MY PAPA

1-15-09...MY PAPA

Papa was my Daddies Dad, my Grandpa. He was quiet an old gentleman. He was just full of tricks. He didn't like anyone not being up with the chickens working . Everyone called him Papa even his kids.
Papa could not hear at all. You would have to get down close to his ear and cup your hands and holler for him to know what you were saying. He smoked a pipe, dipped snuff, and chewed tobacco each morning in that order after he ate breakfast. It was quiet a production to watch him as he went through the same ritual morning and evening. He would never get on to us but he talked loud enough that we heard him telling our Parents what they should do to us. My Grandma had died when my Daddy was only a few months old so Daddy never knew her. I am told I look like her. She was Cherokee.
Papa loved to watch TV. I was 14 when we got our first little black and white set. We only got one, sometimes two channels. Papa could not hear a word but you would have thought he could. He got such a kick out of the Red Skelton show. Would laugh till he had tears running down. That was easy to do with Red Skelton. When someone would come up behind Red and goose him, Papa would jump and say. umph! It was so funny to watch him.
Brenda and I sometimes got jealous of each other over our Papa and would squabble about it verbally. He likes me better, Nope he likes me better!!
We had an older cousin who we thought was mean and honery, which he was. He would go up behind Papa and goose him and scare Papa, well we didn't like that at all. No siree! Sure wasn't a bit funny to us or anyone else except his Mama. He was 15 and his Mama's baby. Spoiled rotten and everyone knew it and avoided him. Well Brenda and I had had a couple of run ins with him already and we were tired of him pestering our Papa. That big spoiled Mama's baby was even more jumpy than Papa so it wasn't hard to get him. And By george we got him good. YEP!
That big baby was scared of the dark and we knew it. He was at Brenda's house one night and Brenda and I were at my house and the time was right. We knew he would have to come out to go to the toilet sooner or later so we told Mama we were going to Brendas for a while. We walked on out there and sat down behind the toilet. Several others came out. Finally he came out. His Mama (our Aunt) came on the back porch to wait on him. The big old baby kept looking back to see if his Mama was still there and tripped. Down he went and we had to bite our tongues to keep from giggling and alerting him. It was so funny watching that almost 6ft. baby wallering there on the ground and his Mama saying, Oh! Oh! My goodness are you OK? But we waited quietly. When he got in the toilet we heard him latch the door and this was it. We took sticks and racked them up and down on the toilet and groaned a ghostly groan, OOOooooooOOOOO! My gosh we heard him scramblin around in there, heard some bumps and umps, and whimperin'. Then we heard MMAAMMAA!!! Our Aunt was hollering Oh My Oh My are you Ok as she ran toward the toilet and believe it or not she cane tumblin' down to the ground too. We could hear him trying to open the door. Guess he forgot he had it latched. He was shrieking now and so was our Aunt. Everyone came running out of Brenda's house and Brenda and I took off for my house. We laughed so hard we couldn't breathe and run at the same time so had to stop down the lane a few minutes. We ran on in my house and Mama asked what the commotion was. Oh ------, just locked hisself in the toilet was all we said.
Next day I'm sure my Mama and Daddy figured out what had happened when they heard the story, but they just smiled and never said a word. HE HE Great Parents YEP!!