Attention everyone: this just in: important update: Grandpa likes Abby from NCIS. He thinks she’s great, and that the actress plays her just perfectly. I think that’s fantastic. He also like Ducky's mother.
He came to dinner tonight. We had beef stroganoff, broccoli, and lemon pie. We told him 5:30, but he insisted it was 5, so he was on our doorstep at 4:30. He brought a whole host of things. Scarves of grandma’s, programs from old things, big bags of oranges from his tree, paper napkins, a straw hat, and a stack of pants for mom to hem. He talked a lot of sports with dad, he had brought a copy of the sports page. He had also brought a paper with an article about how they are thinking of getting rid of the Barton St. orange groves. This is a very big deal in his world.
He likes to talk about what is current, and tell you where he read it. If you want to have a conversation with him, you had better be up on your news. Partially because that is what he will want to talk about of course, and the other part because of the peculiar way he describes things. If you aren’t familiar with an event yourself, you may never figure out what he is talking about. He won’t say, did you read the article about remodeling of a certain shopping center? He’ll say, did you read about the big deal they’re doing? And you’d better be able to keep up, because asking him to explain will just get you more lost.
He’s been telling more stories lately. I think we’ve finally got him convinced that we really do want to hear all about it. At first when I told him I wanted to know all about his life, he kind of shrugged it off, insisting there wasn’t much to tell. We had to ask him for specific stories he had already hinted at, and then pry for details. But now he brings up things on his own, and is more comfortable talking about it. Tonight he talked about when won the home beautification competition and got to go to Chicago and meet, “his friend Mrs. Walgreen.” He also talked about getting his PHD, and a few of his travels.
Traveling is a pretty easy subject to get him to talk a bit about. He loves to travel. Life is one big adventure, and half the fun is seeing new places and meeting new people. He landed the perfect job, really, because he was always running here and there to conferences and meetings and to look at all the crops, and most of the time his expenses were paid. He also says that is why Grandma married him, but I’m pretty sure she was also madly in love with him. (Although that took me a while to sort out.) Traveling is sure to be brought up in most conversations, same as current events and where they are growing and shipping the produce from these days. He knows where everything comes from, always.
Granny came to dinner as well, and Grandpa likes to talk to her. I think he figures they are old and somewhat lonely together. She mentioned that she had been talking to Cheryl, and he asked her to explain again which of her kids were which once more (he doesn’t see them often enough to keep what they look like, where they live, and what they do for a living fresh in his mind, and these are all the important facts you simply must know about a person). After that he talked about Cheryl, and what she might think of this or that in her own industry. I have noticed that he always asks about things others are doing, or are interested in, and which he doesn’t know a lot about. And then he listens to learn. I think it’s one of the reasons he has so many friends and such an easy times talking to strangers even though he is a bit gruff and cantankerous. He is always taking advantage of opportunities to learn new things. He thinks a person ought to know as much as he can, and do as much as he can, and see as much as he can. Because eventually, the money runs out, and then you die.
What a man. Direct transcripts to follow.
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