The Evans Boys, Lee, Ron and Ted
Today would have been the birthday of my beloved Father in law Leonel Edward Evans. I think it's been three years since he passed away.
I just adored him, I can't even find the words to tell you.
He was a WW2 veteran, and I enjoyed many afternoons sitting at the dining room table long after lunchtime listening to all his cool war stories. Hanging out with Pops was a lesson in patience for me. Pops' stories took time to cultivate and well, I'm one of those annoying people who finishes other people's sentences and I'm known to interrupt too. So sitting listening to Pops recall lots and lots of details was very good for me, he taught me to be still!
Pops did the crossword puzzle every single day. I wonder how many years he did them, maybe since the time he retired so 30 years? Maybe before that even. He was SMART, I came to learn that my mother in law is really smart too, I think she did 1/2 of the puzzle each day as Pops often asked her for the ones he didn't know.
Anyway, one day he read one of the lines he couldn't get and I knew the answer. I love how the crossword gods put current, trivial, good- for -nothing info in there so people like me who can't remember history or grammar can feel smart once in a while! Anyway, I'm pretty sure he was asking Ted's mom or his sister for help, but I popped off with the answer and he merely looked at me over the top of his glasses (I got "that look" often, not a mean look just "a look" when there weren't words he wanted to say out loud....oh how I miss that look!).
Hours later Pops shouted out "Hey Cathy, you were right?!!!!" in complete shock. I am still laughing about it.
Pops could fix ANYthing! How can I say this, I mean no disrespect but Pops had a method for everything he did, and his method was the preferred "right" method in his mind.
We used to live in an old farm house and in the fall all these lady bugs would come literally out of the woodwork. I had to carry a vacuum around and suck the lady bugs up all day long. Pops was visiting one lady bug season and he was trying to figure out a better method of lady bug removal. Suddenly it came to him....ALCOHOL! So off he shuffled to the room he was staying in, and before I knew what was happening he was squirting the little buggers with his cologne. It smelled like Pops for months after that, I miss that smell!
As I was vacuuming lady bugs, I could feel Pops watching me. I kinda figured he would have a better vacuuming method and sure enough he grabbed the vacuum hose from my hand. I went downstairs where his wife of a very long time asked, "did you get your vacuum taken away?" with a grin.
A minute later there was this loud sound of a motor running hard I ran upstairs and saw Pops balancing a small end table with one hand as he tried shutting off the vacuum and yanking free the tablecloth he'd sucked up with the other hand. It was so funny, as the vacuum smoked and that stinky burning rubber smell took over the room. I stood there a minute and asked, "need help?" "Yup" he answered. So funny!
I hope my Pops stories put a smile on your face. I've been thinking about him today and just wanted to share.
1 comments:
Dang you, Cathy. I was laughing at the Ted story and now I'm crying. I loved Kenny's dad, too. He was a dour, quiet little man who'd had a very hard life. He didn't like many people, but he liked me. I could listen for hours to his stories about living in Chicago in the early 1900's. He was incredibly musically talented, and had the most amazing tenor voice. One time, Kenny and I took him to Kmart, of all places. We took him alone, without Kenny's mother, who tended to do his talking for him. He sat in the back of our old '72 blazer and you'd have thought we took him to Disneyland. He laughed! He was funny! We had so much fun. I know it was one of the best days of his life. I think about that day a lot.
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