I never knew either of my grandfathers. Similarly, my dad didn’t know his grandfathers and my mom didn’t know her grandmothers. It is like a piece of your life is missing when you don’t have the opportunity to know a parent or a grandparent. All I know is what I learned from family, primarily from my parents, about them.
Grandpa McCracken
Grandpa McCracken died when I was about a month old. From things I have heard about him, I know he was very intelligent, had high expectations for his children, did not put up with anyone saying “can’t,” and was loved by his kids and grandkids.
A few quick stories . . .
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Joe McCracken - Grandpa Joe didn’t think his kids needed to do homework. He thought school work was very important, but he believed school was for school work and homework was things like feeding chickens, doing dishes, etc.
- He didn’t think people needed a lot of paper as he could “figure” things in his head. One night he sat down and was quiet. After some time, he had Dad get a paper and pencil. He proceeded to give him a list of lumber to buy along with how much it would cost. He had designed the building in his head. Determined how much of each type of board was needed. And, then calculated the cost without writing down anything.
- He gave orders to each of his sets of boys by telling the oldest one of the set and then expecting the younger one to do what the older one told them to do.
- He was semi-ambidextrous. He did somethings right-handed and some things left-handed. Therefore, he had some right-handed tools and some left-handed tools. But, he couldn’t just switch back and forth doing the same task. And, he didn’t understand why other people couldn’t use both their hands like he could. He was proud of Ruby for being left-handed.
- He once shot a rat that was outside the house from inside right through the screen door.
- Grandpa liked his coffee very, very strong. His daughters teased him about it and even got a spoon that melted in hot liquid as a joke.
- Although Grandpa trained to do mechanical work, he didn’t have the patience to do it.
- Dad always said that Dewey was like Grandpa and Dewey always said that Dad was like Grandpa.
I have been told at times that I am like Grandpa, but that is only when I was doing something that likely annoyed my dad (e.g. I wasn’t being patient).
Grandpa Pellett
I was six when Grandpa Pellett passed away. However, he had been in a VA hospital in Iowa for a very long time. Thus, I had never met him. He is more of a mystery to me than Grandpa McCracken as Mom didn’t spend very many years with him herself and Grandma never told me about him either. The little I know about him is as follows . . .
- Grandpa Pellett served in the Kansas 353rd Infantry Regiment in WWI in France. Seventy-five people welcomed him home.
- He had perfect attendance multiple times when in grammar school.
- When he was a teenager, he was seriously injured when kicked by a mule.
- He was baptized in Buck Run Creek in 1916 (he would have been about 21).
- When picking pecans, he fell and was injured. His injury combined with what was likely PTSD landed him in the VA hospital starting in the early 1940s through the rest of his life.
Writing this makes me realize just how little I know about Grandpa Pellett. It really makes me wonder how my life would have been different if my grandpas would have been a part of it.