Thursday, July 27, 2006

Grandpa Bess


This is a picture of me and my grandfather. I asked him to take this picture with me and he told me to wait so that he can put on a hat and jacket. **smile** He's responsible for a great deal of who I am today. He crossed my mind this morning. That means that we have to call him today. This picture was taken last Spring. He is now 87.

Excerpt from previous post:
I don't care what question I asked he would always mention the car that he owned around that time. I asked him about the time that he asked for my grandmothers hand in marriage in 1945. He responded with, "I had a green 1938 Chevrolet." He did mention that there was another girl that wanted him to marry her, but he wanted my grandmother especially. He also talked about the best car that he'd ever owned. It was a 1966 Dodge. He said that he paid for it in 8 easy payments from a private owner.


Please click link below for entire post.
http://civileyes.blogspot.com/2005/08/early-times-spent.html

20 comments:

Unknown said...

My grandfather passedon at the ripe old age of 97 some years ago now. I still own some of his stuff; a pocket knife, his garden tools and hand tools. Near the end he would stay in bed all day as it was hard for him to walk and he wpold sing a song "Lord when I am gone somebody gonna moan but give me that long white robe to put on".
I think that whenever you happen to think of the dead that they know it and you have given me the gift of thinking of dear old granddaddy, thank you.

Stephen A. Bess said...

david-
Your comment sounds like the beginning of a good story. You have some great personal items from him. My grandfather gave me the gift of hats. I wear and buy hats because of him. It's my way of honoring him. Thank you, David. God bless your granddaddy's soul.

Anonymous said...

Wow...this is touching!

I love my Grandpa so much! He's like a father to me. This warms my heart! =)

Anonymous said...

Hi Stephen, I resign from my groupie duties effective immediately!! I will take ya grandpa :) He a fine man!!
Well, you can't help but love our elders, they are so wise and yet so silent. My grandpa was very good with his supposed to be walking "stick" transformed to be a traditional weapon hee hee. I crack myself up just thinking about it :)

Naro% said...

Steve Props to Grandpa these are the links to our past.
Stay up
Naro%

Stephen A. Bess said...

ubfly-
Sounds like you will be calling yours too. :)

tryphina-
I can see him now saying, "hello there young lady. You know how to make potatoe biscuits?" :)

Your grandpa sounds like he was an interesting man too.

Stephen A. Bess said...

naro%-
Hello. Yes, we must always honor those that made it possible for us to exist.

the prisoner's wife said...

lol@needing a hat and coat first. that sounds about right.

i miss my granddaddy. we used to watch the Lakers together & argue about how wack Elgin (Elden Cambel) and Laday (Vladi) were. *lol*

granddaddy & Chick Hern were the illest!

Ananda said...

oh i how i love the photo of gp bess. very nice. he looks like he is something special ... you know the kinda man that broke the mold when he was made. your words make me miss my grandfathers ... john leonard leeke and robert warren gartin sr. granddaddy leeke made his transition in 89, a few months after i graduated from law school. he saw me do many things in life. he still sees me from the spirit world. he and i were very close. i own some of his things now. cufflinks, shirts, sweaters, hankerchiefs, pjs, and undershirts. he was a phenomenal man ... if he wasn't my granddaddy, i probably would have tried to hit on him. his kappa charm was out of this world. my gartin papa died in 96. he was a man of the earth. his spirit was total soul. he loved to fish and talk about history. shucks if you got stuck in his basement with him, you better get ready for the oral history channel. he loved to tell stories about our family, but he would never tell the slavery stories his grandmother millie shared. he was the keeper of family tree information. he was a simple man with simple taste. i have the suit he wore to my mother's wedding, my graduation from high school, and all other family events. that was a 1961 classic. he wore starched white shirts and drove a red dodge. peach cobbler was his favorite dessert. and if he hadn't been married, i am sure he would have tried to be a pope of some sort in the catholic church... he was a catholic fanantic too.... knights of columbus etc. okay i got all of that out. time to head back to work. thanks for the reminders of our ancestors. paz, ananda

Stephen A. Bess said...

pwife-
you're going to be the "illest" to someone too. As a matter of fact, you are now. :)

ananda-
I can tell that your grandpa was special. That's a beautiful thing. The fact that you are a writer means he will live forever.

Geoffrey Philp said...

Rispec'
Geoffrey

Stephen A. Bess said...

Geoffrey
Much Rispec'. Peace~

Stunuh Jay said...

Hello Mr. Bess!
Lucky! You still have your Grandpa. Grandpa's are special people, I think they have to go through the trauma of having kids and living life to turn out into those delicious crumudgeons that have the answers to all the questions! I miss my granpa, he taught me how to count, he saved my hearing, and showed me how loveley the natural world is.... Here's to Grandpa's (and spitfire Grandma's....) wherever they are.

NML/Natalie said...

What a lovely picture! My grandpa is 73 and he tells great stories too. Gosh my grandad is young now that I think about it....

Stephen A. Bess said...

stunuh-
There you are. Thanks for that comment. Yes, I appreciate grandpa very much. My grandmother is missed. She was my best friend.

nml-
Thank you! Happy birthday to you!

Michelle said...

grandfathers are the best and yours is looking mighty good at 87 (the vanity hat/jacket thing slays me.) Although my PaPa has passed, he lives on and is honored in my book, Bulletproof Soul. When I was a kid my grandfather always took me to Never Never Land -- where money and candy grew on trees! :-) (Never Never Land was actually just a field in the country that he and some pals gussied up for the neighborhood kids -- HEE). I still long for Never Never Land on occassion. My Papa is the one that encouraged me at a young age to let my imagination soar and run wild -- he's in large part probably why I'm a writer today. Thanks for sharing your memories of your gp Bess. We gotta honor them while they are here!

Stephen A. Bess said...

michelle-
I agree. We must honor them while they are still here. I am always happy to share him with everyone. Have a great weekend and hello! :)

Waddie G. said...

Grandpa looks pretty stylish...it's great that he is a good influence on you.

Stephen A. Bess said...

profgq-
He get's dressed up everyday (more stylish than the pic) and usually doesn't go anywhere. He's more concerned about who is coming to see him. Thanks. :)

Xave said...

I love older people. Talking to them is just wonderful. I never had grandparents. I never new that joy, and now my parents are grandparents and it's like where was all this sweetness when I was growing up? LOL

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