Confession from my childhood

I mean my really really childhood. I was about 4 or maybe 5 when my Grandfather had a heart attack. All I recall is knowing that somehow THAT MAN in the black car caused my Grandfather to have to stay in bed. So of course in my little childlike mind, I blamed him for my Grandfather's condition.

No one loved my Grandfather more than I, except maybe my brother. My "Paw Paw" was the greatest. My earliest memory is when I was about nine months old. Paw Paw was holding me over his shoulder and rocking me. Back and forth, back and forth, as I tried to focus on the wooden screen door in the house my grandparents lived in at the time. The aroma of pipe tobacco takes me back to that memory. My Paw Paw could fix anything. My parents tell me that one evening I noticed a partial moon in the sky and said "Uh Oh, broken moon. Paw Paw fix it." I don't recall that, but I do recall being carried around by my grandfather when I was a toddler. I recall being carried in his arms to look at his flowers. My grandparents had peonies in Montgomery, Alabama. They knew the 'secret' to get them to bloom that far South. My Paw Paw grew Night-Blooming Cereus regularly. I recall being able to stay up one night so that I could see the flower in bloom.



Well back to my confession: There was another child playing with me in front of the house (I had been shoo'ed away, which was fairly normal back when parents shielded their children from the harshness of life and death.) Well, since it was THAT MAN's fault my Grandfather was sick (to my childish mind), I decided I would just 'fix' him for making my Grandfather have to stay in bed. I found a couple pieces of broken glass somewhere along the curb and I wedged the larger piece between the rubber of the black car's passenger side tire and the road. I was called back into the house before THAT MAN left, so I never knew if he ended up with an 'unexplained' flat tire.

To this day, I wonder about it. And I miss my Grandparents very much. My Grandfather passed away in 1974. My Grandmother was my age now when I was born. I never knew her younger than 60. And I was blessed to have her until 1980.

Did I tell you I miss my Grandparents? I hope my grandchildren can say the same thing about me one day. But not any day too soon. I have a lot of living planned for my retirement.

If you want to know how to grow Peonies where it doesn't get cold enough to grow peonies, ask me in the comments.