18 years

It's been 18 years (this week) since my Gramps passed away. With this being Memorial weekend, and so close to Father's day, this is for you Gramps!

Grams and Gramps were married for 45 years after meeting in a dance class at the University of Oregon (in college dance classes were encouraged by Grams). They had four children and spent most of their time in Eugene, moving often but always within Eugene. After Gramps retired they moved to the coast. Oh how we loved to go and visit! We got to spend a week at a time during the summers just hanging with Grams and Gramps. Our visits involved lots of walks around the neighborhood and on the beach. The sign that read "Here he lies all cold and hard, the last damn dog that pooped in my yard" made us giggle every time we walked by. There were also the daily visits to the pool where we would show off our "awesome dives" (read as not-so-fancy jumps) into the pool with Gramps as our audience. We would usually get in a game of pool before heading back home. Grams and Gramps then moved to King City and we got to see them more often. Gramps played lots of golf and we got to go over for sleepovers.

Some things I vividly remember about Gramps:
-He ate shredded wheat for breakfast (always).
-He told us that if we ate the crust on the bread we would whistle better.
-As I was the only grandchild to acquire his red hair, he often said that my hair would stay red if I ate carrots. (His turned white in patches when he quit playing baseball and went into business...as soon as I started my gig in public accounting mine started going white...I don't get it I still eat my carrots.)
-He could talk like Donald Duck (or so we thought).
-He put salt on everything!

While many memories were made while Gramps was still with us...birthdays, fishing trips, long walks on the beach, help with homework...there have also been many that he has not been part of...graduations, weddings, new grandchildren and great-granddaughters. (Boo learned at an early age to pick Gramps out of family pictures at my aunt's house and referred to him as "her daddy Bill".)

Gramps was a special man to all of us and we (especially Grams) miss him dearly!