ode to gramps.

this is my gramps, Doug Davis. a WWII vet, labor/union activist, retired teacher, volunteer lobbyist (senior citizen health care issues), DFL activist, feminist, advocate, Proud Northeaster, Lutheran.
he's 87. he still drives. he cooks all of his meals and lots of homemade soups. he has a computer and an e mail address. he also has cable and a flat screen television. despite these distractions he spends the majority of his home time writing or reading, and doing his latest hobby, bookbinding. when he's not home he's usually at a meeting, sometimes social, sometimes professional or out walking to keep in shape.
i grew up with this guy giving me rides all over town and waiting with me at my bus stop most mornings. He often sent me to school with a lunch of PBJ, lots of oreo cookies and a can of jolt He let me put as much sugar on my frosted flakes as I wanted. Every car ride was a social studies lesson and I put of getting my license to prolong them. Every year on D-Day he asks young grocery store baggers and clerks who cross his path if they know what day it is. Usually they don't and he reminds them of D-Day and all that happened on those beaches at Normandy on that day.
he taught me to be tolerant, loyal and to have a mind of my own. When i began my second year of college I was incredibly unhappy and he was the only one who told me it would be okay to take a break and just work if I needed to (I didn't).
he lives about a mile from the house he & his 7 siblings grew up in and the house he raised his family in (my aunt lives in that one). he likes his neighborhood.
tonight he participated in a reading that was put on by his writing group, "The Audobon 8". He was in his element and everyone was captivated by his charm and writing (a poem about the labor movement, a prose about winter).
he is a fantastic man and I love him very much. xoxx