Music & Thoughts of Grandpa

Good evening Humble Readers... tonight's post is a little different, but I wanted to share it with you anyway.

I think I've indicated before that my family is more than a little odd. I've had biological parents, step parents, and foster parents. Now, when your number of parents increases, so does your number of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and especially cousins. There are many people in my family that I wouldn't recognize if I saw them on the street.

But many of my favourite preschool memories (yes, I can remember back to when I was 2) involve my Grandpa B. I remember 'helping' him build a set of concrete steps and him threatening to stick me in the middle of the cement and leave me there. I remember tramping with him through the Ontario bush tapping maple trees, and then going back and collecting the sap to make maple syrup. I remember playing in his office where he kept spare parts for the chainsaws he repaired (the adult in me freaks out at that!).

Mostly, I just remember feeling safe with him. With the chaos that was my family, having his calm gruffness was a blessing.

He's the one who is adamant we are Irish, even though I'm seventh generation Canadian through his part of the family. When he's had a couple beers he gets this incredible brogue that is a combination of Irish and eastern Canadian (with a minor hint of French Canadian thrown in for good measure). He is a fabulous storyteller, and can out BS anyone. He's funny, sweet, and blunt.
I'm not sure why he's been on my mind so much lately. Maybe it's because I've been on an eastern Canadian music kick recently. (Please make sure that you click over to this link... this song makes me think of Grandpa like no other. The Mull River Shuffle) Maybe it's because I'm thinking so much about our trip to New York coming up... daydreaming about fall colours and it brings him to mind.

Of all my biological family, he's the one I wish I lived closer to. He's the one I miss. And I think he's part of the reason why I want so much to be a mom. I want to share his stories with a new generation.