My grandfather was a bit of a mystery to me when I was little. My grandparents were divorced and that was an oddity in the 70s. I didn't know anyone divorced so the fact that they lived separately was strange. There was a story there, but I wouldn't know that story for years to come after my grandparents later remarried at the request, or rather demand of my mom. They got married in the music office of Dale Perkins Sr in the old Mobberly Baptist Church on the south side of Longview. Before they were married we would split out time between all the grandparents and lucky for us they all lived in Longview. My other set of grandparents lived down the street from the old Mobberly and my grandfather lived close by with my grandmother living way out on Judson Road across from the school, the school that is now Judson Middle School. At the time it was a 2 land highway with a post office next door to her house that set off the road on a little bit of acreage. My grandfather had built that house from a Sears kit many years ago and raised my mom there.
Now that we have some of the details I'll go back to my grandfather's green house. I remember very little about the house other than the back yard where at one time he had a rabbit hutch with 2 fat rabbits. I just thought they were pets, but as it turned out they weren't and lucky for me they also turned out to be 2 females and not a male and female so things didn't work out the way he intended. I also remember a little musical cigarette box he had. I wish I could remember all the details, but try as I may, I can't. I just remember that it was a beautiful wooden box that played music and a cigarette was retrieved and would either come up from inside or out of the side. I loved that little box and every time I came over he let me play with it. It intrigued me. My grandfather thought it was funny that I loved it so much, but he told me one day it would be mine and that thrilled me thinking I would be able to play with it all the time. That and the fact that he always had gum for me, something my mom didn't let me have often. It was Wrigley's, either spearmint or occasionally another flavor. He also kept all his change in a jar and every now and then he would give me the jar with all the change. I would sit on the floor, playing his record player with Dolly Parton or another gospel group and count all the change. He was have coin rollers and I would sit and count it all while listening to Working 9 to 5 or Jolene. He didn't say much. He sat in his recliner and watched and he went about working on a car he was repairing for someone. He wore his hair slicked back in the style of the 70's with plenty of grease and worked on cars. That's it. But that little music box as always there and I loved to see it every time.
Once my grandparents remarried to bought a house together close to the one my grandfather had lived it. It had large shops out back to he could work on cars easier. His office in there was magical. He was very organized with his tools. He had them hanging on the wall and every tool had a place and every tool was notched to mark them as his in case friends were sharing tools, they would know which ones belonged to the other. I still played with the music box each time I came. I, along with my siblings also picked up pecans from the many pecan trees they had. He had cane polls rigged with the hooks of hangars so that we can reach up and tug on the branches to make the rope pecans falls. We climbed on the roof of the carport and took turns knocking pecans down, often on our own heads. Sometimes we sat outside and sold paper bags of them for money. He still gave us gum and coins and at one point he had a pet duck that followed him everywhere.
When I was in college my grandfather passed away from a heart attack and we all came back for the services. People moved in and out through the house while I took it all in. My other grandfather passed away within a couple of years of this one, but to be honest I can't remember which one was first. Even though I was in college I wasn't exactly sure what to do during this process, but as people came and went. I just shuffled food and cleaned plates and cups and got introduced to various people. I knew many of them because I visited often and sometimes sang at their church.
Shortly after my grandfather's funeral, I remembered the music box and wanted to be sure and find it the next time we went over to the house. As it turns out we would be going on several occasions due to events that occurred shortly after the funeral. In my grandfather's shop, there was a somewhat secret door between the furthest open garage that held much taller vehicles and the shop that had a door on it. It just blended into the wall and few knew it was there. At some point my parents and grandmother determined that someone knew about the door and entered there and stole my grandfather's air compressor tools. We knew they were all knotched if they were ever found, but the police could find nothing and there was no forced entry. The air compressor itself remained, being way too heavy to move. My parents were stumped and my grandmother was afraid since this happened behind their house and she had to have been home. There were a few other tools missing I pointed out. I knew because I loved the way my grandfather organized his tools and they were never out of place. He always returned them and there were a few spots with missing tools that were not in that office. There were some conversations that took place and hushed talking as my parents clearly felt they knew who had stolen the tools. I was not privy to that information and it wasn't until many years later I learned what they suspected, but just didn't want to believe it so they convinced themselves it wasn't true. In that process of checking the house about the tools went missing, I went looking for the music box. It was no where to be found. I knew it was in the living room during the funeral sitting on a table, but now it was gone. My grandmother had no idea and wasn't interested in looking. I looked everywhere. Every closet, and cabinet, but it was simply missing. Years went by and I would look, but it was just gone.To this day, I wondered what happened to that box.
No comments:
Post a Comment