m lucky to have known you

To have such an incredible person as my grandpa

&

Your memories will stay with me even when you cant be.

A. MacAllister

[guettaes]

hehe my height and my best best favorite character and one favorite character. and my grandfather..

I miss my grandfather. but in the family he was the biggest person I knew. well, um, I almost inherited the height.

[aiiaiiiyo]

[lonelythimble]

long after

his language is gone

he speaks in fragments

of a man

"i walk two miles a day

to see my mother"

when all else is forgotten

only love remains

in these hopeful prayers

for our joy

"any offers";

"somebody has already decided

you will never have to be alone

these pious declarations

congratulations, congratulations, congratulations

in sweet triplets,

billah billah billah

age fades his tired resignation

and bleak obsession with death

to a cheekiness,

peppering repeated jokes like mantras to lightness

"from the land of the giants"

and a chuckle full of heart

wheezing exclamations of a joy so vast and pure

with wet eyes that could know nothing else but laughter

he speaks in rhythmic rules

handing down meaningless wisdoms

suggestions of another time

"he has no choice

he has to grow his mustache

the girl will say

i will not marry you

you have no mustache

i will let you grow a mustache"

he lives in wonderous truths

in times unknown to us

while i am here

watching the autumn light creeping in,

casting white hair into

wisps of angels

painting old skin soft and lively

lost in the poetry of it;

to be sat in a room

with the same faces,

recycled

the same antics

gathered in cacophony

fussing restlessly in love

this dance of

parent, child

parent, child

of shaking laughter

and musical chairs

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[from my Grandfather’s photo files: portrait of my Grandmother: Gilbert Minnesota 1918]

* * * * *

The Snow Is Deep on the Ground

BY KENNETH PATCHEN

The snow is deep on the ground.   Always the light falls Softly down on the hair of my belovèd. This is a good world. The war has failed. God shall not forget us. Who made the snow waits where love is. Only a few go mad. The sky moves in its whiteness Like the withered hand of an old king.   God shall not forget us. Who made the sky knows of our love. The snow is beautiful on the ground.   And always the lights of heaven glow   Softly down on the hair of my belovèd.

[physicalform1]

Feeling like Macchio tn

[gennuine-designs]

Sometimes I'm sad that I don't love men. This is only because I see how the men in my family live and love.

My father loves my mother in the way she loves. In small ways, grand gestures unneeded and rare. He gives her flowers he grabs from the side of the road cause he thinks of her. He deals with 15 animals in the house even though they aren't his, because they make her happy.

My father loves my sibling in the way they understand. He spends time, and learns, and builds alongside them, no words, just companions in the garage and bonding over grease and bad tv shows.

My grandfather loved my grandmother in the way you don't see anymore. He became a believer because she didn't want him to not have anything to hope for. He made her laugh, sometimes with just a look. The two of them were my first memories of true love.

My grandfather loved his kids in the hardass way. He gave them space to find themselves, and never fought it, but neither did he compromise his own self. He would teach them how to do something once, anything they asked, but he pushed them to grow into amazing people.

My father loves me in what ways he can. We talk about girls and music and beliefs, and he lets me talk his ear off about my classes and dreams. He looked at every drawing, listened to every dream, and laughed along with all my bad jokes inspired by him.

My grandfather loved me in a way I won't ever find again. Not only did he listen, he asked to hear every new dream, every half naked idea. He loved me enough to get sobbed at as he saved me from hornets. He loved me in the way I needed to feel safe. I still miss that feeling. Nothing will replace that.

I'll take every one of these examples and give them to the women I'll love, but I can't help but curse that I'll never be loved like that by anyone else. I can't change that I'm gay, but I can mourn that, however strange.

[everydayesterday]

today is the second anniversary of the evergiven getting stuck in the suez canal.  

fun fact about another time the suez canal was blocked...my grandfather helped negotiate the end of the suez crisis in 1956 as a member of canada’s external affairs team.  canada’s intervention led to the invention of modern-day peacekeeping, and also to a new canadian flag (the red maple leaf design; previously it had been a design that included the british union jack ensign, which the egyptians didn’t want to see on any “peacekeepers,” seeing as britain supported/joined israel’s aggression).

[garrettfuckingkoval]

This is my Grandfather. He passed away 2 nights ago. Spent most of his life as a cattle rancher.

He’s who I acquired my stone cold bad-ass-ness from, the “ain’t afraid of no other human on this earth.”

[0rdinaryeric]

Mi Amore

[fieriframes]

[CAME HERE TO THE UNITED STATES AND OPENED THIS GREAT PLACE. THERE WAS ONE IN CUBA. THE ORIGINAL ONE WAS BORN IN 1950 BY MY GRANDFATHER, WHO STARTED THE BUSINESS. WHERE DO ALL THE RECIPES COME FROM? RECIPES ALL COME FROM MY TÍO BALDO.]