Dad never lost a certain child-like quality about him. He lived through many hard times and much adversity, and yet, he always kept his sense of humor. Perhaps that is what got him through those times. I know that his sense of humor is one of the things I remember most about him. The silliest of jokes tickled him so much. The sillier, the better. I think this is one reason he related to the grandkids and great-grandkids so well.
Jeri and I were talking about Dad just the other day. We were remembering some of the fun things about him. When my kids were young and we all still lived in Willmar, we saw Mom and Dad often. Sometimes it was just to drop in for a little while on our way home from town. Sometimes it was to spend a Sunday afternoon visiting. But we saw them often.
Jeri loves bananas. She particularly loved them as a little girl. Dad once told me that he, Mom and Kelly ate way more bananas than they wanted to, simply because he insisted that there be bananas in the house whenever Jeri was there. He told me how he loved it when she would walk through the kitchen door, scan the countertops with her eyes, and then say, "Got a "nana, Grandpa?" For that reason alone, they ate bananas until they nearly came out of their ears!
If we were at Dad's house in the morning, he would fix the kids breakfast. His idea of breakfast for his grandkids was a chocolate shake made of ice cream, milk and Carnation Instant Breakfast. Mom would fuss at him for feeding the kids ice cream for breakfast, but he said that it was good for them because of the Instant Breakfast. He said that they were getting more vitamins and things that were good for them in the Instant Breakfast than they would get in bacon and eggs. And, after all, the ice cream had calcium, and wasn't that good for their growing bones? So he fed them chocolate shakes for breakfast, and they loved it. Jeri said that she has since tried to make shakes the way Grandpa did, but she just couldn't get them to taste as good as the ones he made.
http://www.4shared.com/file/62135185/259d72c/An_Afternoon_with_Great_Grandpa.html
Here are a couple of pictures of Dad with some of his great-grandkids. I don't know what the occasion was, or if there even was one. I seem to recall that perhaps Jill wanted Zach to meet his Great-Grandpa. We all lived so far away that visits were few and far between, and Dad had seen pictures of Zach, but had not yet met him. At any rate, they spent an afternoon with Dad. He enjoyed every minute of it, and told me so when we talked on the phone after their visit.
In these photos, Dad is playing with Zach, showing him one of the things he whittled. It is a cage with two wooden balls inside, all carved from a single stick of wood. Dad never called it "wood carving," however. He whittled. Dad had been making these ball cages for years. My first baby rattle was one with a handle. That one is long gone, but I do have one that Dad made when I was just a small girl.
In the photos, you can see the shelves behind them. The shelves are filled with his whittled figures. He made ball cages, wooden puzzles, wooden chains, animals, birds, and whatever else took his fancy. Whenever any of us visited, he let the kids and grandkids pick out a piece to take home with them. I have a shoebox of his work that I treasure. From time to time, someone with the knowledge of the value of hand carved folk art, would try to get him to sell his work. He never did. He said that he whittled just for fun, and selling it would take the fun out of it. So he kept on whittling and gave his pieces away. He got such pleasure from giving.
I am grateful that some of my grandkids got to know their Great-Grandpa before he became so ill. I also hope that some will be able to remember him as I do.....a good man with a wonderful sense of humor, who was pleased when he could give and make someone else happy.
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