Saturday, February 15, 2014
Learn you a Trade my polish grandpa would say
Grandpa Danny ordered whoopers at burger chef. I didn't give it much consideration. When he took me to restaurants, he didn't want a menu he just told the waitress what we wanted. That was impressive to me. It was always the same restaurant in napoleon just north of Brooklyn Michigan. He lived in Toledo and would stop at beautiful Clark Lake to pick me up when he went to his cottage at wolf lake. We would get bait and go to the deli and buy macaroni salad, RC and Dr Pepper. Also, boxes of little Debbie's cakes we called them little Dannie's. I don't know if he always drove so slowly or if he did it so he could try and talk to me. But I remember him talking to the back of my head as I gazed out the window pretending not to hear him.
He told me "I'm certain you're hearing me". He told me things weren't going to come natural to me. That I needed to learn a trade to help me in life. something I could always count on for money. He ran his own janitorial business cleaning offices in Toledo. And for a guy who couldn't read was pretty successful.
I didn't know yet that he couldn't read. Education he use to tell me. Experience, experience live and learn you'll see. He was a polish immigrant and spoke polish fluently and he used to say something in polish first and I wouldn't understand then he would say it in English " you made your bed now you have to lie in it". Does he have to drive so slowly? "You think I'm getting on you" he'd tell me. "I'm just saying" Learn you a trade. something to fall back on. When we'd get to the cottage, I would pick up the pieces of all the willow trees and we would mow the grass and we would fish. We cooked our suppers in a two-room cabin on a gas grill I still have. "Eat eat" he would say. Were poor people we have to enjoy simple things. Grandpa Loved to eat.
Learn you a trade grandpa said, I end up using roofing for my fallback work. I can roof a house by myself in a week and love doing it.
I worked for builder Mark Edward who swore I had goat in my blood when he saw me move around on a roof. I make it look easy Just this last summer a man who had been watching me roof a neighbor's house came out to tell me I should have my name on a sign out front because he has never seen a roof look so good. I told him you're only saying that because you can appreciate that I did it by myself. He agreed and told me I looked like a little kid playing on a great big pile of sand up there. I Love being on a roof.
I wish Grandpa would have been around when I got through school and got a radio job. He used to love Paul Harvey. "That guy knows how to tell a story "he'd say. I could of prank called him. got him to speak polish on the radio. I don't know what happened to dreams in radio. I wish we could of drove through Loch Erin real slow as I pointed out to him. I roofed that house and that house. My dog sparky wags have roofed over 100 roofs with me. he's the best!
He told me "I'm certain you're hearing me". He told me things weren't going to come natural to me. That I needed to learn a trade to help me in life. something I could always count on for money. He ran his own janitorial business cleaning offices in Toledo. And for a guy who couldn't read was pretty successful.
I didn't know yet that he couldn't read. Education he use to tell me. Experience, experience live and learn you'll see. He was a polish immigrant and spoke polish fluently and he used to say something in polish first and I wouldn't understand then he would say it in English " you made your bed now you have to lie in it". Does he have to drive so slowly? "You think I'm getting on you" he'd tell me. "I'm just saying" Learn you a trade. something to fall back on. When we'd get to the cottage, I would pick up the pieces of all the willow trees and we would mow the grass and we would fish. We cooked our suppers in a two-room cabin on a gas grill I still have. "Eat eat" he would say. Were poor people we have to enjoy simple things. Grandpa Loved to eat.
Learn you a trade grandpa said, I end up using roofing for my fallback work. I can roof a house by myself in a week and love doing it.
I worked for builder Mark Edward who swore I had goat in my blood when he saw me move around on a roof. I make it look easy Just this last summer a man who had been watching me roof a neighbor's house came out to tell me I should have my name on a sign out front because he has never seen a roof look so good. I told him you're only saying that because you can appreciate that I did it by myself. He agreed and told me I looked like a little kid playing on a great big pile of sand up there. I Love being on a roof.
I wish Grandpa would have been around when I got through school and got a radio job. He used to love Paul Harvey. "That guy knows how to tell a story "he'd say. I could of prank called him. got him to speak polish on the radio. I don't know what happened to dreams in radio. I wish we could of drove through Loch Erin real slow as I pointed out to him. I roofed that house and that house. My dog sparky wags have roofed over 100 roofs with me. he's the best!
 |
| sparky is laying just over my ear |
 |
