He worked as a mechanic for one of the trucking lines, and also did carpentry work. He'd built a workshed out back of the house they lived in, but no one was allowed in there without permission, and definitely not when he wasn't in the shed. He kept the place immaculate.
I remember peeking around the doorway with my cousins, and me asking, "Pappaw, can we come in?" If he wasn't too busy, we were allowed in (usually me and my cousin Rebecca), and we could sit on a bench across from his work table and listen to his stories, which we loved.
One story that he told was what would happen if anyone ever came into his workshed without permission. He showed us a noose that he'd fashioned out of a rope, and said that the last person that had come in without permission, he had put that noose around their neck and hung them from the rafters! We listened wide-eyed, believing every word he said, but I remember the twinkle in his eyes and slight smirk as he tried to keep a straight face.
My cousin Alan (the same Alan as in the story of the bees) was always on Pappaw's "bad kid" list, though. Alan seemed to take great delight in aggravating Pappaw, and at the worst possible time. Pappaw would get dressed for work and be out front waiting for his ride, and Alan would sneak around and turn on the hose, completely soaking Pappaw and sending him back into the house cursing a blue streak because he had to change clothes, and threatening all sorts of things he was going to do to take care of Alan! Alan must've only been about four or five years old at the time, but for some reason, he delighted in the game. Pappaw was not amused!
One thing that was really special to me that was just my time with him, was that he'd have me come and sit on the couch in front of him, and on a TV tray showed me how to draw three-dimensional boxes, triangles and all sorts of shapes. That was our time just between us.
Years later, I found out that when I was a baby, my grandmother dropped him off at our house after he'd gone on a drinking binge, and once he'd sobered up, he didn't drink another drop for the whole time he was there with us. It was just before my first birthday, and Mom and Dad said that he spent a lot of time with me while he was there. He especially got a kick out of taking pictures of me with my first birthday cake, which my mother let me tear apart and make a good mess of. Unfortunately, there were no pictures of him with me, but I wish there were. Still, looking at those old black and white pictures now still make me think of him.
I have good memories of my Pappaw. I wish he'd been around a bit longer so that I'd have got to know him even better, though. I always felt like I was his favorite, though.
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