Memory Journal Doodles - My Grandpa

Happy Saturday!

I had a nice little break from posting there - hope you don't mind? I bet you've had ALL sorts of cool busy stuff going on anyway. How's the weather? It's been raining and raining and raining and RAINING here...The Colonel's employed his trained mice in constructing a raft in case of flooding emergency!

I've been a bit busy with more of that 'functional life' stuff - which is proving a challenge, so I'm currently arguing with that twitchy brain imp again. I've appeased it by making more memory journal doo-dahs to share with you so I shall proceed with the ramble, as is becoming tradition on this here blog!

The last waffle I'd had reminded me so much of my Grandparents that I thought I'd add a bit to that and enjoy the memories of two people so special in my life....this time especially my Grandad. He was a carpenter by trade, but he also later worked for the local gas board and then the council, which meant that he actually seemed to know EVERYONE we passed in the street. He was everybody's friend and liked solving problems. I have SO many wonderful memories of him...each one seems to uncover another. I've selected just a few for now.

During World War II, my Gradad was posted secretly to work as a foreman on the Mulberry Harbours. My Grandma was left at home with a baby - my mum. When my Grandad came home he found the street altered - all the iron gates and metal window and door frames had been taken for the munitions factories and the street looked shabby and diminished. Although he would be stationed away several times throughout the war, whenever he was home he set about making replacement  gates, doors and window frames for all the houses in the street, so that by the time the war was over everything was repaired and renewed. Some of those gates and doors are still there today. I picture them standing there - a little family...Grandma, Grandpa, mum and my newly born baby uncle.

Even when he retired, he still made furniture and was forever tinkering with DIY projects. When he was very elderly his 'creations' would lack a little of the finesse that had been his trademark in younger years. In fact, he built a sink unit for my mum in our tiny, TINY bathroom which was fondly - and accurately - named 'The Bismark' as it loomed over everything and was certainly bordering on the indestructable!

When he wasn't tinkering, or growing tomatoes, or making his daily rounds of visits to friends, he'd keep himself occupied by reading cowboy stories, watching sports or movies on tv, and playing fun games with me. He taught me (and my mother would have a hairy fit here) to place bets and gamble! AWESOME! Mum would tell me I'd explode and DIE if I gambled, but my Grandad had greater faith in my ability to not spontaneously combust. We'd play board games and card games and he'd stack up the copper coins from his pocket change and we'd begin. As the years passed, he'd stack up the silver coins as well... When we started, he'd be kind, as people are with children and LET me win. But as I won more and more he'd start to focus and wriggle in his seat. And I'd still win. Why? I marked the cards. Well - I marked the lotto cards, the playing cards were an old deck and I learned to recognise the time-worn notches and scrapes! I'd make out like a bandit so much that he made me open my first bank account to save my winnings in. Heh heh heh. Plus he had a 'tell' when he was losing! ....There's a chance my mum might have been right to worry!

My Grandpa had very painful knees - partly due to arthritis but also something to do with his time away in the war, which he rarely spoke about. When he went on his morning shopping runs he found it more comfortable to wear his house slippers, much to my Grandmother's constant horror! To make it worse, they were lined with his own cardboard insoles, cut from old cereal boxes and he held the slippers secure with enormous elastic bands (I think I inherited my fashion sense from him!) One day when he returned from his shopping trip he was unusually grumpy, complaining that his left slipper felt lumpy. Upon removing said sorry foot garment, it became apparent that the offending lump was - or at least had been - an unsuspecting mouse that had evidently found a place to snooze overnight and been too startled by the appearance of an enormous foot to escape. The poor creature was welded to the underside of my Grandpa's sock, its soul resting in the mousey afterlife! He kept the sock.

On a not-too-dissimilar note, my Grandad had a full and glorious set of dentures - had them since he was quite young. It was the done thing then to have all of one's teeth removed and replaced by glistening 'falsies'....thankfully THAT has not continued! It didn't help that he had eaten sweets for years to assuage the cravings when he gave up smoking...made the job easier for the dentist (I'm picturing the one from The Little Shop Of Horrors as portrayed by the awesome Steve Martin!) He HATED wearing them and evenually, when he was really quite old, he stopped altogether whereupon - with some concerted  effort from himself - they disappeared. When mum and I were clearing the empty house after my Grandparents died we found the teeth in the drawer of Grandpa's bedside cabinet and oh we did laugh! Why? Because the last time they'd been seen, it had been when I had heard a strange clattering eminating from the kitchen one day. Upon investigation, I found the family cat in hockey goal-keeper mode, skidding the offending teeth like a hockey puck across the tiled floor and bouncing them off the skirting boards - and having a grand old time in the process! Genuinely one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life...truly!

My Grandad was my hero. He was the best of men and there's not another who'd measure up. I miss him every day - but somehow the crazy memories of squished foot-mice and cat-powered denture-pucks keep the sadness at bay so that I am free to remember the awesomeness that was my lovely Grandpa.

That's all for today. Anyone tried memory journaling yet? You don't have to draw them - unless you find that easier. These memories are the ones that make things real, personal and unique. Hope you give it a go and have some fun - maybe get the rest of your family involved as well. Sending out some soggy summer hugs to you from me and The Colonel and his team of rescue rodents! See you soon - Shroo :) xxx