Grandaddy

(Look at those blue Paul Newman eyes.  This was his high school picture.  He met Granny driving her school bus.  He was her age.)

Last Friday I wrote about Saturday night in a small town and it got me to remembering my life as a whole in that small town.  It was great actually.  My family are long time residents and I am very proud that they are part of the history that makes up Broken Arrow, Oklahoma!  My mother's father, Grandaddy was an awesome man.  He was my mother's best friend and confident as her relationship with her mother was always on the edge.  Grandaddy was an incredible man whose laugh or snicker-laugh will always be a happy memory.  He was gifted at making money, being an awesome salesman.  The Hubby so loved and respected him and learned tons from his experiences.

(This picture was on his turkey farm.  He's the one in front with the cigarette in his hand.)

When I was little he had the Purnia Feed Store in town.  I remember going into the store and smelling the sweet smells of chicken, cow and rabbit chow throughout the store.  At Easter time, and I know it is not a good thing, he would have all the little baby chicks and ducks and the chicks were dyed easter colors.  The peeps and soft cuddly babies were almost overwhelming to a child.  I wanted to own everyone of them.  Later, when the feed store was no longer he got into used car sales.  He did quite well at that and then it was real estate.  Actually, he and granny got their real estate license but he couldn't pass the broker test, but granny did, and they used her license to run the business.  He dealt mainly with rural farm land and was very successful in that endeavor too.  He was a smart man who was kind and an awesome granddaddy.  Sadly he died 3 months before his first great grandchild was born, our oldest.  I think he would have been so proud of our lives and our girls today.  I miss him terribly.  He was a smoker, like mother but was exposed to asbestos many year ago.  He had lung cancer and emphysema, like mother.  His life was taken much too soon.