240908 A Great Man

The picture is me at Disneyland in 1958.

That man was my grandpa.

I was blessed to have the grandpa I had and the early years spent with him. I am the oldest of the 6 children mom had. In my early years, my father had little use for me for reasons I never knew. My grandfather was different. He always had time for me.

Upstairs there were 2 bedrooms, one was grandpa's and the other was shared by me and my brother. We were sent upstairs in the early evening to go to sleep. I was never tired, so I would go into grandpa’s room, sit at his feet and we would talk. Grandpa was not educated more than a few years in grade school, but he knew how to read and write. He was a voracious reader and that’s what made him a very intelligent man. There were few things he didn’t know. He was a writer too. He mailed several letters to friends every day.

I received my education about life from him, not from my mother or father.
Grandpa and I went fishing all summer long. He also took me to baseball games and we saw the great Saint Louis players, like Stan Musial and Ken Boyer. We went to Basketball games to watch the Saint Louis Hawks play. We went to pro wrestling matches held in the basement of the beautiful Chase Hotel. In 1958 we went to California to visit grandpa’s eldest daughter. While there, we went to the beach, went to Mount Wilson Observatory and my favorite, Disneyland. It was before the place was completed and officially opened. I got to roam all over while there were few people in the park.

After I enlisted in the navy and went overseas, grandpa frequently sent me letters and always included postage stamps so I could reply back.

One of the worst days of my life came in 1974. (I’m teary eyed thinking about this 50 years later)
The day of grandpa’s funeral there were 6 pallbearers, My dad, uncle Kenny, uncle Tom, brother Tom, Tim Mahoney and me. We carried the casket from the doors of the church to the hearse. We followed the hearse in brother Tom’s car. The six of us were crying all the way there. Of those other five men, I never saw any of them shed a tear before or after that day. When we carried the casket to the burial plot, that was even more difficult than carrying it from the church.