Happy Father's Day Grandpa Frank

Dear Grandpa Frank,

You are my father figure. You are the one who believed in me and taught me how coffee should be made. I watched you make your "Cowboy Coffee". I watched you drink it and I watched you wash out your coffee cup.

You are my father figure. I watched you sit at the breakfast table and roll your cigarettes. I watched you place them one-by-one into the cigarette case, place it in your shirt pocket, and the go outside to smoke. I remember you sitting in the car or under the cottonwood tree smoking. I remember you going into your "smoking room" when you smoked in the house.

Grandpa Frank, I remember you taking us to the Lake where we went water skiing or lit fireworks on the fourth of July. I remember you taking use to church on Easter and Christmas. You took us to church the rest of the year, but it was the holiday pageants that stand out in my memories.

Grandpa, I miss you. Grandpa, I love you. I hope that you have a good Father's Day in heaven.

Your oldest granddaughter

Columbus Day Thoughts and Memories

It's Columbus Day
Celebrate discovery
1492

I remember celebrating Columbus Day in Blackwell, Oklahoma. As a child, you never question the history lessons. As a child, you hope you can remember enough of the dates to pass the next test. I don't think we had to go to school on Columbus Day.

I enjoyed days off because we could stay at Grandma's house all day. Mom worked, which meant we couldn't stay home alone; we had to stay with my Grandparents. Since Grandpa worked, we stayed with Grandma all day.

Writing My Memories of Grandma and Grandpa

I'm thinking a lot about my grandparents. Since I'm thinking about them I'm also writing about them. I'm making blog entries about Grandma and Grandpa Newland. Of course, I had two sets of grandparents.

Most of my memories are about my mother's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Newland. I remember my father's mother, Grandma Darbe, but I don't remember Dad's father because he died before I was born.

I'm not sure why I'm thing about my grandparents. Perhaps it's the time of my life, I'm 62 and will turn 63 on December 24. Age may have something to do with the memories or stress. The years I spent with Grandma and Grandpa were less stressful. I don't know why I'm thinking about them lately, but as long as I think about them I'm going to continue writing about them.

A warm day in Las Vegas

It's warm out today. Some would call it hot. Perhaps it is, I don't know the prediction for today's temperature. I do know that when I went out to take the cloths off the line, I broke a sweat, cloths felt as if I had just taken them out of an electric dryer and the cloths pins were hot.

Hanging cloths out brings back memories of my grandmother. Grandma Newland hang her cloths out. Even after electric washers and dryers appeared on the market, Grandma still hung her cloths out. Grandpa bought her an automatic washer, but not a dryer. If Grandma had wanted an electric cloths dryer, Grandpa would have bought it for her.

Grandma enjoyed hanging cloths out because she liked the smell of cloths right off the line. I enjoy the smell of cloths dried outside; I just can't seem to get them as soft as Grandma could. I use fabric softener in the washer during he rinse cycle. I don't know what the problem is; perhaps cloths today are intended to be dried in an automatic dryer.

Laundry on the line
I remember Grandma on
laundry day laughing.

It was Sunday

Daily writing practice prompt for Thursday, June 25, 2009 was “It was Sunday, the time it happened.”

It was Sunday, the time it happened. Sunday on a 4th of July weekend and we were at Lake Carl Blackwell. Three carloads of relatives camping out at Lake Carl Blackwell, waiting for night when we could set off the fireworks, my brothers, sister and I were in the water, wearing life vest, floatation devices, because Grandpa insisted that we wear them.

Grandpa was in the water as well. He always kept an eye on us when we went swimming, even though each child had a life vest on, Grandpa watched us. He was our living guardian angle and this time it was a good thing he was there.

The life vest my brother was wearing got water logged. Grandpa saw that Tom, my youngest brother, was in trouble, so he immediately pulled him from the water. Tom was all right and Grandpa bought him a new life vest.

NOTE: This is one of three events, which happened at Lake Carl Blackwell. The three events happened over a three-year time span. After the last event, we never went back to Lake Carl Blackwell. I put the events in a poem and now I am working on a short essay with the events, I still need to work on the descriptions.

Writing about my Grandparents

I found a professional photo of Grandma and Grandpa Newland. The photo was taken in Blackwell, Oklahoma, but I don't remember when it was taken or who took it. When photos like this are done, a person seldom writes down the year or the photographer who took them. Now I wish I had.

I wrote a tribute today in my writing.com blog Snow Melt. It was a response to a leading journal entry by another member. I'm considering writing a larger tribute to Grandma and Grandpa Newland. So the blog entry is a good start to that project.

I can think of other things now, that I didn't put in the blog entry. My grandparents encouraged me when I was growing up. They made sure we had a spiritual education while my mother worked. Grandpa was my father figure after my parents divorced. They were always there for me when I was growing up. They took care of us when Mom worked at night. I'm not sure I can write a fitting tribute to them, but I have to attempt the project.