Willy, Great Grandpa Willy

When I was a lot younger than I am now (oh I would say 23 yrs ago or so) I would get to take off on a vacation from my mom, brothers, and sister's for a week or so to my great grandparent's house. Well my Great Grandparent's lived about three hours away by car. Just a little bit to far for a morning bike ride (if you recall the story called Chasing Rainbow's). Well not only did I love and still do love my great grandparents, it really meant a lot to me being able to go to my great grandparents house for a week or so. Every summer and throughout the year he would visit his kids or my grandparents. He drove an old Mercury (not completely sure what year or model it was) which was twice the size of a school bus. He wouldn't let me stay there much longer than that for he thought I would get bored which would equal me getting into trouble. Anyways, so we would leave my grandma's house in Folsom, CA and drive to Linda, CA, but this was no ordinary road trip. It was one that was always full of fascination. First the back seat never ended, I mean you could play football in it. The distance between the left door and the right door is wide enough to park a Suburban in it. Another things was my great grandpa always had a Styrofoam cup filled with candy in the cup holder on the door. I think it is still there to this day. He always had an endless supply of Brach's candy at his house, and if he ran out he would go to the store and buy some more. Another thing that came in endless supplies was soda pop (I know, Californians don't refer to soda as soda pop) the bottom shelf in the refrigerator was always filled with soda. You name the flavor he had it. From orange to strawberry to my favorite root beer. Regardless of how much soda I thought I could drink it never was good enough to drink it all. Something else about the refrigerator that most of my cousins didn't know about was all of the chocolate candies that were always hidden in the bottom two drawers of the fridge. Now those were just a few of the perks I had when I visited there house. Another one was he had everything from the old medal push car's to ride to bicycle's that belonged to his kids. Were talking some pretty antique stuff here. There was always some form of history to be learned when you visited his house. Like the pair of track running shoes that hang freely from the rafters of the garage he built. Sounds silly but those track shoes belonged to my grandfather Bill. They are also the same pair of track shoes that helped him set a few records in some track meets. Oh, by the way those records he set at his high school have yet to be beaten. I think one of those records was for the 200 meter hurdles which was removed from the events for track and field. But, the record still stands to this day. Another one is a bicycle that my grandpa one from a radio talk show call in ordeal, which is another story in it's own. He also had walnut tree's all around his house. So there was always an endless supply of walnuts to eat and throw at each other. As long as we didn't get caught it was all good. He also had cat's galore. He probably had at least 50 cats running around his house. On the backside of his property he had this damn fence that kept us kids off of the train tracks. Well since this was our L.O.A. (limit of advance) we would always run to the fence whenever we heard the train barreling down the tracks. As we stood there watching the train fly by the conductor would always give us a nice long tug on the whistle. It also was the place we decided would serve as a trash can for all of our soda bottle's. Whenever I got to go to his house it always gave me this feeling that I was in that movie stand by me. I mean I could really imagine what it was like to grow up back in the 50's and 60's living in this neighborhood. Now, if my memory is correct my great grandfather passed away back in 96'. The last time I went out to the house was probably around 8 yrs ago. My aunt Beverly lives there now and the place still looked the same, well at least from my memories it did. I got to take a walk around the place for the first time without someone in my ear about what I can and can not do. So one of the places I decided to go and see was the train tracks. As a kid it was always off limit's. Well there wasn't really anything interesting to see, it was just some plain old train track's. But the walk to the track's brought back quiet a few memories. I probably stepped on about a thousand soda bottles still intact. Now when was the last time you had a long neck glass bottle of soda. You know with the old pepsi cola label.

I am sure by now you have all figured out that my great grandfather really meant a lot to me. I still wish he was around to this day. I was very fortunate that I got to share 16 wonderful years of my life with him. He always tried to teach me something. From changing a bike tire to how not to take a radiator cap off when it is hot to taking an air filter off of your car and changing it. I always learned something from him. I will always regret not being able to spend that last summer with him. That one last week trip to his house. He has passed but the memories will live with me for a lifetime. Memories that I hope I will be able to share with my kids.