The Man Who Was My Papaw

My Papaw was part of "The Greatest Generation". As a young man he spent the latter years of World War II on a Destroyer Escort in the South Pacific.

He was a man that knew what he wanted and how to get it. While at a dance he spotted a beautiful young woman across the room and couldn't take his eyes off of her. The girl he was with noticed and complained, so my grandfather took her home, then returned to the dance in an attempt to meet the woman who would become my grandmother.

He was a man of his word. Even if he spoke a word in haste, once it passed his lips, you could trust that what he said, he would do.

He appreciated hard work. He was more than willing to pay others to help with the tasks of running a farm, but if you said you would help bale hay, you should expect to work as long as the sun was up, then be sore for a few days after.

He valued education. He was proud when you brought home a report card with all A's, but to keep you humble he would teasingly call you "smarty pants" when you solved the puzzles on Wheel of Fortune before him.

Sometimes the paradox of my Papaw was difficult to understand.

As I look back now, I think that what often seemed to be contradictions, may have been a simple attempt to achieve balance.