"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
06/27/2015 at 11:40 • Filed to: TWMG
4
1|
"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
06/27/2015 at 11:40 • Filed to: TWMG | 4
| 1 |
So I used yesterday to drive down to see my grandparents and start some cleanup of the yard. My grandfather is a couple years removed now from bypass surgery, a stroke and a heart attack while my grandmother can’t do much either...so the yard needed some loving.
They live in a village where the Fourth of July is a big thing so it will certainly look nice for next week! Nothing I can do about the paint situation though.
We sat inside and on the porch talking for a couple hours and he brought up my car, which we ran errands in.
“Grandma, how do you like Cazzyodo’s car.”
“Oh I liked it.”
“I don’t know what you think about today’s cars (he is now addressing me) but they all look the same to me. There are no fins, fenders, bumpers, style. I can’t tell what one is until I walk up and read it!”
I showed him this picture of the Wrangler I took and asked if this was an acceptable modern car that keeps with older tradition.
“That hasn’t changed at all. I mean, this one has different bumpers and wheels but the style is the same!”
He then went on to say that people today don’t drive wagons. I got some bags of mulch in my car earlier so he referenced that:
“I had a Chevy wagon, one where I could load a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the back and it would fit side to side and front to back. I got it, drove home and parked in the driveway in Dorchester. Went upstairs. Looked outside at it and it was the longest car I ever had! It almost hung into the sidewalk. And then I had another wagon with the seats that faced backwards. The kids would sit in those seats and make faces at all the people behind them. I thought the truckers would get annoyed and mad at me (he was a truck driver as well) so I put reflective plastic on the window so people couldn’t see in but we could see out. After that, I had a Fiat. It was a good little car but a piece of crap. It just rotted away. There was a recall that Fiat did where you bring your car in and if it meet certain requirements they would buy it off you for some small amount to get it off the road. Ours didn’t meet that and it rooted away the following year. I was in New York traffic one day, 90 degrees and the car boiled over. There was a problem with the fan, it was electric and didn’t work properly. So I bypassed some of the wiring with a paperclip so it stayed on rather than toggle on and off. It never did get fixed.”
He talked about Sears catalogs that had car parts and instructions for how to fix everything yourself. He mentioned how he had a problem with vines that were killing all his plants so he mentioned it to a guard at one of his delivery routes and the guy gave him a little bottle of something that would kill anything. He asked what it was. “Round up.”
We ended the day watching the History Channel and he talked about how history is written by the victors.
“Do you realize that what I learned on the Civil War is different than what you learned? It was just over 50 years before me (he was born in 1928) so the books were all heavily Union. The war wasn’t about slavery either...the North was mechanized and the South had all the cotton but was exporting.”
And on he went. We sat on the porch for a while and enjoyed the sun...everyone was happy. What started as a damp, miserable day ended with us soaking in the sun on the front porch.
Look up TWMG for past stories.
My Grandmother liked this one from last year’s auto show.
f86sabre
> cazzyodo
06/27/2015 at 11:47 |
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There are few things better than having a good talk with grandparents. It brings a lot of perspective. Well done going down and helping out as well.