Memories from Julie

My kid's memories:

I agree about including the scooter rides--that's my kids fondest memory of Grandad. Unfortunately Lane never got her ride : ( Last night at dinner they shared their favorite memories (Cade still can't talk about it but he nodded to me that he loved the scooter rides too). They can vividly remember cruising around New Horizons, honking the horn, and laughing with Grandad. Cas of course remembers almost crashing a few times as she would take over the driving and Grandad would let her and then he would take over just before they would crash into the wall!

Another memory they have is how he would tease the younger kids about not knowing their name--Granddad: "Who are you? Jack, right?" "No, I'm Cas!" My kids were laughing about that last night!

Another thing the kids remembered was that Grandad would be their "Dad" at Dad's day at their preschool. Dad's day was every Fall and every year Joe was out of town for soccer so Grandad would "sub" for Joe. It was a 2 hour "playdate" at their preschool where they would sing songs, do a craft, have a snack, and play. Every year Grandad would walk in and ask, "where's the beer?" My kid's preschool teachers loved him and always looked forward to seeing him on Dad's day as he always made them laugh!

Some of my memories:

Joe's 1st National Championship banquet, your mom and dad were seated with Cade and I at a table in the front. Joe's old boss--Ron Prettyman-- was at our table and he was not a drinker and didn't look at drinking favorably. Joe's at the podium speaking to the crowd and your dad puts a straw in his beer and let's Cade drink from the bottle. Ron's eyes were as wide as can be and I could tell he was appalled but he couldn't stop watching Grandad. I tried to whisper to Grandad to stop but he can't hear me so then I tried to nudge him but he didn't get it so I just gave Joe "big eyes, like what the hell am I suppose to do?" I don't know if Ron ever recovered from that!

The one thing that you can add to the climbing through the window story is that he had moved our big heavy dresser to get into the room and scratched our hardwood floors! He cut himself so there was a trail of blood through my house. He scared me so bad that I made him a key and told him to always use the front door.

During the inspection of our first home in Torrance, we asked Grandad to come over and give us his opinion. I was so excited to hear his ideas on how we could fix it up. Beaming with excitement, I asked Grandad, "what do you think?" He said EMPHATICALLY, "ABANDON IT!" Joe said that all the air had been sucked out of my body. Within a couple months, he backtracked and told Joe what a great deal we had scored.