Granddaddy
An Excerpt From My Next Book, A Boy From Down East
I had a special
relationship with my grandparents growing up. I spent many hours with them
having fun, learning and working on the farm.
Much of the person I am today comes from their teachings and
example. I was blessed to have great
parents and grandparents who helped guide me to adulthood.
I idolized my
granddaddy and spent as much time with him as I could. We even shared the same birthday, April 24th.
He was born on April 24,
1903 and I was born on April 24, 1953 , fifty years apart. He was born in Bonnerton, N. C. to Michael Meager Gray and Sallie Stilley
Gray and lived his whole life in Bonnerton.
On the day I was
born he was transplanting tobacco.
Grandmomma always told me that on the day I was born she told Granddaddy
she wanted to go to Washington to the hospital to be there for the birth. He
responded, “I don’t have time for all this foolishness; there is work to be
done.” Yes, this was the beginning of
that special bond.
He was always
working around the farm and house, except on Sunday. I cannot remember him ever sitting still
during the work day. In the evenings, if
he didn’t have to check his tobacco barns, he would sit in the living room and
read the paper and it was off to bed early because sunrise didn’t wait for
anyone.
He always wore a
hat when he left the house whether a clean dress hat to church or an old worn
farm hat. He smoked a pipe and I can
still remember his sweet smell of aftershave and pipe tobacco. He kept a cigar
box of Tampa Nugget or Hav-A-Tampa cigars in his truck and would smoke them
while out in the fields.
When riding
around checking on the farm he offered rides to people from the community who
were walking and take them to the store or home. I have seen him go out of his way to drive
someone home who did not have transportation. I can remember him telling me “If
you want people to help you then you have to be willing to help them.”
It was not until
the late 1960s that my grandparents got an indoor bathroom in their house. I remember Granddaddy bathing at the sink on
the back porch and they did not have hot water unless it was heated on the
stove. During the very coldest part of
the winter he bathed at the kitchen sink.
He had an old safety razor and powder to make his shaving cream. Grandmomma made sure we all bathed every
night when I was there and at times it was cold.
I can only
remember my granddaddy losing his temper twice in my life. The first time was with me when I punched my
brother Mark. He took me out back of the
house and put a belt to my backside. That
was the only time I can ever remember him punishing me and I am glad of that.
The other time I
saw him lose his temper was at the cucumber grader at Porters Creek. After picking cucumbers all day we would load
the truck and go to the packing shed to sell them each night. On this particular night it was late and we
were in a long line of trucks waiting for our turn to unload at the grader. I
remember I was sitting on top of sacks of cucumbers in the back of the truck
watching when another man tried to drive and cut Granddaddy off. He came out of the truck yelling things I had
never heard come out of his mouth and he had a great big old fashion pipe
wrench in his hand. The other men in the
area came running over and grabbed him before he reached the guy. They all made
the other man go to the back of the line and I can remember one old man saying
as he walked by “He should have known not to cut in front of Mr. Willie like
that.”
My dad and Granddaddy
were active members of the Richland Township Ruritan Club when I was growing
up. I remember each year they had a
Father and Son banquet and Granddaddy, Dad, my brother Mark and I always went.
It was held in the cafeteria at school and I often wondered how they got such
good food out of that kitchen after what we had during the school day.
The other
Ruritan event that I attended each year was the annual fish fry at Jarvis
Landing. This was held in the summer and
was a lot of fun since many of my friends were there and we would go swimming
in the river and play. The fish, slaw and hushpuppies were good also.
When I was in
the 7th or 8th grade I remember getting out of school one
afternoon and walking up to the pool hall.
When I entered I saw Granddaddy sitting with a group of other men
talking and drinking beer. I had never seen Granddaddy with a beer and I
remember thinking, “cool, I bet
Grandmomma doesn’t know where you are.” But,
then there was that bottle of whiskey I found in the back of her closet. When I asked her what it was, she said cough medicine.
Granddaddy had a
sure fire cure for anything that bit you.
If you got stung by a bee or wasp you soon learned to keep it to
yourself. If he found out he would grab
you and spit chewing tobacco juice on it.
But now that I think about it, it did take the sting out of the bite.
Another memory I
have of my granddaddy is that at night when he was asleep he could snore up a
storm. He would make the windows
rattle. I guess that explained why he
and Grandmomma slept in separate rooms.
After I got
married and move to Florida Granddaddy would always ask me, each time I went
home, why I moved so far away. I would
always answer him, “I looked on a map and saw how far south tobacco grew and I
moved 100 miles further south.” He would
always laugh at this but I knew the truth.
He felt the same pains of missing each other that I did. The funny thing about this little joke we
shared is I have spent my entire working career in agri-business.
Granddaddy was
and will always be one of my role models and mentors. Some of my earliest
memories of life are of the times I spent with him and I have many great
memories of us together.
