Grandparents - September 25, 2014

As published in the White River Current - Thursday September 25, 2014

I hardly even noticed.  Autumn slipped in a couple of days ago with hardly a whimper after the last gasp of summer heat over the weekend.  Actually it was a pretty nice summer, weather wise.  Only a few really uncomfortable hot/humid times and more rain than average.  I believe I mowed my lawn every week.  I think I’ll cut back on the fertilizer next year.  The arrival of autumn  wasn’t the only thing that was missed.  Grandparent’s Day, which is normally observed on the first Sunday of September, was a complete non-event this year.  How could something as extremely important as that not get our undivided attention?  Why weren’t the flags displayed in all their splendor?  What happened to the greeting cards, phone calls and gifts?  Oh, well!  When I was growing up, three of my grandparents were already in heaven.  I was fortunate to have my mother’s father to help “raise” me.  Granddad lived with us until he passed away when I was about fourteen years old.  We were very close.  His name was Lucas and everyone except me called him Uncle Luke.  I always called him “granddad.”   Probably since the average age of the population of our country is much higher than when I was growing up, families have resorted to giving the grandparents names that aren’t quite as quaint or out-of-date.  This almost always occurs in families where there are two sets of grandparents drooling over the above-average offspring of the respective son and daughter.  Take our family for instance.  My mom and dad were “granddad and grandmother” to our two kids.  Anita’s mom (her dad had passed away a few years earlier) was referred to as “granma Woolf.”  Not too bad, but it gets worse.  When our first grandchild (Sara) was born, Anita and I continued to be known to her as Granddad and Grandmother.  Her other set of grandparents were “Grandpa Bill and Mimi.”  Now that Sara is married and we are great-grandparents, no one has really decided what the “greats” should call us.  When Ruby was born last December, she became the first grandchild for Ross’ parents, Jack and Brenda (our daughter), and Leah’s parents, Eddie and Vonda.  Jack is now Pop, Brenda is Gigi, Eddie is Papaw and Vonda is Nana.  Well, just having a little fun.  This all started because of an article entitled “A Grandma by Any Other Name” that appeared in the September issue of the AARP Bulletin.  In that composition, the author’s first grandchild was about to be born and she was trying to determine what she wanted the new baby to call her.  She was looking for something that was fun, cool and inventive—not frumpy.  She conducted an informal survey with 20 current or prospective grandparents and only three said Grandma and Grandpa are their go-to names.  Others wanted to be called Granna, Bobo, G-Ma, GeeBee, Meema, Gogo or Glam-ma.  The author ended up choosing Granny, partly due to the British TV drama, Downton Abbey.   Anyway, I’m sorry to spend so much time on this topic.  I wanted to mention that September is the month for the annual election for school director which drew a lot of attention this year and resulted in a large turnout of voters with a very close finish.  This always reminds me of my four races for this unheralded, mostly unappreciated position.  I lost my first race by seven votes (19 to 12) and my last race by two votes.  I won the other two races probably because I didn’t have an opponent.  I think there might be a message for me there (stay out of politics).  September also marks the time of the annual Community Revival in which all the churches join for a time of ecumenical togetherness.  The museum sponsored the festival that included both a Mountain Man rendezvous and a tribute to the Native Americans that once populated our area, concluding with a remembrance of the “Trail of Tears.”  A very active month leading up to one of the busiest times of the year, October.  Thanks for the correspondence you have sent regarding the Ramblings column.  It has occurred to me that perhaps others might like to offer some comments or maybe even suggestions about future articles.  If so you can contact me at PO Box 296, Calico Rock, AR 72519 or e-mail reedsrambling@yahoo.com.  See you in a couple of weeks when I will be talking about some families from the past.