great memories

yesterday would have been my Grandpa Doug's 75th Birthday.  Grandpa died in April of 2002 when I was in 5th grade.  The memories that I have with him are amazing.  I believe it's no coincidence that I can remember memories with Grandpa, but can't remember other things from my childhood as well.  So here are some of my memories with Grandpa that I'd like to share:

1. Grandpa and Marilyn lived on a small private lake in Chilton County.  Their house was down a very steep driveway and I remember every time we visited I always thought we weren't going to make it up the hill.  Well Grandpa was a fisherman.  He retired from Frito Lay and built his lake house to be able to do his favorite leisurely activity, fishing.  He would fish for most of the day and I would also fish with him when I visited.  I had a child's fishing pole and life jacket and would sit next to his chair on the dock and fish.  Of course I wasn't quite as patient as he was because I would always end up saying, "Grandpa, I'm bored" or "Grandpa, I'm never going to catch a fish!"  Grandpa was always patient with me and just told me that it was a sport that you had to be patient with.  Well, I'm not very patient now so I surely wasn't patient as a child.  I am sure that Grandpa did teach me the patience that I do have.  I have no doubt that he looks down from Heaven the days when I'm not being patient and tells me, "Caitlin, just be patient."

2. Grandpa worked for Frito Lay for about 40+ years.  He drove a Frito Lay truck and would often let me climb up in it and pick out a bag of chips of my choice.  Every time we visited he would let me do this.  No wonder I like potato chips so much!  And of course, it's a sin to buy Golden Flake potato chips.

3. In the basement of Grandpa's lake house was a room that was kind of like an office/playroom.  He had this computer down there.... this computer was about 20 years old, like I'm pretty sure it was the first computer ever invented. It was so ghetto. anywho, the grandchildren used to always make these little printouts on it.  You could see every little dot that made up each character.  My favorite was making happy birthday cards on it.  It printed on this paper that was all together and had those little edges with the dots in them that you could tear off.  This story makes me laugh and to see the improvement of technology is just amazing.

4. Grandpa was always good at cooking breakfast.  He made homemade biscuits that were to die for!  They weren't flaky or extra buttery, but they were Grandpa's and they were great.  Also, we always ate a slice of tomato with anything we ate at his house!

(these memories are kind of jumbled and really probably have no meaning to anyone, but just some memories I wanted to type out so that in case I forget one day I can look back.)

So, here's to you Grandpa!  Thank you for always watching over me.  I love you and think of you all the time!