Grandfather says nearly as far back as he can remember, he has loved to fish. He was on a footbridge over a creek at a family picnic when he was, oh, maybe 4 years old. When he saw minnows in the water, he bent a reed into an "L" and dangled one ...

Continue reading Grandfather Says: A Fond Look Back at My Love of Fishing

Charlie Kidd has been gone for quite awhile now -- may God rest his soul. Charlie was from what Tom Brokaw called "The Greatest Generation." Charlie was an infantryman throughout WWII, fighting through Africa into Italy and then onto the beaches ...

Continue reading Grandfather Says: Remembering an Old Friend

Grandfather says years ago, Grandmother taught piano in the living room. She was, among other things, a model of deportment for the children. Well, one evening we were enjoying a pitcher of beer and a giant pizza at Pizza hut, when in walked a ...

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Grandfather says he supposes everyone has weird dreams from time to time. For example, last night Grandfather had a cow hitched to a plow and walked her up a ramp. She broke through the ramp and got one leg stuck. Then Grandfather woke up, ...

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Grandfather has some observations about "blessings." He sees where clergymen bless babies and the hounds in fox hunts. God's blessing is often asked for, by God-fearing families as they sit down to a meal and nations as they go to war. ...

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Grandfather says he was a soldier once, in the Army during Korean War times. Grandfather had developed a lot of stamina on his high school track team and, independent cuss that he was (and is), he stood during basic training forced march rest ...

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Grandfather says he sometimes outsmarts himself. He believes in taking the high ground and absenting himself from lowlife, so he builds his abodes on higher elevations in remote places. But when Grandfather built his cabin in Alaska, up high on ...

Continue reading Grandfather Says: The Alaskan Cabin on Chilkat Lake

Grandfather says all human institutions succumb to hubris, eventually. Grandfather says he thinks that's not all bad, although he misses some of them as they excelled in their heyday. The NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini comes to ...

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Grandfather says he is a veteran, and his son served during Desert Storm. With the help of the local newspaper, Grandfather compiled a list of veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Many of the letters that ...

Continue reading Grandfather Says: The Veterans’ List

Grandfather says "sophistication" is overrated. It has been fashionable for snoots to say that you lack sophistication if you don't happen to share their taste for this-or-that school of art, music, or science. Good for you! On the other hand, ...

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Grandfather says trees are very important to him. Not the kind that's planted to exploit for money; orchards, for example. The ordinary, volunteering kind. First --and maybe foremost -- he says they are beautiful in his mind's eye. Some ...

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Grandfather likes the funny epitaphs he's seen. But he tries to have fun beforehand, because it's better than being morose. When he orders pizza, he tells the clerk to charge his credit card now so she'll get paid in case he dies before he can ...

Continue reading Grandfather Says: How I Order Pizza