Saturday, April 7, 2012

RIP David Cain

Today marks three years since my grandpa died, and I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward to today. I miss my grandpa.

I wasn't raised by my parents. When I was really little, my grandparents sued for custody over my sister and me. There's a lot of reasons on both sides of the argument, but it boils down to my grandparents getting custody. So, that was a little different. I was raised a little old-fashioned, and a little sheltered, too. Which isn't to say that I resented it, because I have a lot of good memories from growing up, right alongside the bad like everyone else.

If I remember right, one of my earlier detailed memories of my grandpa is from Christmas Eve when I was probably 6 or 7 years old. Our family has always opened gifts from each other on Christmas Eve, and the kids opened their "Santa" gifts on Christmas Day. So, grandpa was at the tree doing his annual duty of calling out who each present was for and handing it to them, and I remember him calling out my grandma's name for this GIANT box. We were all so curious what was in it, because it looked big enough for one of those big chest freezers.

When my grandma got the wrapping paper off and cut open the tape, it was filled with packing peanuts. I'm sure my memory is exaggerating thinga, but it seems like I remember her almost diving into the thing when she realized it wasn't something big. Eventually, one hell of a mess later, she pulled some jewelry out from the bottom of the box.

That's the kind of sense of humor that grandpa had. He was sarcastic, and when I was younger, very appreciative of messing with people. He never really held a grudge on people, and unlike some of my younger cousins who only got to see him as a drunk old man, I've got a lot of good memories of him teaching me to cook, and sharing stories of his time in the army and the stupid things he and his brothers did. I still remember a few of them, and wish that it was possible for him to be around to share them when I have kids of my own.

Sorry if any of this post is a downer, but three years ago today, I lost the guy who might as well be my dad. And I miss him. I'll be fun tomorrow.

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