Memories from my Grandpa

[Rabid Trekkie]

This is sort of a tribute to my grandpa, who we called Bop, and so people who didn't know him could hear some of his great stories. I have no real proof for some of the things he said, but I don't believe he was lying. Some of his war stories he never told me what war they took place in, so if some historian thinks I got a fact wrong just PM me or something.

I'll end this post with what he told me was his first memory.

He was born in October of 1915 in Newburg, New York on Williams St. When he was 2 or 3 he was in his house with the door open. He heard a large racket outside and decided to go check it out. Well it was a bunch of soldiers getting to parade through the area to celebrate coming back from World War 1. Well my grandpa was never one to stay out of the spotlight at any age and so he walked down the steps to the street and actually joined the parade!

He was with it for pretty much the whole thing when finally a police officer grabbed him and asked him where his family was. Well apparently my grandpa couldn't answer and the cop was going to take him to the station where he would start making phone calls when my grandpa's neighbor came over and told the cop she knew who his parents were and would take him back home.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa wasn't allowed to step off the side walk until he was able to start school. Well when he went to school (he came from a catholic family and so went to a catholic school) he met up with a bunch of kids that he would see in the other yards. Most of the other kids were Jewish, there were a couple of Greek kids also, and one Pole, and my grandpa who was white Russian and Hungarian.

All these kids got along very well and eventually formed a gang which they called the Rinkidinks (my grandpa never told me how they spelled it). It was different from most other gangs for the fact that they didn't have a leader.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa was made a deacon and a choir boy at the Catholic church he attended. This led to him getting the nickname of Deacon in his gang.

Well he wasn't exactly the best person you could hope for. When picking up the offering plates he would steal as much money as he safely could. From church he would make about 4 or 5 dollars.

Then one Sunday after a service was over and the priest and the congregation went for a picnic my grandpa and some friends went looking around the church. Well when they went down to the cellar they found an door slightly opened. When they went inside they realized they had found where they stored the wine for the service. Well there was a barrel there that had a lid put back on and a very large cup (for dipping the wine out) next to it. Well my grandpa has to try everything so him and his friends got the lid off and used the cup to drink.

My grandpa wasn't sure how long they were down there but eventually the priest came down and caught them. Ever since then the door to the wine room was locked.

[DarlingNikki]

my grandpa was a coalminer which afforded him some equality because in the mines, everyone was black.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My Grandpa was around seven when he got his first job. His Dad got him a job at this place that would cut ice out of the lake and then store it. His job would be to cut the ice. He got a long pole and was sent on his way without a bit of instruction.

So while he is on the ice he picks up the pole and slams it down, and then continues this in a circular movement. Next thing he knew the chunk of ice he cut was going out into the water and he with it! He stood there and began screaming for help. Well everyone ran out to see what was going on and told him not to move. My grandpa was never much for listening and as his legs were tired he went to sit down. Turns out it was only the exact spot he was standing in that kept the ice block from turning over. When he went to sit down the block of ice went right out from under him.

Some guy had to jump in and pull him out. They tore all his clothes off and wrapped this huge blanket around him and sat him by a fire.

After awhile the boss thought that they would give him a safer job and a partner to work with.

The put him in this one room that had two platforms to stand on and a large slide that led from the outside to the room they were in. The slide would then branch off into three seperate slides that led to three different doors. The boss gave him a hook and told him to watch his partner.

From what my grandpa described to me, his partner was a black man and about 6'3 and over 200 pounds. Where as my grandpa never made it over 5'9 and never got over 175 pounds.

He watched as the black man would slam the hook into a block of ice that would come down the slide and then through it either to the right or the left. The ones that he wanted to go into the center he would leave alone.

My grandpa finally got the hang of what was supposed to be done and so when the next block came along he drove his hook into the ice and pulled with all his strength. It didn't do any good though as the ice pulled him along with it.

He says that the black man saved his life by throwing ever block of ice into the other doors until the other workers got him out of that room.

The boss sent him home.

[niall mc cann]

Your granda sounds like a fun guy, RT. You got anymore?

[Rabid Trekkie]

Your granda sounds like a fun guy, RT. You got anymore?

Oh yeah, there are a lot more. The last two and a half years of his life I was homeschooled so I could help him get to his dialysis treatments and doctor appointments. So I had pretty much everyone of his stories, I'm still in the early parts of his life. I haven't gotten to the stuff he pulled in WW2 and the Korean War.

I'll go ahead and put another on this post.


I'm not sure how old my grandpa was but one day he and a friend of his "borrowed" his brother's BB Rifle. Well they were walking down their street, shooting at birds and flowers when someone brought a cop over to them. He took the gun from my grandpa and gave him an option,

"Either I take this thing back to the station and your brother can come pick it up, or I will destroy it."

Well my grandpa knew this cop had two boys at his house that all the confiscated items would go to so he said to go ahead and destroy it. The cop looked hurt for a moment but then grabbed the barrel and bent it, then gave it back.

They walked back home with both of them imagining getting beaten up by my grandpa's older brother. They went into my grandpa's backyard and into the shed. The other guy had an idea. Apparently my great-grandpa would keep these metal rods of various sizes in his shed. So my grandpa took the rifle apart and his friend tried sliding several rods till he finally found one that fit the barrel. So while his friend pushed with the rod, my grandpa would tap the bent part with a hammer.

After about an hour they finally got the barrel straight again and my grandpa rushed to reassemble the rifle and put it back in his brother's room.

My grandpa told me that about four or five years later he told his brother what happened.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa went to a catholic school for elementary and junior high. Apparently things were different with laws back then. The school, besides having Nuns for teachers also had Brothers. These brothers would often punch students instead of spanking.

Well one day the class was practicing for a spelling bee. Well my grandpa had messed up on one word about five times. It came to his turn again and he still couldn't remember it. So he stumbled through it and got it wrong again.

The Brother was pissed off and standing in front of my grandpa, pulled his arm back and then through his fist forward.

Now my grandpa had been in fights since the group of kids he was with started their gang and he knew what was coming. So he ducked faster than the Brother could throw a punch.

Instead of getting my grandpa, the Brother's arm went over him and landed square or the jaw of his favorite student and sent him crashing to the floor.

The Brother was so broken up about hitting his pet he left the class alone for the rest of the day.

[Rabid Trekkie]

Because for many of my grandpa's stories he didn't tell me how old he was when some of his stories happened the next couple of stories will probably be out of any sort of order. Besides, he never put his stories in order anyway.

My grandpa was in a shop class at his school. In the building the school had an engine from a bomber plane bolted to the foundation. The school had holes drilled into it so that no bright student could make it start running.

Well my grandpa and his gang (who shared most of the same classes) were in the room learning about engines when the teacher had to walk out. Well they came up with a great idea, find away to make the engine work.

They began by taking some pieces of metal and covering the holes and then looking it over carefully found out how to get it started.

My grandpa said that it felt like an earthquake as the engine shook the entire school. The sound was deafening. Finally the teacher, principle, and many other people came running in.

The teacher shut the engine down and my grandpa and his friends got into a lot of trouble. He told me though that they all ended up making an A in the class. The school also took the engine apart so no one could ever do it again.

[Rabid Trekkie]

When my grandpa was 13 he decided he was ready to drive. Members of his gang (who weren't much older than he) had already gotten theirs and he wasn't one to ever be left out.

One of his friends drove him over to the DMV. The instructor walked out and asked him where his father was. He pointed at a man who happened to be in the parking lot also and said "He's over there." He also lied about his age.

The man nodded and told my grandpa to get into the truck. He directed my grandpa all around the neighborhood, through backing up, parking, narrow turns, U-Turns, you name it he had to do it.

The man then had my grandpa drive back to the DMV, the whole time not saying a word. They got to the place and out of the truck. The man began to walk inside when my grandpa finally stopped and asked him how he did. The man tore a piece of paper off a sheet he had and handed it to my grandpa.

"This will let you drive for now. Your license will be mailed and you should have it in three weeks."

My grandpa walked home and told his parents. They didn't think to much of it, if he got the thing everything must be on the up and up right?

Three weeks later the license came in, it shocked my grandpa that he not only had a license, but it was a chauffers license too!

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa would go see the live shows that they would have at night. I'm not sure if he would always pay. He only told me about one night at the show, this comedian was performing. Red Skelton was on stage that night. My grandpa got his seat and Red started his act.

I don't know how many people remember him but I have seen some of his stuff and I think he was one of the funniest men ever. Well it was half way through the act and no one laughed. Not even a chuckle. Apparently Red had enough and came back out on stage. He said something similar to this:

"I can't understand you people. I'm up here pouring my heart out and not one of you laugh. This is some of my best stuff. In New York City there is a small sign outside of one of the comedy clubs (I don't really know what they are called, I think it might have been a vaudville stage but can't be sure) that says 'If you think your funny try Newburg.' and believe me they are right!"

Well according to my Grandpa the whole town had a rule, it was rude to laugh or make any kind of noise while the person was performing. When Red started the second half of his act he brought the whole house down.

My grandpa said that after that the town never did that to another performer again.

[Rabid Trekkie]

When my grandpa was young he and a whole lot of other boys would go to this one lake to swim. In this lake the city had been dumping useless equipment, including a pile driver. Well all the guys found themselves a new diving board.

My grandpa was climbing up with one kid in front of him. The kid jumped and my grandpa never noticed if the kid in front had gotten out of the lake. He got to the top and just when he was about to jump, he heard a voice that said to make a shallow dive.

When he hit the water he saw something terrible, the kid who had jumped before was doing a deep dive and couldn't dodge a large metal spike that was at the bottom. It went straight through the kid's head.

My grandpa got out of there as fast as he could. He ran back into town and told the first cop he could see and then went home. He didn't say a word to his parents or anyone else about it.

Then a couple of days later his mom came into his room and told them that one of the kids at his school had died and he had to go to the funeral. When he got there he realized that, while not friends with the kid, he would occasionally talk to the kid in the halls at school. He got out of there as fast as he could once it was over.

However I never really got the impression that it had a profound affect on his life.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I was trying to keep this thing in some kind of order but I just saw an episode of MASH that reminded me of one of my grandpa's stories.

He ran the flight line in Korea, he made sure he was the only one to have say on his line. He would tell the commander of the base that either the commander would run the line or he would, and if the commander had anything to say about it my grandpa would move to a different department.

Well one day who happens to fly into the base but MacArthur himself. Now my grandpa hated MacArthur, not because he went the war but lied that the troops would be home for christmas. Well after the General got off the plane it was my grandpa's job to inspect it and make sure there was no problem with it.

My grandpa said it was a beautiful 'Connie' type plane (I have no clue what kind of plane that is) and as he was walking up to it an aide came up to him. The man asked my grandpa to not inspect the plane. My grandpa said that he laughed and kept walking till the aide came and stood between my grandpa and the plane. He again stated that my grandpa couldn't inspect the plane.

"You mean I can't inspect that plane! Well fine, I'll red X it and you and the General won't leave this base till I do get to see it!" is how my grandpa replied to him.

The aide was shocked and started to say that my grandpa couldn't do that as my grandpa grabbed a pen and was fixing to mark it un-flyable. Finally the aide consented and let my grandpa pass. However he just had to make one last demand,

"Take your shoes off before you enter the plane."

You would have to have known my grandpa I guess, up till his last day he would do whatever he wanted and would deliberatly try to get a rise out of you and if you pissed him off he would do something worse to piss you off. Probably the most loveably obstinant man I will ever meet.

My grandpa saw a pool of greese that had collected in the building and deliberately stepped in it, did everything he could to get as much greese on his shoes as he could and then walked up the stairs to the plane.

He told me that the inside of the plane had a very beautiful white carpet inside. He took slow steps all the way through the plane, and grinded his heals in with every step to make sure the greese got in good. After he was done with the inspection he said he noticed the aide on his hands and knees with a brush trying to get it out.

Everytime my grandpa would tell me that story (and he told it often as he did all his stories) he would tell me with the biggest grin of satisfaction that he was now sorry for what he did. I was never sure if he really was or not but if he was, he still thought it was funny.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa had a very rich uncle (my grandpa told me something about his uncle stole the business from his dad before he was born) and remembered that they were the first house on the block to have electricity.

Well he went to his uncle's house one day to spend the day with his cousins and found that they had a train set. One of the first ones to come out. It wasn't one of the small ones either, it was a massive one that spread out through the whole room and came with two engines. My grandpa loved trains but his parents could never afford to get him his own train set. So he played with their trains for hours before finally going to get some food. When he came back he saw the two engines heading straight for each other and couldn't get there before they collided, wrecking both train engines beyond repair. Apparently his cousins had just gotten bored with them and so decided to destroy them.


During one summer my grandpa decided to go up to the same uncle and ask for a job. His uncle worked in some kind of construction and so asked my grandpa if he could work a bulldozer. My grandpa was never one to say he couldn't do anything and so without knowing a thing about a bulldozer he said yes and got the job.

He told me he went out into the yard and got on that big monster and stared at the controls. He had no clue what to do to even start the thing. Finally one man walked up to him and asked if everything was all right.

"I can't figure it out, this thing just won't start." my grandpa told him. The man gave my grandpa a weird look and simply pressed some buttons and moved some levers and started it up in less than a minute and then walked off.

That was all well and good but my grandpa had no idea how to drive the thing. So he sat there more finguring the controls but not daring to actually try to do anything. Finally another man came up and asked him what was wrong.

"I've driven these things before but never one quite like this. Something is different about it." my grandpa said.

The man nodded, apparently buying this story from someone who wasn't even 15 yet and so showed him how to operate it. My grandpa said he actually became pretty good with the thing and would work that job during vacations when he thought he could use some money.

[howyadoin]

Great stories, man. It's very cool that you made the effort to record them.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa was a member of an interesting gang. The group didn't have a leader, they ran on a democracy of boredom. If someone had an idea of something to do and the rest were bored to death they would take a type of vote on if they would all join in. They also would charge a nickel for all of their official meetings. If you were part of the gang (and practically every kid on Williams St. was) and didn't have the nickel the rest of the gang wouldn't let you in.

My grandpa told me that one day a new kid thought that he should be the leader. He was answered by a resounding "We don't need no stinkin leader!" One guy though was slightly older than my grandpa asked one question,

"Which end of the line you want to start at?"

Everyone was sort of confused, all except the kid who wanted to be a leader were lined up on one wall.

"What you talkin about?"

"Well if you want to be leader, you got to beat up every guy here. So do you want to start at that end of the line or that one?"

The kid who wanted to be leader never talked about a leader again.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa had a favorite story to tell almost every time we had a party. He loved saurekraut or however it is spelled. When he was younger his grandma would make it.

He said that his dad would bring in this huge bathtub (it sounded more like a vat but if it held water and wasn't used in the military he called it a tub) and his grandma would have his dad put cabbage leaves in it. Then she would come down and put in all the other oils and whatever else is used. Then he and his brother would have their feet washed and would then be carried down and placed in the vat. They had to stomp all of that cabbage and everything down as thin as it could be. He said him and his brother enjoyed it alot. After they stomped it all down they got out and his dad sealed it and told them not to touch it.

My grandpa said that after a few days you could smell it through the whole block. Lucky for him and everyone else they loved the smell. One day his grandma took him down and with a cup let him have some of the juice.

He said that people came from out of town to ask his grandma for some saurekraut. She believed that they were lucky to have all the food they did and so would actually just give it away (I always found this amazing as this was around the time of the Depression) and still have enough left over that my grandpa and his family could eat it for weeks.


My grandpa also had an interesting way of getting extra days off for school. He lived in a jewish district, he was hungarian and white russian and the only other families that weren't jewish was a greek family, two italian familys, and a polish family.

Well in his catholic school (apparently it was better than public school as even the jewish families sent their kids there) they would only let the christian kids out for christian holidays and would only let the jewish kids out for jewish holidays. Well he didn't think he should go to school when most of the members of his gang were out (he has a funny story about most of the kids being jewish) so he wouldn't go to school.

He said that his mom would ask him why he wasn't at school and as he ran out the door he would just yell "It's a holiday." When he got back to school he was called into the office. He told me this only happened once and never again. The Brother who ran the school asked him where he was. He said that he had the day off. Now this guy went to the same catholic church my grandpa and his family went to so he knew my grandpa wasn't jewish. The Brother asked him why.

He said that he looked that brother straight in the face and told him "You think I'm going to stay in class when every kid in my block is out there playing? No sir! I'm not going to be the only one stuck inside this building." I'm not sure if he got in trouble but I doubt it as he did it for the rest of his time in catholic school and never got in trouble for it. So he ended up being the only kid to get Christmas, which he said he only got Christmas Eve and Christmas day off, and Hannekah (forgive the misspelling) and he would laugh as he said the rest of his gang couldn't stand him for it.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa told me a story of his when I was going into the sixth grade, he told it to me to make sure I wouldn't back down to any bully.

Apparently at his school the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades were in the same building as the highschoolers. He was still in the catholic school (for the highschool years he went to public school) and it was his first day in the 6th grade. He saw some older kids pushing this one guy around and my grandpa thought he would go and help the kid out. My grandpa told me that if something was going to happen it should be a fair fight. Well the bullies ended up trying to take him and this kid on.

The bullies said that all 6th graders had to wear a beanie cap. I'm not sure why, guess it was so anyone that saw them could pick on them. My grandpa said, "I'm not going to wear no beanie cap." The head bully told him that it was either he and the kid wore the caps or they would get beat up.

My grandpa said he was thinking about what he should do when some of the highschoolers from his block walked by. They stopped and said, "Hey Frank! Everything going alright?"

With a big grin on his face he said, "Oh sure, no problem. I'm just having a talk with these boys. I'll see you at church Sunday."

As the highschoolers walked off the bullies were stunned. "You know those guys?"

"Yeah, they're all from my block. Half those guys are in my gang."

The bullies apologized and neither my grandpa nor the other kid had to wear a beanie cap.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I don't know if anyone is interested but if you want to know what my grandpa looked like here is a website with pictures of him:

http://www.mem.com/display/Images.asp?ID=504283

[Jaye]

He looks like a great guy, RT. Its nice to have a face to go with all the stories now, too.

-13th

[Rabid Trekkie]

Besides being in a gang my grandpa seemed to have other "connections" as well. When he was between 8 and 12 he would work the bowling lanes. Back then they didn't have any machines to set pins so they would hire kids to do it. He said he got known as one of the best as he could set up two lanes and do it the fastest.

Well eventually he was asked to only do private bowling sessions. The people came from the rich side of the neighborhood where each house had its own underground parking and every person owned a limo.

They would come up (dressed in suits) and ask him if he would work for a private party. He said they would offer double his normal pay if he did. He said that he would accept (he told me that it would be more money that his dad would earn for that month) on a couple of conditions.

One, he would only work two lanes. If they wanted him to do more than that they could find someone else. Two, if someone got drunk he wasn't going to play. Three, they were not to throw those balls as hard as they could.

"I'm not going to be back there trying to dodge those pins coming at me at 30 miles an hour!" he said.

They agreed every time and they always sent a limo to pick him up and take him home.

[Rabid Trekkie]

Today would have been my grandpa's birthday, he would have been 89. We're going with my grandma and two friends of ours to see the grave sight today. It will be the first time I've seen it since the funeral. We would have had two more friends coming with us but it is surprising what you learn about people after a tragedy.

It's weird, I can remember all the stories he told but I'm having a hard time remembering my time with him.

Anyway here is another one of his stories.

My great grandfather (who I never met, my grandpa and his youngest sister were the only ones to live a long life) had gotten tickets to a ball game. Not just any ball game, the last baseball game of the year. He got tickets to the World Series back when all those huge names were playing, one of which was Babe Ruth.

He asked my grandpa and his brother to go with him. Well my grandpa and my great uncle (I guess, I'm not sure what you call and grandparent's sibling) were excited. The got ready and went to New York City.

My grandpa told me he hadn't been there for awhile, he always liked being able to go to New York City. They waited in line and finally got to their seats. They had perfect seats, right behind home plate and half way up the stands so they could see the whole field perfectly.

The game started and my grandpa became bored. He liked playing baseball more than watching it. His dad went to go to the bathroom or something and he turned to his brother, "Hey, you wanna get out of here?"

"Sure." his brother said and right in the middle of the game they left the biggest game of the year. It was standing room only, no one could sit in those seats but in the whole stadium crammed with people there were two seats missing.

My grandpa told me they didn't do much, just walked around town seeing any free sight they could.

He said the ride home was quiet, really quiet. They got home and went inside their house when finally my great grandpa couldn't take it any more, "Why did you leave?" he asked them.

Never the quiet one my grandpa said, "We got bored. Hey, don't talk to us about it. We invite you to our football games and other games all the time. You don't come and it's free. So don't start on us about us missing one of your games."

My grandpa said his dad didn't say nothing to that. Just told them to clean up for dinner and he went to go read the paper.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I don't quite remember what my grandpa said he did, he might not have told me at all, but he told me how he used to be disciplined at his house. It made me realize how lucky I was.

He did something and apparently couldn't cover it up fast enough to not get caught. He got better at covering things up as he got older. Well when his Dad got home it was time for my grandpa's punishment. Apparently they would keep tools for shaving on a belt (my grandpa called it a razor belt) with pockets. Well his Dad would remove all the objects from it and tell my grandpa to lower his pants and proceed to tan his hide.

Well this one time I guess his dad thought he had gone too far and said, "You know, I'm sorry."

Never without a good remark my grandpa replied, "Well if your sorry, hand me the belt and you drop your pants!" his dad proceeded to give it too him all over again.

Well latter on my grandpa began to resent that belt. He blamed that belt for everything (he told me he later realized that it was his fault and if he would have been good it never would have happened) and so one day he decided to finally take care of his problems.

He waited till almost everyone was out of the house and went and found that razor belt. He carefully removed all the objects and then took the straight edge and sliced that belt into thin strips. He then gathered all the strips of leather and placed them back where the belt had been.

When it came time for his dad to shave, he found out. My grandpa didn't get in trouble this time, his dad just said, "Buy me a new belt."

My grandpa said that he spent months trying to gain enough money to buy it.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa had the great fortune of living right next to a cemetery. If he had jumped the fence of his back yard he would have been in the graveyard. He told me that one day a guy was out digging a grave, just one guy. He had gotten just low enough where you couldn't see him any more.

It was still early morning when the milk man came by. My grandpa had his window open so he could hear everything going on. A voice came out "Hey, do you know what time it is?" well my grandpa didn't answer and the milk man went looking around to see where the voice came from.

"Hey! What time is it?" the voice came again. The milk man walked away from my grandpa's front door to find the voice. That is when he saw it, a hand came out of the ground and he heard the voice again.

Well bottles of milk went up in the air and the milk man ran back to his truck and drove off as fast as the thing would go.

[Rabid Trekkie]

One winter another gang challenged my grandpa's to a massive snowball fight. It wasn't a friendly game though, actual fist fights broke out multiple times during it. My grandpa's gang not expecting a real fight got beat pretty bad, not to mention the other gang had more members. However my grandpa's gang challenged the other gang to a snowball fight the next day.

When they got back to their street they all decided to prepare for the next game. Two guys in the gang could make perfectly round snowballs with just a few quick movements of their hands. They made over a hundred of them in one of the guy's backyard. After they were all made that soaked each of them in water and everyone went home. It went below 10 degrees that night.

My grandpa said the next day was brutal. The other gang had made snow walls to hide behind but that didn't help. The snowballs became solid ice and my grandpa and his gang (who he said ended up being most of the guys on the football team) were able to throw the iceballs hard enough to go straight through the walls and crash hard against whoever was hiding on the other side. Bones were actually broken from these. The other gang never wanted to play again.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa was out in his front yard one time when he saw something white moving across the street. He ran out and caught it. It was a solid white rabbit. He ran inside and asked his dad if he could keep it. His dad said yes but he would have to take care of it.

His dad taught him how to build a hutch for the rabbit and my grandpa worked out a deal with the man who cut the grass in the graveyard behind the fence to throw some grass over to give to the rabbit. He expected a small 2 foot pile of grass, instead he got a huge 5 foot tall mound of grass.

He kept the rabbit for over two years. He said the thing grew to be really big. He even entered it in a few fairs and it won a blue ribbon every time.

Then one day he got home from school and went to go check on his rabbit and it was gone. He searched the yard and the whole house but couldn't find it.

Finally he went and asked his grandma if she had seen it. She said that she had given it away. She told him that he hadn't taken care of the thing and so she gave it to someone else.

He was furious, "You gave it too them? Any body would have been better than them! You know what they are going to do. They are going to make soup out of him! And whadya mean I didn't take care of him. I was the only one that did take care of him! You never did a (my grandpa would edit his stories for me to remove any curse words. It was funny because you could tell when he did it. He would be going along smoothly and then pause for about three seconds and then keep going) thing for him!" after that he wouldn't have a thing to do with his grandma.

One time after that she asked him to do something and he told her to go do it herself. He got a whipping that night for it but he never did say another word to her for the rest of her life.

I can honestly say that was the only thing he deeply regretted. Everything else he did he would tell me about how bad it was and how I shouldn't do it with the biggest grin on his face that you knew that he still got some satisfaction out of it. This one story though there was nothing like that. He would get quiet after he told it, and he would stay quiet for a while and then jump to a happier topic which was usually a war story.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I was watching a movie the other day that reminded me of one of my grandpa's stories. When he was growing up and the movies were just starting to become popular they were all silent. Not only that there was no music that was supposed to go with the film so the theaters had to hire piano players who were going to have to play something that was supposed to fit in with the show.

Well apparently there was one guy in the community that could play the piano really weird. My grandpa told me he was a lush ( It wasn't till I was 10 when my dad finally explained what that meant) but was a good guy. He played the organ in the church my grandpa went to and also played in some clubs. Well the guy seemed to always get things confused because during Mass and what ever other services that go on in a Roman Catholic church he would play the movie and club music. He would play that Camptown Ladies song as everyone walked out of church, whereas in the theater he would play hymns like Amazing Grace.


And just as a small story to fill up some more space, he told me a story once to explain to me how people were treated when they got sick back then. All the houses were built up on a small hill so that they had really long lawns that sloped down to the side walk. Well my grandpa's sister (would that be my great aunt?) got really sick and was contagious. My grandpa wasn't really sure what she had, all he knew was that his house got quarinteened because of it.

His whole family had to stay in side, they were not allowed to open a door or a window. My grandpa told me that on the good side he got to miss school for about a week, on the bad side he couldn't do a thing with all of his time off. All he could do was stare out the window. He said he thought it was funny watching these people walking down the side walk read the quarinteened sign in their yard. They would walk across the street and walk maybe four feet forward on the opposite side walk, and then walk back across the street onto the side walk they were on before and continue on there way.

He said even their friends would do things like that.

[Rabid Trekkie]

Seeing as this is Veterans Day (please remember to pray or think good thoughts or whatever you do for all our people in uniform) I'll skip to one of my grandpa's favorite stories.

It was a cold night in Korea, and when my grandpa said cold he was talking about 20 or 30 below zero. He was set up in a tent with about 7 or 8 other guys. Besides layers of blankets that didn't help and my grandpa sleeping in full uniform with his winter jacket and hat on the only source of heat was a small stove that used a tank of gasoline that was placed outside the tent. The gasoline would slowly fall down this tube and cause the fire to flare for a moment and then almost go out before the next drop would hit.

Well at about 12 at night the tank ran out of gasoline. My grandpa said he couldn't believe it so he grabbed two other guys and decided to go on a small hunt. They took their tank off and started tapping other tanks to see if they could make a trade.

All the tanks that they checked didn't have enough left to be work it. Except one which, my grandpa couldn't believe it, was half full. They worked as quietly as they could, and then moved as fast as possible without alerting the guards and causing some serious problems. Finally they got back, hooked up the new tank and went back to bet just a bit warmer than before.

My grandpa slept in the next day and was rudely awakened by one of the other guys. "The General is calling the whole camp together!" the man said. Well my grandpa jumped out of bed (already fully clothed) and ran as fast as he could.

He said the general looked really mad. My grandpa edited most of the speech for me but it was basically a long list of explicitives ending with "Who stole my tank?" he even offered to go easy on whoever came forward and confessed. No one did.

Finally, almost a year later the general (who was actually on a first name basis with my grandpa) was asked my grandpa if he knew who took it. Well my grandpa already had his ticket back to the states so he told him.

"Why?" the general had asked.

"Because we were freezing! Your by yourself and you have half a tank. Us guys are crammed in a tent with nothing."

"You couldn't have even left a little in there?"

"It had about three good drops left."

and with that they parted on good terms.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa really loved Christmas, his favorite movie was A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott and he would watch it even during the summer. He told me once that one night on Christmas Eve he looked outside and could have sworn he saw Santa flying in front of the moon on his sleigh.

He also told me that back then nobody walked on the sidewalks during the holidays. The reason for this was that back before they had decorated lights and artificial trees they would light candles and place them on real trees. Every once in a while you would hear a loud crash and out would come a flaming christmas tree through a closed window without even a 'Look out below!' to anyone under it.

His parents also took the Christmas traditions to heart as well. He had been warned for three days to clean up his act, but my grandpa wouldn't listen to anyone. Finally on Christmas day when all the family and relatives ran to go find out what Santa had left in their stockings he found an actual lump of coal. And in case you think it was all a gag, he didn't get any other presents that day either.

His saddest Christmas though was in Korea. This was where he found his hatred for MacArthur. His whole unit had been promised that they would be home for Christmas. That Christmas found him stuck in sub-zero temperatures, running the flight line and mixing napalm. He said there wasn't a dry eye in the whole base as the song "I'll be home for Christmas" played over the speakers.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa and a friend were at the local pool hall one day just waisting time. My grandpa told me he was practically raised there (After seeing him play pool just two weeks before he died I believe it too). One day this guy came in offering a 40 dollars to drive a truck to Albany. That much money was too good for my grandpa to turn down (this was during the depression after all) and so he and his friend were hired on the spot.

It was a big truck, and was already completely loaded up. They were given the directions and address and told to get moving. The ride up there was uneventful, just winding roads and some pretty steep cliffs that my grandpa had to be careful of his turns.

They made it to Albany safely and pulled into a warehouse. A guy told them to stay in the truck and not to get out. After the truck was unloaded they paid my grandpa and his friend and were told to drive back to Newburg. On the way back my grandpa noticed a black car was following them. A man in the black car motioned for them to pull over. My grandpa did and got out of the truck to see what he wanted. The man who got out of the car was dressed in a nice black suite.

"You the one driving this truck?" the man asked.

"Yeah, I'm the one driving this truck."

"Did you look in the back?"

"No, we stayed in there the whole time. Never saw what we were hauling."

"Listen, I don't want to see you driving any trucks again. This is your last warning." and with that the man jumped back into his car and drove off.

A couple weeks later another guy came in and asked my grandpa if he would like to make another 40 bucks. My grandpa said no and so did everyone else in the hall. Someone somewhere though did drive that truck. My grandpa read about it in the paper. The truck was run off the road and ended up at the bottom of a cliff.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I keep remembering this one trip we went on just two weeks before he died. He was still just his normal self, never too active and never too tired and talking about everything from the war in Iraq (which we all kept joking he was going to be asked to rejoin the service for it) to how my schoolwork was going, to his old war stories.

These friends of ours have a time share in Galveston so we all went there for the day. I stuck close to him for awhile to make sure he didn't fall or anything and when he finally sat down he told me to go see what everyone else was doing.

Well in the main building there was a pool table. It is probably the funnest game that my siblings and I never really get to play. We had only played four other times in our lives. As you can imagine we sucked at it. Our friend laughed at us constantly. After a few games my mom came in and asked us to invite my grandpa in to play since he liked the game so much.

"Hey Bop, you want to come in and play some pool with us?" I asked.

"You know how long it has been since I last played? Its been about 60 years. I'll just go in and watch."

So we all went inside and we started playing again. My grandpa was a great supervisor, he told us everything we were doing wrong, even laughed at us. I guess he just couldn't take it any more and finally asked me to let him see the stick.

He walked up to the table, leaned over, lined up his shot, and sunk the ball he was aiming for without scratching. Not only that but the cue ball went right to where he wanted it.

"I just want to see if I can do it again." he said with his smirk getting really close to a full faced grin. He sunk three more balls perfectly. After that he handed me the stick back. We were all stunned, including our friend who couldn't help but laugh at the thought of an eighty eight year old man being better than him at pool.

After my brother, sister, and I screwed up some more he walked up and decided to teach me how to shoot properly. He talked me through the whole thing and it worked. After my brother went he decided to teach him also. Talked him through the whole thing and it worked. When it came to my sister he talked to her and it failed miserably.

"Pokey (we don't know why he gave her that nickname but he has called her that since she could crawl), you have to line up your shot. Take your time, there's no rush." he said to her with his smirk.

My sister is one though that won't listen to anyone. She has to be better at everyone at everything and no one can prove her wrong. Well my grandpa was the same way. After a while he walked up to the table.

"Now watch Pokey!" he said as he leaned over the table. Took his cane and put it just behind the cue ball, and sent the ball he was aiming at across the table into the pocket. All of us just burst out laughing. He was actually there shooting pool with his cane!

She thought it was funny the first time, after two more perfect shots with him telling her to watch was just embarrising to her. With my sister though, she is taught best by someone she actually sees is better than her and this was the perfect example. After that she actually listened to what he said and she actually started making good shots.

He talked about that time up until he had his first heart attack. He was just thrilled to have played pool again and to teach his grandkids how to play.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa told me that on one of his trips into NYC he and a friend were in the middle of time square. They decided to see how many people they could get to look at nothing. Don't ask my why, I really never understood it, but they just started pointing up in the air and staring. Soon a guy came over and looked up at the sky. Then another, and another until finally they had a small group looking up at the sky and other adults were pointing to the sky as if they saw something.

Soon there was a whole crowd that was blocking traffic. By the time the cops came to disperse the crowd my grandpa and his friend had already made there escape.

[Rabid Trekkie]

One of my grandpa's favorite stories from ww2 took place when he and his group was stationed in Burma. They were pretty much in the middle of nowhere and everyone was in tents.

One night a bengal tiger came walking into one of the tents. One of the guys in the tent was still awake and slowly grabbed his sidearm. As the tiger raised its head up the guy put a bullet straight through its head. Well there was a slight problem, the bullet kept moving. It tore through four or five tents and finally stopped moving.

The next day this really fat seargent that my grandpa knew kept having a problem with his butt itching. He told my grandpa that he had been bit by a mosquito the night before and it was just bothering the hell out of him. Finally he slid his hands into his pants to really scratch at it and when he brought his hand back out it was covered in blood.

He went on sick hall (that's what my grandpa always called going to the doctor) and the doctor had to remove the .45 slug out of his butt. My grandpa said the guy was so embarrased that he actually asked to get transfered but the colonel said no. They only laughed at him about it for a couple of weeks.

[CitizenKing]

I have to just tell you I like these stories alot. Sounds like your grandpa was one hell of a guy.

[Rabid Trekkie]

From the time I was 4 my grandpa told me not to get involved with girls, nothing but trouble. He was joking of course (my grandparents were married 62 years, would have been 63) but he told me a story about how "a girl got him in trouble". It has nothing to do with the girl but oh well.

He said that he and a friend of his were going to go see their girlfriends. My grandpa an his whole gang lived in the jewish neighborhood where as the girls lived in the irish neighborhood. The Irish neighborhood had its own gang too. As they were walking through the whole Irish gang met up with them and surrounded them.

"What are youze guys (he lived here in Texas for over twenty years and never said yall, it was always youze guys) doin?" he asked them. The leader of the gang reminded my grandpa that it was their territory and that they weren't welcomed. My grandpa reminded him that his parents paid taxes too.
"We got two girls up there that we're going to see and you aren't stoppin us."

Well that wasn't quite true, the gang was going to take turns knockin their teeth out so my grandpa and his friend left and immediately headed to his gang's meeting place. "Hey everyone, you got anything to do tomorrow?" well nobody did so he told them the plan. He wanted them all to come down to this one spot, but not all at once. Filter in a little at a time.

So the next day after school him and his friend go walking to see their girlfriends when they get stopped by the whole Irish gang again. This time the gang had them pressed against a fence with nowhere to go.

"I warned you about what would happen if you came back here again." the leader told my grandpa. My grandpa said he was actually starting to get nervous, he didn't recognize anybody so he decided to keep the guy talking. Finally he recognized one guy, then another. There was a small box next to my grandpa so he stood up on it, he barely saw over the other guys heads. However he saw two or three guys coming from the train tracks. A couple of others coming down from the park and others from other parts of the place. My grandpa's gang all moved to where they now surrounded the Irish gang. Once he saw all that he got down off the box, made a fist, and buried it right in the leaders stomach. The whole thing turned into one massive brawl, my grandpa still had the scar from where one guy took the stone out of his ring and punched him with it. At the end of the whole thing though my grandpa's gang won and all of them left as quickly as they came.

Someone had called the cops and soon a patrol car came buy. "Hey, you two boys involved in this fight?" they asked my grandpa and his friends.

"Us? We're just two and look at all of them! We were just walking here and they were fighting with each other."



It was funny though, my grandpa never told me how he met my grandma. I didn't hear about it till after he died. My grandma said that they were both in the same apartment building and that he had talked with her before but never asked her out. My grandpa and a couple of other guys were sitting around and my grandma came it. She said one guy popped up and said "Ginger, will you go out with me?" and she turned the guy down flat. then the next one and he got the same response as did every one else. Until my grandpa, who didn't even bother standing up, said "I bet she'll go out with me." and she said yes. The rest is history.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa was strange in the fact that for a large portion of his life religion didn't matter much to him. He would go to mass (which were done in Latin, he got mad when they changed it to English) and sit there and then leave and that was it. After he was married to my grandma for awhile though he eventually changed. I'd just thought I'd share some of those stories this time.

When he was a kid his church set aside one Sunday for fasting and the service would be pushed back to the afternoon where after the service they would all share a potluck dinner. My grandpa wasn't one for denying a meal but his mother wanted her kids to act right so she wouldn't let him have anything. When they finally got there that afternoon the priest was greeting everyone at the door. My grandpa said that the last thing he remembered was shaking the hand of the priest and the next thing he knew he was lying on the ground with a whole group hovering around them. Thanks to my grandpa the priest told everybody that they could take some bread during the fast so that this wouldn't happen again.

Besides the stories where my grandpa told me about stealing the money from the offering plates and drinking the wine he didn't have any other stories about his religion (except when he joined the YMCA but that'll be in another post) until he decided to marry my grandma. Now here is my grandpa, raised Roman Catholic and he ends up with my grandma who is a Seventh Day Adventist (the religion myself and the rest of my family are). The two are pretty fundamentally different. They had a hard time getting a place to get married in, in order to get married in my grandpa's church they would have to raise their kid catholic and my grandma wouldn't stand for it.
My grandma finally got upset at the priest (which my grandpa loved seeing my grandma mad) and determined that she was going to show my grandpa that her religion was right asked the priest about the Sabbath and on what day everyone is supposed to worship on. My grandpa said the priest was an honest guy and told her that Saturday was the Sabbath and that the catholic church had changed it a long time ago. My grandpa was happy, he got to see my grandma mad and stunned into silence (over the fact that the priest said it) all in the same day. They ended up getting married before a JP as my grandpa got shipped off to WW2 the next day.

Don't think my grandma had my grandpa converted quickly though, they were married close to twenty years before he even went to church with her. He stayed a catholic, just going to services and putting up with my grandma. The thing that finally made my grandpa check out my grandma's religion was money. The catholic church he was going to decided to have a fundraiser. Everyone in the congregation would purchase a pew (that was already in the church) for themselves. My grandpa thought it was a joke. When he got there the next week and was told he couldn't sit until he purchased a pew he told them "Stick it up your geggie" and left. The next Saturday he went to church with my mom and grandma and was a SDA till he died.

Being a strict fundamentalist didn't calm him none though. One of the pastors that they had had a wife who my grandpa couldn't stand. My mom said he practically did a backflip when she was actually placed in an asylum because he had told everyone that "that bat belongs in a looney bin." Well about a month later my grandpa had to have surgery around his back and then it was a rather serious procedure so the pastor and his recently checked out wife came to see him in the hospital. Now my grandma and my mom blame what he said on the fact that the anesthetic was starting to work on him, I don't buy that. Even when drunk going into anesthesia or coming out of it he is practically the same as normal, just a little slower. Anyway when the pastor and his wife walked in he looked at her and said, "Dear lord! Who let you out of the looney bin!"

A couple pastors later my grandpa finally found one he liked and he and the pastor's wife became friends as well as they both had the same sense of humor. Well the pastor was in a really bad car crash and had to stay in the hospital for over a month. At the end of the month the pastor (who was in an ugly neck brace from what my mom said) said that he wanted to give a sermon that Saturday. This was on a Wednesday. Well they were all at the church that wednesday night and the pastor went to get on the platform, gripped the handrail and almost fell over. Everyone got him to sit back down and my grandpa started to complain as he walked along the platform. "This thing is shot. The wood is too old, the carpet is no good, and whoever built that handrail should have been hung." Upon mentioning the handrail he walked over to it and showed just how wobbily it was. "I could rip this whole thing out right now." he said. That's when the pastor's wife did something she shouldn't have, "I dare you too Frank!" she said. My mom said he gave his trademark smirk, gripped the handrail and ripped the whole thing right up.
Everyone thought the pastor was going to have a heart attack. My grandpa assured him he'd have the whole thing fixed by Saturday. True to his word my grandpa and a bunch of other guys got together and built a whole new platform and finished it before sundown on Friday.

Besides this there were tons of other things, my grandpa shouting at pastors when he disagreed, arguing about politics of the congregation, telling people that if they didn't like they way he did things than they could either do his job or shut up and stay out of his way. Even complaining about the position of the American flag on the platform (an argument that I remember, had my mom swearing she would hang a swastika on the steeple if he didn't shut up. He dared her to.)

Finally three or four days before he died when he was in the hospital the new associate pastor of my church came to visit him. Turns out my associate pastor's grandfather was the one that baptised my grandpa. Anyway after giving him the typical war story, with my grandma telling him to stop living in the past as she had always done, he decided to talk about religion. He told this new pastor who he had never met exactly how he was to preach his sermons, to not let anyone anywhere keep him from telling the truth, and various other things. I was there and I had to keep from laughing as here is a pastor who has a degree in theology from a top university and is one of the best people I know and here my grandpa was giving him another course in theology with his own thoughts thrown in for good measure.

That pastor came to the funeral and even though he had only met my grandpa once even he shed a few tears which I thought was amazing, showed me the affect my grandpa had on people.

[Rabid Trekkie]

When my grandpa was in WW2 (I think) he ended up getting dysentary (he also got malaria which is why he went bald) and put in a hospital. Well he was given this medicine that was supposed to fix him up, one catch though, no going to the bathroom for around a week. Well he didn't think he'd have a problem with that but eventually the urge came and he wasn't even a full day in. He called the nurse to unhook him so he could go. She told him under no circumstances could he go to the bathroom. Well he wasn't going to be told no and said, "Look, I've got to go. If you don't unhook me from this bed I'm just going to let it all go right here. How are you going to feel having to move 30+ patients to clean this ward?" well needless to say she unhooked him from bed real quick.

A day or so later he got a new neighbor (no individual rooms aparently) who was in for the same problem. Like my grandpa he ended up having to go. My grandpa told him call the nurse and tell her its either he gets out of bed or he wrecks the whole ward. The nurse this time wouldn't budge and walked back to her desk. My grandpa said the guy looked at him and desperately asked, "What do I do sarge?" to which my grandpa said, "Well you warned her."

He said it was the worse smell you could imagine and all the doctors and nurses were really pissed off at the guy for having the gall to do that and for my grandpa for encouraging it. They all got moved outside for awhile (which made a lot of the patients happy as many hadn't been outside since they came in) so everyone could clean the room. My grandpa said he didn't see any staff member in that ward happy until he left.

[Rabid Trekkie]

When my grandpa was in ther military he had this one guy who did everything he could to annoy him, one of the things he did is the reason my grandpa left the Air Force.

The first time they met my grandpa was on the shooting range, practicing to make marksman on the Thompson machine gun. For one of the few times in his life he actually wasn't doing anything to anyone, he knew he had to learn how to use the weapon well as making marksman in that weapon gave him a small pay increase. Well he gets the gun fully loaded, releases the safety, aims, and then gets smacked in the back of the head just before he pulled the trigger. He said he whipped around and there was this lieutenant standing there with a fading grin as my grandpa now had the gun pointed right at him. My grandpa said that just a little over to the side was this small tree sapling that was about 5 foot tall. He said that he pointed right at it and held the trigger down until he blew every bit of that tree to pieces. Then looking at the lieutenant said, "Don't you ever do something that stupid again! What do you think your doing hitting someone in the back of the head when he's holding a gun? I don't know you, that wasn't a funny joke! This ever happens again and I won't look for a tree!" and with that he walked off.

My grandpa had thought he was done with the guy but when the Korean war broke out and he got the call to go he found out that the lieutenant was a new part of his group. During the winter when my grandpa and a bunch of guys he got together (some were even pilots who were just lounging around) were mixing napalm by hand. My grandpa had got the job of running that as he had done it in WW2 before (he even told me that some of what he made was what they dropped on Tokyo) so they were just there mixing this stuff. Well it was the middle of winter and some of the guys were starting to get really cold. "Hey sarge? Can we have a smoke?" He told them yeah they could but they had to walk a 100 feet from the napalm before they could even light the match. It was no problem, they walked the distance and then lit up.
Well here comes that lieutenant and sees two of the guys helping my grandpa smoking and decides this is something the general needs to hear about. Not much later the lieutenant comes up to my grandpa and tells him the general wants to see him. My grandpa doesn't think much of it until he walks into the office and said he could have sworn he saw steam coming out of the guy's ears. "Frank! What the hell are you thinking letting your guys smoke?" the general had screamed at him. My grandpa shrugged and asked what the problem was. "If even one cinder falls into that stuff it'll destroy the whole camp!" my grandpa explained that the guys were 100 feet or more from the tanks and even took the general out of the office the whole time telling the general, "Most of these guys don't even work for me. They're volunteering their free time. I ain't gonna tell them they can't have their smokes." well the general guessed that 100 feet was an okay distance and dropped the whole thing.

If my grandpa had any other problems with this guy between then and when he left he never told me, but as I said this lieutenant was the reason my grandpa left. He was back in the states and my mom wasn't too old yet when he got called to the headquarters. Behind the desk was the lieutenant (he had already been promoted up to colonel or something but my grandpa still called him a lieuy) with some papers in his hands and a satisfied look on his face. "Your going back to Korea." the guy said. My grandpa replied with, "Like hell I am. I served two years over there. The president had already said that any soldier who served their time there would never be sent back again." my grandpa said that is when the guy really started beaming. He handed my grandpa the papers and said, "The president has decided that won't work and so has changed it. You can be sent back. You better start getting your things together."
Well that pissed my grandpa off but the orders were from the top so he was going to go along with it. "Just one thing. I want my wife and kid to come too." he told the guy. "That's impossible." the guy said. "Well then set them up at the base in Germany. That way I can see my girls every once in awhile instead of being gone several years straight." that is when the lieutenant broke the camel's back, "Sorry, your family has to stay here in the states. The government isn't going to move them anywhere."
My grandpa was furious by now, "Look I don't know what I've ever done to you but you could sign that order right now if you wanted to! Just fill out the form and I'll have my wife and kid packed and ready by tomorrow if I have to." but still the guy said no. "Well fine then. I turn in my resignation. I don't have to put up with this." that got the guy mad, "You can't do that!"

My grandpa said he walked right out that door, went two or three doors down and got the papers to retire from the Air Force and had them signed and in the works that day.

[Schuyler]

Just wanted to encourage you to keep writing. I'm enjoying the stories. Thanks for putting them up here.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My grandpa was a rather sore loser when it came to sports. He told me about this one time when he was playing ping pong with his older brother that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't make a single point and yet his brother was scoring like crazy. Finally he couldn't take it any more and threw his paddle at the table. He told me he had a habit of doing this, it would always skid till it hit the net and then stop. Well this time it didn't, instead it popped up and slammed right into the bridge of his brother's nose and broke it. He said he thought he was going to get it when he got home but his brother lied and said that he had tripped and hit his nose on the curb and his parents bought it.

[Rabid Trekkie]

My Mom told me a story about my Grandpa that happened about 5 or 6 years ago. My Grandma would never drive (my Grandpa tried to teach her and he ended up making her so mad she refused to learn) so my Grandpa had to take her everywhere she wanted to go. Well she wanted to go to the mall to buy something from the J.C. Pennys and left him at a bench in the middle of a whole bunch of stores.
Well he had on a pair of shoes that he had been given for Christmas one year, they were at least 6 years old (he hardly ever bought clothes or shoes) that he had worn out and they had started to fall apart. Well those were the shoes he was wearing when my Grandma left him. When she came back he was sitting at the bench again and looking at his feet. My Grandma thought maybe he had hurt himself or something and so got closer to him and saw that on his feet were a brand new pair of shoes.
Apparently he decided he needed a new pair of shoes and so just picked the closest shoe store and walked in. From what he told my Grandma he got a hold of a manager and told him that the shoes he had gotten had fallen apart and he needed new ones. He never told anyone exactly what he said but it must have been good because the manager apologized and gave my grandpa a brand new pair of shoes for free.
My Grandma was furious and demanded he go back and get his old shoes back and apologize but he conviently forgot what store he had gone into and so my Grandma had to give up and he got to keep his shoes.

[Rabid Trekkie]

When my Grandpa was on his way to the Pacific during WW2, he said that he could never get enough to eat on the boat. Well he was one of those fortunate few who had never been out to sea before but realized that he couldn't get sea sick.

Well they had just had a really bad storm. He said that even if you were in the cabins you knew when the ship was coming down the crest of the wave because you could hear the "fans" spinning in the open air. The galley was closed and so even those who weren't vomiting all over the place couldn't eat. When it was finally over the first thing he did was run into the chow line. Well he didn't think his portion was fair so he looked around the mess hall and found his mark. He walked over sat down, and he told me the guy still looked green. He started off with a pleasant conversation, then he talked about how great it felt to be on the ship. Especially the waves, the way they just rocked the boat. After about 3 minutes of describing how great the waves were the poor guy ran off for the nearest trash bin and my Grandpa took the guy's food "so it wouldn't go to waste."

Well a couple of days later the kitchen is serving chicken soup and everyone gets one bowl and no more. He said luckily nothing they serve in the military looks like its supposed to. He found these two Jewish guys who just came aboard ship when up to them and waited for both of them to get a bite in their mouths when he said, "So how do you guys like the rabbit stew?" He would laugh as he told me you never saw two guys run faster to try to throw up and then go pray.