Johnny
12-24-2009, 10:06 AM
We buried my Grandfather.. John L. Barber... yep... on Christmas eve I buried my Grandfather... or Pap as I called him.... and every damn Christmas since is just a painful reminder of the sadness I was feeling that day....
I guess I was more like my Pap than anyone in my family... Some people are just cut out of the same molds it seems like, and well I was told all my life I was just like him... and I reckon I was...
Pap grew up in a little town called Red Bush... for those that know of it, know it isn't even a wide spot in the road, just a few houses placed along side of it.... He never really knew his father, as his father died three days before his forth birthday.... Pap was always into something as a kid... like the time him and some friends didn't want to go to school.... so they cut down this big old oak tree and fell it across the road, so the bus/buggy couldn't get though.... or the time he and some friends took a guys buck board wagon apart and reassembled it on the guys barn roof....
He left the big town of Red Bush in 1942 at the ripe old age of 18, to go to Europe to see the sights.... He never would tell me much about the war, just a funny story here and there, like the time he and a friend liberated some alcohol from a store over there... Pap was in the signal corp, had a jeep and a trailer to haul all his equipment in... So him and his friend coming rolling through this bombed out town and as he passes this building with most of it's front blown off, he noticed what was in there..... So they stopped and loaded the jeep and the trailer down, then hauled ass... didn't want the jerry's to get it you know....
Or the time he went deer hunting over there.... He use to tell me about the time there were a bunch of them camped out in this big field, and they were pretty much tired of thier rations... so he pulled his jeep out in the middle of this field... now he always told me that his jeep had the floor lined with sandbags, a Tommy gun on either side, and I think it was a 30 cal on the hood and a 50 cal in the back, but It's been awhile since I've heard the story and can't quite exactly remember.... so anyway, he pulls his jeep in the middle of this field and a bunch of guys go down the road and up into the hills to flush the deer out... and when they run out he's shooting them with the 50 cal... I guess he got quite a few of them because he said that they all ate great for the next few days.....
Something else he always told me was, I probably had a few aunts and uncles over there I didn't know about.... Said those girls over there were pretty easy and would believe anything you told them... He wouldn't talk about any of the actually fighting, but I guess alot of the guys wouldn't....
Once I graduated from school I went to live with my grandparents... and I'm glad I did... I got to know my Grandfather as a friend instead... We had a blast him and me.... we went hunting and fishing, and all kinds of things.... I lived with them up until I got married then I moved out..... but about 6 months later I got a call from my grandmother that my Pap was getting in bad shape and they needed my help, so I moved back.... but looking back now, I just think he missed me being there....
Pap got bad there towards the last... ****ing alzheimer's was taking ahold of him... and I'm not going to lie... It was a bitch to watch him go out that way.... I was in Louisville working a shutdown at the Ford truck plant when he died... I didn't get to say goodbye....
***note*** I did not post this for sympathy... I posted this because I miss my grandfather.... and I hate this day with a passion....
I guess I was more like my Pap than anyone in my family... Some people are just cut out of the same molds it seems like, and well I was told all my life I was just like him... and I reckon I was...
Pap grew up in a little town called Red Bush... for those that know of it, know it isn't even a wide spot in the road, just a few houses placed along side of it.... He never really knew his father, as his father died three days before his forth birthday.... Pap was always into something as a kid... like the time him and some friends didn't want to go to school.... so they cut down this big old oak tree and fell it across the road, so the bus/buggy couldn't get though.... or the time he and some friends took a guys buck board wagon apart and reassembled it on the guys barn roof....
He left the big town of Red Bush in 1942 at the ripe old age of 18, to go to Europe to see the sights.... He never would tell me much about the war, just a funny story here and there, like the time he and a friend liberated some alcohol from a store over there... Pap was in the signal corp, had a jeep and a trailer to haul all his equipment in... So him and his friend coming rolling through this bombed out town and as he passes this building with most of it's front blown off, he noticed what was in there..... So they stopped and loaded the jeep and the trailer down, then hauled ass... didn't want the jerry's to get it you know....
Or the time he went deer hunting over there.... He use to tell me about the time there were a bunch of them camped out in this big field, and they were pretty much tired of thier rations... so he pulled his jeep out in the middle of this field... now he always told me that his jeep had the floor lined with sandbags, a Tommy gun on either side, and I think it was a 30 cal on the hood and a 50 cal in the back, but It's been awhile since I've heard the story and can't quite exactly remember.... so anyway, he pulls his jeep in the middle of this field and a bunch of guys go down the road and up into the hills to flush the deer out... and when they run out he's shooting them with the 50 cal... I guess he got quite a few of them because he said that they all ate great for the next few days.....
Something else he always told me was, I probably had a few aunts and uncles over there I didn't know about.... Said those girls over there were pretty easy and would believe anything you told them... He wouldn't talk about any of the actually fighting, but I guess alot of the guys wouldn't....
Once I graduated from school I went to live with my grandparents... and I'm glad I did... I got to know my Grandfather as a friend instead... We had a blast him and me.... we went hunting and fishing, and all kinds of things.... I lived with them up until I got married then I moved out..... but about 6 months later I got a call from my grandmother that my Pap was getting in bad shape and they needed my help, so I moved back.... but looking back now, I just think he missed me being there....
Pap got bad there towards the last... ****ing alzheimer's was taking ahold of him... and I'm not going to lie... It was a bitch to watch him go out that way.... I was in Louisville working a shutdown at the Ford truck plant when he died... I didn't get to say goodbye....
***note*** I did not post this for sympathy... I posted this because I miss my grandfather.... and I hate this day with a passion....