Learning Grandparenting skills......

wow...Feb first in the year of our Lord Two thousand and six. I'm sort of surprised to find myself alive after all this time. I've had so many near death experiences I've lost count of them. :-) So when I say to people that I'm proud to be here I truly mean it for real. I've debated for a couple of days what I should post about tonight. I'm not at home right now. My youngest daughter, Crissy, is having some oral surgery in the morning (Thursday) so I volunteered to spend the night at her house and take care of Ty (8 years old) and Gracie (5 years old). Gracie told me tonight that I have ugly toe nails, which is very true. She ask why so I told her that when I was young we were sort of poor and I wore shoes that were too little for me some. She was silent on that but I'm sure she'll bring it up again soon.
Ok...enough of that. Now about the title of this post. I remember well both sets of Grandparents. The are who I learned Grandparenting skills from. My paternal Grandfather, Griffin, was born during the reconstruction years. To be exact in 1882. My Grandmother, his wife Lexie, was born in 1890. They were married for 65 years and produced 15 children of which my father was somewhere in the middle. My maternal Grandfather, John, was born in the same year, 1882. He was a circuit preacher for many years in this area and was very well known. My Grandmother, Mary, was the youngest of them. She wasn't born till 1892. John and Mary were married for almost 60 years before death seperated them. They produced 11 children. So, having 24 uncles and aunts with families I have or had 79 first cousins. Some of them have passed away. I well remember as a child walking with one Grandfather or the other and them holding my hand. They both showed me a lot of things about life, like the value of loving your family and friends. The value of being generous and treating people with dignity and respect. The value of loving your God and your country. That's part of the reason that I so willingly served the United States by serving in the Navy. I learned from my Grandparents to look for the beauty in everyone because it was there to be discovered. Maybe not a lot of beauty in some but some just the same, and now matter how much or little it was there to be found if one looked. I particularly remember one night my paternal Grandfather and I were taking a walk. As we walked and He held my hard He would tell me stories from His childhood, and fasinating stories they were too. On this particular night as we walk around a curve we saw what I thought was a log burning. He told me that no, it wasn't on fire, but that it was foxfire. He broke off a piece of it to take home, but in a day or two it was only a dried stick. I wish I still had that dried stick. I suppose all of these experiences are the reason that I'm the way I am about my Grandchildren. To me they are all an absolute delight and I can't get enough of them.
It's bedtime so off I go......and so it went........