I have put toast in the toaster and come back the next day to see it still there. I have looked for sunglasses for 15 minutes that were hanging on my tee shirt. I’ve left cars running in underground parking lots while grocery shopping and shoes and cappuccinos on the roof while driving. I have been too late on kids’ birthdays, wedding anniversaries, showing up at ballet class; lost more headcovers than I can count. While hiking in the Sierras once, frightened as the sun was setting and the temperature dropping, convinced I was absolutely lost, I turned a corner after four hours to suddenly see my tent, having walked in a giant circle. Just recently I left a notebook full of gut thoughts and ideas - some even good ones – on a recent flight back from the UK. But I have not forgotten, at least I don’t think I have, any of my father’s sayings, opinions, and tales.
This one popped into my head today. It was about my grandfather, Louis. He was a character, a dandy; fedoras, double-breasted suits, 6-on-2 peak lapel with side vents is what he explained to me... The red-haired son of a Jewish ‘pork’ butcher, who had ended up in Shelbyville, Kentucky in the 1880s. He had 10 siblings, eight of them boys.
Louis gambled too much and used to keep a pint of Heaven Hill in the glove compartment of his big Buick. When we would be driving around, he would ask me to fetch it, calling it his ‘medicine’. I have letters my father saved, from the cashier at Wilbur and Clarks Desert Inn on the strip in Las Vegas, now the site of the Wynn. The notes graciously thanked him for sending a portion of the money he still owed the casino. It was a good amount, some of the numbers would be forty thousand in today’s currency.
He moved to Louisville eventually and opened a radio and television store when TVs were starting to show up. He also had the only spot in town, I believe, that had soundproof booths with record players where the kids would come and listen to their favorite LPs.
One of the many stories my dad, who also was a repository of wisdom, told me about his pop, was about the time a fellow rushed into the store and very excitedly said “Hey Lou, I just came from the bank, and they said if you would co-sign my loan, they’d give me the $2000.00 I need to open my vegetable market.
My grandfather nodded, took his time, relit his Roi Tan cigar, then said, “Jerry, I’ll tell you what, I’ll do you one better, I’ll loan you the two grand and you have the bank cosign for it. “
How many kids do u have and what genders?
Great stuff