W9- My Pa

I've had tough last few days. My Grandpa passed away recently and me and my family have been sharing a lot of old stories about him to try and celebrate his life instead of mourn. It's hard regardless, but a lot of the stories we've been sharing have been really funny, with quite a few being about food.

The first thing that you'd need to know about my Grandpa, or as we call him Pa, would be that he is extremely serious about his food. He served in WWII and that is where many of his great stories came from. My favorite food/war story would have to be the time when Pa's ship came under attack. Pa was eating in the dining hall of his ship when enemy planes began bombing his ship, but like I said Pa was serious about his food, so he finished up as much as he could and then grabbed his sandwich and ran up to the deck. When he made it to the deck he had sandwich in hand and jumped onto a mounted turret and began firing on the enemy planes. The image of Pa eating a sandwich while shooting at planes has always been one that I laughed at when thinking about it. This was just one of the amazing stories that he shared with me and my family about the warm, but trust me, there were dozens more (most though not food related).

When my Pa got out of the Navy he returned home and immediately started working at AEP. As if it wasn't enough to work 40+ hours a week with the electric company, Pa had a huge farm that he maintained all the way until he was 85 years old. His farm was absolutely enormous, with a gigantic variety of foods to choose from. He had corn, green beans, lettuce, cantaloupe, and many, many more. He loved his farm more then anything except maybe his family; although that is debatable.

I just wanted to share some things about his life in a small way to honor him. There are so many great things that my Pa did in his life and I am so lucky to have had him live next door to me for 18 years of my life. He always produced the best foods that I've ever eaten; and that's just something that I'll never forget. I'm going to miss Pa, but it was his time to go, I mean he did live to be 92. I guess that the way he lived kept him young because I'm not sure if I've ever seen an 85 year old man gardening all day. He was a strong man and a kind of man there just isn't anymore of these days. It's hard to say goodbye, but I believe Pa's in a better place now, reunited with my Grandma and having as much food as he wants.