Leaving a Legacy

I am home sick today and was "chatting" with my sister. When she asked what was wrong, I told her I had "stripped throat." Sure, I know it's strep throat, but our grandfather used to call it "stripped throat" so that's what I like to call it when speaking to family members. She laughed and told me that she too calls it that. I told her that I even continue to tell our son to "bruch his tooth," and she also does this, too.

Backing up a bit, our grandfather pretty much raised his grand children as both my mother and aunt Mona moved back home after getting divorces and never moved back out. Our family consisted of my grandfather Silver and grandmother Josie, my mom, aunt Mona and five grand kids - all in a three bedroom house. The house was later converted to a 5-6 bedroom house, much to my delight.

Needless to say, my grandfather probably had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He essentially raised three families - his own, as well as those of his two daughters. The insane thing is that he only had a 5th grade education - hence the odd phrases. I remember that when each of us grandkids got promoted to 6th grade he would tell us that we were officially smarter than him. Still, with his limited education he managed to do pretty well to take care of us all. He will be remembered fondly by all of us grandkids as he has left us all with some pretty funny sayings that are forever emblazoned in our minds - like "bruch your tooth" and "zip it" (when he wanted you to sip something hot). I'm sure there are at least a hundred more, but of course they don't immediately come to mind.

Besides his interesting turn of phrase, my grandfather left me the legacy of gardening. He was not an avid gardener, he mostly planted flowers and trees to create an atmosphere. My good friend Joye dubbed his back yard "The Polynesian Paradise." My grandfather had put up Tiki masks on the walls, fake toucans and parrots in the trees, and if you looked closely in the garden beds under the Hibiscus bushes, you'd find Fisher Price village people and even a dashboard Jesus. It was truly bizarre, and kind of endearing. I tend to plant things I like to eat as well as flowers, but I cannot seem to get away from inserting "villagers" into my garden space.