Working With Grandpa

Ever since LV had started to come calling I spent most of my time looking forward to our next date. And since our church had a rule that you could only have a date on the boy's inbetween Sunday night it seemed like a very long time between dates.

Several months into our courtship I was less than thrilled when he told me that he was going on a trip to Montana for more than a week and he would be gone over our next date Sunday. I was happy for him that he got to go a a fun vacation and didn't want him to know how very disappointed I was that it would be a month before we got to have a date again.

The next two weeks dragged by and when Sunday came I felt more lonely than I had ever imagined possible. Instead of getting ready for a date at bedtime I had to go to bed too. As I lay in bed I couldn't sleep and finally got up and wrote a letter to LV. It felt good getting my thoughts on paper and I was able to go to sleep.

The next morning we got up extra early with plans to spend all days canning sweetcorn. There was a very heavy fog which matched how I felt. I was sure I would feel this way until I saw LV again. Daddy spent the early morning hours picking multiple wheelbarrow loads of sweetcorn and dumping them underneath the pine trees behind the house. I started husking it right away while Mom did the laundry. As I kept husking ear after ear of corn I started feeling as gloomy as the day.

A little later I was surprised when Grandpa and Vernie came out of the house to help me husk corn. I was happy to see them and enjoyed listening to Vernie talk about everything she had to say. before long Grandpa asked if something is bothering me or if I'm missing LV. I felt slightly embarrassed that it was so obvious that I was missing him and determined to not let any of my feelings ruin a day of working with Grandpa.

Though the heavy fog lingered I was soon enjoying my day to the fullest. Grandpa loved talking about his childhood and growing up years almost as much as I enjoyed listening to him. By the end of the day we had done all the sweetcorn. John hitched Fern to the buggy and took Grandpa and Vernie home. As I finished cleaning up the mess in the kitchen I thought of everything Grandpa had been talking about and hoped that I would be able to recall so many fond memories of my childhood once I was his age.