- Frank -

There are so many times that I've wanted my camera and not had it near. A few times being the Mates of State concert and the Modest Mouse concert, but never more did I wish I had my camera handy than when I walked into my grandparents house on Monday to see grandpa lolling around the kitchen with only 1 boot on. I guess he had been about to go water the garden when I walked in and there wasn't enough reason to put the other boot on before greeting me.

I'd gone over to see if I could make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which is something I had never done before but I was in the area working so I decided I'd give it a try.

Within moments of asking if I could make a sandwich, grandpa had pulled out two pieces of home made bread from the freezer, apricot jam, elderberry jam, black raspberry jam, lemonade, and milk from the fridge, butter from the cupboard, and pointed to the already open peanut butter on the counter. All while wearing 1 boot.

I decided on black raspberry jam, and milk to go along with my peanut butter bread. The milk, which had expired a few days prior to my visit, made me want to cringe upon my first sip but I didn't want to cause a fit, so I put my cup down, pretended I didn't just drink rotten milk and began to eat my sandwich. Grandpa talked to me about the surface area of salt and ice while making home made ice cream until I had 2 bites left, then he went to the back hall to finish putting on his shoes and headed off to the backyard.

Guess what happened next.

Yup, poured my glass of milk down the drain, emptied the last drops from the gallon jug, rinsed it out, put it on the counter, and filled my cup with lemonade. Mmm.. So much better.

A few minutes later, grandpa was back and out to the garden we went. We speed walked past the sprinkler and over to the berry bushes. Apparently, grandma and grandpa had gone to St. George for the weekend and when they came back the whole patch was loaded. Together, grandpa and I probably picked and ate 30 berries within only a few minutes.

Before leaving, grandpa gave me a taste of some home made black raspberry ice cream while we talked about school. Well, it all started with me telling him how I wasn't sure what I wanted to study and it kind of turned into this..

When grandpa was younger, boys went on LDS missions when they were 20 years old, so grandpa had 2 years of school at Utah State University done before he left. Those first few years were filled with classes from 4 general areas. [One of the classes he mentioned was Economics. He said he'd hated it and advised me never to take it. (: ] He didn't know what he wanted to go into. Then he got his mission call.

In that time, Grandpa, turning 20 a few years before the start of the Korean War, had to ask and receive federal permission to leave the United States to serve his mission in Norway. Permission was given.

Near the end of his mission, he received a letter from his father that said something like, "I hope you make it all the way home safely." Apparently notices were being sent home to his family in Utah about his lack of response to any of their requests concerning .. the draft, I think? Something like that, and people were upset.

When grandpa was on his way home, he rode a train from ? [New York, maybe] to Chicago. There were officers policing the trains and one of them grabbed him and said "Are you the one we're looking for!!!" and grandpa was so scared because he thought "how could they be looking for me here?" but then the officer said "Nope, not him." and moved on.

When grandpa arrived home he was supposed to get drafted but he asked his draft date to be postponed so he could help his father finish with the cattle early that fall. He was supposed to leave in October but his request was granted so he was going to leave in November and.. I don't remember what happened after that..

But then, because he had lived in Europe and studied Germany, they called him to be part of Intelligence instead of having him go over seas. They chose between sending him over to fight and sending a professional stenographer over and guess what! They sent the professional stenographer over and kept grandpa, put him through 5 months of stenography training, and turned him into their stenographer. What a blessing! No way would that happen without the help of Heavenly Father.

Anyways, he fulfilled his two years of duty and returned, finally, to Utah State University. Where he decided to go into Chemistry. Later, becoming a chemist for the army, testing warfare gases and chemicals.

Whoa! There's my attempted recap. That last sentence was told to me by my mother. Some of my facts might be a little jumbled up, but I tried my best to remember all that he told me.

When my ice cream was done, I washed my dish, thanked grandpa for everything, and headed out.

I love my grandpa. He's so kind. There is nothing warmer than a prayer or welcoming word given by him. He sings in the morning and hums the whole day through. He's smart. He's productive, hard working, even before the sun's up. He's careful and caring. He remembers when I was little and loved his berry patches, weaving in and out carefully without getting a scratch. Because of that, he always saves me a bottle of black raspberry jelly whenever it is made. He slurps milk off the table, teaching us not to waste. He's loving, selfless, always giving. Ice cream. Cider. Apples. Corn. Peaches. Berries. Grapes. He's humble. He stops mid boot application to greet me, and doesn't put the other boot on until I'm well taken care of. He would probably treat a stranger the same way. He's a wonderful man.