posted on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 @ 09:29
my papaw, being a learned man of 72, has awesome things to say at times.
once he gave me a pillow that says, "if at first you don't succeed, do it the way your grandfather told you."
when a phone rings, he says, "better get that. might be a phone call."
if you're reading a book and he asks what you're doing, and you try to be a wise-ass and say, "reading a book," he'll reply, "what a novel idea."
once when i was leaving longview for austin, he told me to drive carefully. i said i always do, to which he replied, "i know, but if i didn't say it i'd be a bad grandfather."
i feel guilty in saying it, but i must admit i am a papaw's girl at heart. i adore my nana, too, of course, but for some reason i've always gravitated toward him more. i'd reckon it has something to do with my dad's lack of interaction with my life. plus, the fact he was a carpenter really tapped into my tomboy nature; i could use heavy shop equipment in elementary school. he gave me a small, red, leather-bound book entitled shop mathematics (which i still have), and i diligently taught myself the basics of trig when i was 10.
i really liked hanging out at the shop where he worked before they stopped allowing others to come in. before that, nana and i would stop at this catfish place on linwood avenue (if i recall correctly...it has been 12 years), which was only a few blocks from allen millwork on st. vincent avenue (where he worked). he'd clear off his work table, and we'd use it to eat off of. all the guys in the shop ate at the same time, so for that brief moment the enormous warehouse was completely silent. you could hear men laughing in the distance, maybe one saw going as someone tried to catch up on missed work.
he had a door at his station that led to a set of old railroad tracks behind the warehouse. they were grown over and covered with litter. st. vincent isn't in the greatest part of shreveport, so there were usually questionable items to be found as well. once i found one hand of brass knuckles, with what i was convinced was blood dried onto it. it could have been rust, but i was more interested in the possibility of blood.
when i was maybe 9 or 10, he had an accident at work that took off about 75% of his thumb, a piece that was bigger than my whole thumb. once when nana was cleaning it and changing the dressing, i convinced them to let me see it. i yelped and said i never wanted to look again, and they laughed. when it all grew back, he even had fingerprints. there's just a slight seam where it grew together with the existing flesh. now that i'm grown it's scary to see how our hands look alike.
his is on the left.
he has this old two-tone pick up, tan and brown, that doesn't have a working a/c. actually, i think he may have sold it. when we'd ride in it, though, he'd turn on a little fan he had clipped to the dash that plugged into the cigarette lighter. once we took his truck to the airport and watched planes take off. there's a little piece of driveway that goes into a field right across from the strip where they took off. you know what i'm talking about, though, right? haven't you seen those driveways that are like 10 feet long, and they're not even going anywhere? we parked there and had icees and candy bars (i had a whatchamacallit), and afterward he insisted we "hide the evidence."
i have a stuffed snoopy dressed like a vampire that he got me. it was special because nana always actually bought things for us, yet they were from them both you know? this, though, he bought himself, and it was just from him. somewhere in the clutter i have a note, written on the green allen millwork stationery he had, saying he loves me.
on the topic of hiding evidence, nana used to get me snow cones after school sometimes. there's a busy little stand a couple minutes from forest hill, and i'd get the rainbow kind with eagle brand and whipped cream on top. then mom said that was really bad, all that sugar on top of the liquid sugar in my snow cone. so i had to pick just one. every now and then, though, nana would let me get both.
i'm starting to get super sleepy, so i'm going to go occupy my time elsewise.