Do you have someone you look up to? Someone who has few but significant words? Someone you admire? Someone who’s whole outlook on life brings a smile to your face? A certain someone who thinks along the same wavelength as you, whom you can learn a lot from and wouldn’t mind pinching some of their great attributes to sprinkle into your life. For me, that someone is my grandfather.
Born on the kitchen table at his family home in 1927, he was the ‘extra’ child sleeping out on the porch until been given a room seperate from the house. As he grew up he saw all four of his brothers head off to war and he was lucky enough to miss the call. In his early twenties he was riding his bike down to Melbourne from Sydney with his friend. They would hunt rabbits for food, this was their version of ‘uber eats’. Clivey is always up for a joke and it’s taken me many years living with him to almost know when he’s joking and when he’s not (he’s hardly not joking).
Usually my grandmother is the truth source I go and see to find out if he’s talking fact or talking smack. A story that had me totally perplexed for quite a while was when my grandparents told me about their school stationary or the lack there of. They assured me that their stationary consisted of slate rock and timber frames. He explained to me that it was quite simple, “you had a piece of slate rock inside a timber frame (that was used as a note book) and a much smaller piece of slate (this was used as a pen)”. This has resulted in me coming to the shocking truth that my grandfather was a cave man to which he acknowledges “hahah, yes I am”.