Grandpa Stories

This post is for Jim and Di, as a little break from tax season.
May the stories only grow and multiply, the grandparent lore to be told and retold...


NO SHARKS AT GRANDPA'S
We have a new book called "Commotion in the Ocean." We (Miles and I, because Daddy falls asleep reading at night) love it! I mean: Love it, love it, love it! We are learning lots from it, including a phrase which Miles often repeats: "Sharks are the most dangerous by far."
I was concerned that the kid might be getting a fear complex from all the shark talk, but fear of God's creatures doesn't seem to be much in him.

One night, after reading the ocean book, he said to me: "Sharks don't live in Biddy's lake." ("Biddy" is our great friend and the benefactor of many lakeside weekends. His name is Billy, but it's cuter the other way.) "Nope, and they don't live in Grandpa's lake, either."
I was wondering how Miles knew about Grandpa's lake, as I didn't think we'd taken him out on the boat, but I never put anything past him. I said, "You mean, the lake where Grandpa drives his boat?"
"Nope. His little lake. Only frogs live in his little lake. Because they are small, and so is it. Sharks are big, and so they can't fit in there."
Ohhhh, of course! Get it? The waterfall on the patio behind the house. And, sure enough, it includes a small frog statue on one of the rocks.
Miles wrapped up his night's discourse: "So DON'T WORRY, Mama. There are NO sharks at Grandpa's!"


THAT'S WHY HE ASKED ME....
One day we were noticing trucks that passed our car, and Miles said something to the effect of "that one's like Grandpa's." So we talked about how many Grandpas he knows who drive white trucks (3! isn't that crazy?). But only one is the "hugest truck,"and that one belongs to Grandpa Va Voom. That memory somehow triggered a story in Miles' mind. And the story went something very much like this:
"And one day Grandpa found a nail in his truck. In his BIG white truck. It was a LONG nail. And it wouldn't go anymore. And that's why he asked me to help him fix it!"
"Really," I said. "Why did he ask you again?"
"Because I am a good helper! And I work with tools. I can fix things. So we fixed the truck. We took out the nail and put new air in it. And we used the tools. And we did it!"
And there you go. Just as Bob the Builder says: Can we fix it?
... Yes, yes we can!