G-pa

Well G-pa, I wish I could say it’s been fun.  I wont lie to you, sometimes you were a real bastard, but you taught me alot of things i never would have picked up any other way.  some of them are totally useless, like the fact that one can burn rubber off of insulated wire to get recycling metal.  or that a brazil nut can also be called a nigger toe.  but some of the things you taught me are lessons i’ll take with me for the rest of my genetically-predisposed-to-be-long-as-hell life. (thanks for that too, by the way.)  you taught me gardening, toolsmanship, frugality, the value of hard work, and the fact that real men dont swear (although shit is ok now and then).  almost a century of seeing war, famine, the depression.   You saw the rise and fall of the third riech, the rise and fall of the soviet union, the rise and fall of american integrety.  and through all of it, you just did what had to be done.  you really were the greatest generation.  there isn’t much to say, you never were one for eloquence.  so we’ll settle for this:  I’ll miss ya, and I’ll see you again when i cash it in about 70 years from now. I love you.

rest in peace, you old bastard.