Oh how I wish all the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Grandpa Davis could have known him as Helen and I knew him. He was so much fun and so entertaining. He had all his favorite sayings and stories that we delighted in and still delight in. Some of you may have noticed how the first generation never eat their pie point first. that is a legacy of Grandpa. He would always turn his pie around and eat it from the crust to the point. If you asked him why he ate it that way he would simply say I don't want the point to stick me. When we were little he would begin drumming his fingers on the table, starting with the index finger to the baby finger and while he drummed he would sing "Hi Ho Pinky!" We would all start to giggle as he intertained us with pinky stories. He loved to sing...incidently he sang a beautiful baritone, and he would regale us all with songs like " I took a trip on a sailing ship with a walloping window blind" or "I had a dog and her name was daisy when she sang the cat went crazy", and many more. When he read stories to us he would have us all in stitches as he changed the words of well known stories and made up his own versions of them changing every thing around. I was so surprised as I got older and heard the real version of such stories as "Alice in Wonderland" and "Uncle Remus"...they were so different than I remembered!
Dad was so fun to be around that when he would meet someone in a line at a bank or a store he would end up with a lifelong friend. He loved to act in community theater and was in many plays including "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and other classics. Because of his parts in plays he had many nicknames. When someone called on the phone for him we would know if it was work or a neighbor or someone from the theater or his lodge by the name they called him. He was known as Dave by the neighbors (his last name being Davis) as Frank by the Lodge as JF or Doc by theater friends as Jack by the people he worked with, my mom called him Franklyn, his sister called him Jackie but I just called him Dad.
Someday you grandchildren and great grandchildren will get to know him too and you will just call him grampa, and he will love it.
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He always made me feel like I was his very special favorite grandchild. It wasn't until after he was gone that I found out that all of us had felt that way!
ReplyDeleteI also remember that all our pets loved him! he could get our mean parakeet to act all sweet and it would sit on his shoulder and give him little "kisses".
He was a really good artist, too! I have an illustrated letter he sent me. Of course the coloring is a bit off. I think he was color blind and the grass is pink! But oh how I cherish the memories I have of him!
Thanks for sharing Auntie Arden!
Being the oldest of the granchildren, I was fortunate to have a few extra years of knowing him. Love to hear the stories Arden - thanks so much! I still sing Horse Named Bill and Barney Google to my kids and grandkids. They love the nonsense songs! I remember the day he had us kids turning the hot dogs over and over looking for the eyes, for some reason they were crying....cause we weren't eating them? Or maybe because we were! I also heard he told you kids he'd do you all a favor and eat the artichoke hearts - as they were so awful!
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