Little Portrait of Grandad #1

“Dad never did spank us kids, though I’m sure he would like to have, once in awhile.  He was easy on us kids, but could make us mind with a look.  He was rough on other people, though.  Once he saw a man whipping his kids in their back yard and got so mad that he whipped the man and took the three kids to our home.  We kept them for a couple of weeks.  Jack slept with Mom and Dad, and the rest of us (6) slept on one double bed.  It was fun having them at the house.”

Back in the days when neighbors watched out for neighbors…..

Going Solo

Jimmy walked out the door.  If he’d been asked, he would probably have said he wasn’t ‘leaving’ particularly.  It was more of a going.  But nobody asked him because there was no one around to do any asking.  The wooden screen door shut with a quiet bang, and he was on his way.

With mental eyes on the goal and blue eyes on the road ahead, he mounted his tricycle and set out.  Dust rose around him.  Arizona sun travelled slowly overhead, as he made his way south, one tedious block after another.  Determination and a vision of ice cream kept Jimmy in forward motion.   He knew the place where the cool, creamy delicacy could be found.  Although his three-year-old vocabulary may not have contained the term ’drug store’ yet, his experience was unerring.  Three blocks.  Seven blocks.  Ten weary blocks later, the traveller arrived downtown.  The short jaunt to his final destination on a concrete sidewalk seemed like a cakewalk.

The red trike was still there when he returned from the soda fountain, his dreams cruelly dashed.  No money, no ice cream, had been the excuse the man behind the counter had used.   The disappointment was acute.  What solace could there be for a man with a sudden curtailment of what had seemed like a vision?   Jimmy turned his head to the east and rode on down Route 66.

His only plan, if he’d planned at all, had been to ride and ride and ride.  Too soon–only a mile into his journey and adding insult to injury–Mom and Aunt Trula insinuated themselves into his afternoon adventure.  Mom insinuated herself unforgettably on Jimmy’s backside.  Aunt Trula insinuated herself on the unsuspecting soda jerk, who also owned the store.  Why ____ hadn’t he given a three-year-old a little ____ ice cream, so he would go home, ____,  instead of riding his ____ little tricycle all over ____ creation?  Aunt Trula could become unguarded when provoked. 

Jimmy didn’t think unkindly of the man at the soda fountain.  He was thankful it hadn’t been his dad doing any of the ‘insinuating’.  He’d made a major solo trip on his own vehicle.   Even with it’s hardships, life was good.

And that pretty much sums up his philosophy still, seventy-five years later.