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On Family
Monday before Christmas, my friend Beverly brings in a sheet
of paper and says that I have to have an article for the
next newsletter, and I have until Friday, January 2 to get
it in.
I came home for a
week over Christmas. It’s always enjoyable to get the six
kids and their spouses together plus 23 grandchildren and a
couple of great grand children. This year we had our
Christmas on the afternoon of Christmas eve here at the
Brooklyn office in the meeting room. I’ll tell you, it takes
that big of a room to take care of about 35 people. I
realize more as the years go by what the older people in my
life used to say about grandchildren. It was so nice to have
them and they were so much fun, but what was really nice;
you could send them home with their parents when you were
ready to let them go.
In all honesty, I
have so much fun with my grandchildren. Of course, I have
them of all ages from married, going to get married, down to
a few months old. I guess when I have the most fun with them
is from about seven years old on up until they are sixteen
or seventeen, graduating from high school. They come to my
house any time of the day and sometimes in the evening,
whenever I’m around. They bring some of their friends and go
down in the basement, shoot pool, play with the beanbag
game, or play ping pong. They have a good time down there. I
might mention the bean bag game was built by a neighbor of
mine in Fort Myers and the kids have a lot of fun with it.
He made it for me two or three years ago. I’ll speak more
about this neighbor at a later time.
There is another
thing I have so much fun doing and I think the grandchildren
also have fun. Every Sunday morning, I start picking them up
about a quarter after eight - I use the company’s fifteen
passenger van. I usually get 8 to 12 grandchildren and
usually one or two of my nephew’s boys. When I get them all
picked up, we go to church together. It starts at nine
o’clock. After church, we all go out to eat. I always ask
where everybody wants to go, but it’s usually the same
restaurant. It’s so much fun for me to see those first
cousins enjoy themselves together. It gives them time
together, to enjoy one another, to laugh, and sometimes pick
at one another, but always have a good time. Grandpa’s
breakfast bill gets to be anywhere from 50 to 90 some
dollars, but that’s okay. The rules are, you can order
anything you want as long as you eat everything you order.
I always tell them a
little story on the way out to the interstate where we eat.
The little story I tell them every Sunday morning is about a
deer running across in front of me. When we get to the spot
where this happened, I tell them the story and then I always
say, “Did any of you ever hear that story before?” And I
hear a whole chorus say,“ NO!”
After we get through
with breakfast, we come back to town. Some of them, I
deliver back to their homes. Oftentimes, about half of them
will want to come to my house and play games in the
basement. It’s just a heck of a lot of fun for grandpa.
Within the next hour or two, I start getting telephone calls
from their parents wanting to know if they’re here, and if
they want to come home. There have been times when some of
them would stay till Sunday evening, playing games in the
basement.
I guess my message
would be for all of you people that have children and
grandchildren to enjoy them all you can now. It isn’t but a
very little while, when you look back, and they’re gone on
their own, with their girlfriends, driving cars and things.
They aren’t as interested in doing things with grandpa as
they were when they were younger. So all of you parents and
grandparents, enjoy them while you have them. You’ll find it
very rewarding.
and - on Friends
The first day that we got to Ft. Myers after the purchase of
the house, the couple from across the street came over and
introduced themselves. They told us who they were and
welcomed us to the community. So, for the last 8 years or
so, we have been good friends. We went over to their place a
lot and they came over to my place. Their names are Mario
and Jenny Dyer. Originally, they came from New Jersey. I
always told Mario I thought he was part of the New Jersey
Mafia and they probably kicked him out of New Jersey, but he
denies that. Mario is the one I mentioned in the other
article that made the bean bag boxes and originated the
game. He made it for me before I came home one year. The
kids have a lot of fun with it in the basement. I can hear
the bean bags hitting the boxes and laughter quite a bit of
the time.
Anyway, my good
neighbors and friends had been wanting to sell their house
and move closer to their son. As luck would have it, after I
came home last April, they sold their house and moved about
twenty miles to North Ft. Myers. We miss them a lot.
They have sold their house to some people, so I thought I
would do the same neighborly thing for them as the Dyers did
for us. The first time I saw them out, I went over and
introduced myself to them and told them we’d be glad to have
them come over anytime and visit. They told me their names,
but I’ve never seen them since. They just drive in the
garage, close the door, and I never see them. We lost a good
neighbor in Florida and I’m sorry to say, we didn’t gain one
(as yet, anyway).
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