Grandpa Hague

 My son Keith called, said he'd meet us in Richmond, and wished me a Happy Birthday. My fingers don't work like they used to. My bones feel heavy and weak. My legs and knees seem to work against me more often than not. The doctor came over and told me about my arthritis in my shoulder and its hard to feel like things will get better when I know good and well they probably won't.

A few days ago Betty came to bed - the first time in a long time. She usually sleeps in the La-Z-Boy, though she rarely sleeps through the night. She was unsettled all night long, tossing and turning. She kept callin', “Junior, Junior, Junior.” I am not complaining; I just find myself confused and kind of desperate wanting to help and not knowing what it is she really needs. She was so blasted cold, though the new gauge on the stove read 81 degrees. I threw a blanket over her and lay back down. About the moment I got all situated back in bed, her begging voice began to resonate through the kitchen walls, soft and needy-like. To be honest, I thought the temperature was scorching, myself. Who knows? Could just be me? I told her what the thermometer read and she seemed to think the thing was broken; so I turned up the heat and wrapped her up again.

Today is one of those days that seemed longer than a usual day, more full maybe. For now my days are themselves full, though I don't feel like I accomplish much. I get up and get Momma her breakfast. Then I get mine and give her her pills. Lord knows, I think she is taking too many. I give her twenty pills in the morning alone. After I get my breakfast I get a load of laundry in the wash and by that time, its time for lunch. I can't move as fast as I used to. It's really kind of frustrating. Funny how so many things I thought I had good control over now have their own kind of control over me.

In any case, today I turned 88. Jean, Betty's sister, hosted things 'cause I can't get 'round to as much as I once did. I used to host my son and his whole family. All the boys and his little girl would stir things up in a magical kind of way. They were each so unique… and even amid the tension and chaos, I think, they got along all right. Now a few of the boys are married and they have children of their own. I sat next to my grandson’s newborn as he held her and started to think how we sat like book ends one next to the other. Beginning to end, as it were. Her fingers so limber and yet just as inaccessible as mine: hers because of ignorance; mine, age.

While birthdays tend to make you think more about your own life and death, how it's fitting and strange that I begin to think about the corn rows and army nonsense; the ladder, paint, and wasps; my two boys and my beautiful wife. Things like falling in love seemed so particularly fickle and weighted, important and unimportant, the same.

   My grandson began to ask a number of unrelated questions, or maybe I thought he was asking one question and I heard three different and unrelated things. It’s those damn pop cans that did a number on my hearing or maybe the end of Mrs. Migilicutty's stick… She did a number on me sinking that stick into my temple for wrong answers or sleeping in class.

   At first, I thought he asked about my army stripes. I told him three stripes means I was a Staff Sergeant at one point. Then, I thought he asked about the farm. I was born and raised there. Hell, raised my kids there. Finally, I think I understood him. He asked if I had any scars with a story behind it. I told him, “no”. I thought maybe that would shut him up, though it’s nice to get a bit of recognition here and there. Seems like everywhere I go, I feel beggarly or unnoticed. 

   He pressed me again, “Did you ever break something?” What kid doesn't break something? I thought. I said something about my collarbone and a football incident. The questions kept coming and I began rehearsing a story with all sorts of funny paradoxes and opening closets with different kinds of things than fantasy lands and witches but closets full of old Christmas cheeses and dinner rolls.

   I was born in the small decent village of Sydney, Ohio. I was the youngest of three boys, though the middle child of six girls. Margaret, Dorothy and Blanche; Chester and Eugene were all born before me. Betty, Ruth and Shirley were younger. Ruth died as a baby. Shirley came along not too many years later.

My parents’ ingenuity seemed to get us through, though Dad's severity distanced him from me. I had to walk to school even as a kid, four or five miles to the Orange Township schoolhouse. I know my grandkids have gotten sick of the woe-is-my-generation lectures, but I think they understand that things were just harder then. That said, getting by has its advantages. Seems like people are generally unhappier these days though they have more things.

   I started first grade when I was something round the age of 6. There isn't much to tell here though I found myself more excited about football and games than I did about school and the farm. At the age of twelve or 13, Mom suckered me into attending the local Baptist church and I found myself making a profession of faith. My inability to understand just how needy I was didn't seem to inhibit my neediness from growing with age. The older I get the more I realize that I have had needs my entire life and God met them, time and again. Because of this, I have been able to draw on the things I once confessed in these difficult times: my need for Christ and His saving grace.

   I ended up breaking my collarbone and dropping out of school somewhere round this time, maybe a bit earlier. I quit school in 8th grade and joined Dad on the farm. I dropped out because I failed twice and got sick of the beatings. I felt like I knew things well enough anyways so why put up with that shit. I had a number of chores and responsibilities that Dad assigned to me. At different points in time, I had to feed the cows, chickens, and hogs; milk and clean, as well as other things. During the winter months I found good work at the elevator tossing grain into bins.

   When I turned something like 16 or 17, Dad started to pay me and I found myself earning a little extra by taking on other chores at the neighbors’. I worked for fifty cents a day for farmers nearby. Our employer owned three farms in my area so it made work kind of easy to find.

   I don't know how it all works but the Lord wasn't the only one that noticed me at church. Miss Betty Zirkle started to pay close attention to me. We were set up on our first date: we were sent to the skating rink and we ended up holding hands by the force of silliness. While we had struck up a friendship, the world had gone off to war. In these difficult times, all my buddies were joining the fight. I felt like I needed to join them. After having deferred my draft twice for farming sake, I didn't want people to think I was coward or somethin’.

   I joined the army and set off for Alabama for training there. During the break, I found myself a ring and took Betty by the hand. I can't remember where we were in my parents’ house, but I know my knee shook more, then, than it does now. That whole break seemed to come and go, far too quickly. Through the tears, I waved goodbye and I joined my company in Kansas where we waited for our assignments. I don't know what we were thinking, Betty and I. I don't know if we believed we would for certain see each other again. I don't know? Nothing seemed certain then; save Christ and Him crucified.

   They held us in Kansas no more than a couple days and they transferred us to a neighboring state - Lord knows which one. Not too much later, they shipped us to Washington State to await the ship to Saipan. Infantry has its machismo draw, but I don't think I was looking to die. In Saipan, the news of Jap cease-fire reverberated through the base. Two bombs and the war seemed like it was over. It didn’t seem real. How could two bombs end a war of this magnitude? Big bombs, I guess.

   I don't think I ever grew tired of receiving Betty's letters. It made such an impression on the guys that they held me down and tattooed my forearm BMZ, her initials. It was times like this I was really grateful for a friend like her. Funny how lonely it can get surrounded by so many people. The things you miss... the people...

We were transferred again to Guam, where we relieved a company that had served through the war. The administration took volunteers and so I found myself volunteering for mess-hall responsibilities and they made me a cook. I didn't know much about politics but I knew well enough to make sure the Captain was fed well. “Don't bite the hand that feeds you.” Sure. But if you feed the one feeding you well enough, it seems to pay off. Captain sent me off to cooking school in Hawaii. After training, I returned by boat to Guam. The twenty-one-day journey set us on base in the evening right after supper had been served. The boys told me the Cap. was waiting for me. I will never forget the way he looked at me and pointed saying, “You are the Mess-hall Staff Sergeant and you start tomorrow morning.” Either the shit they were feeding the boys was just that bad or I had made an impression upon him before leaving. I guess in this case both may have been true.

   The war had been over a good while now and it was just a matter of time before they sent us home. Eventually that call came and we set sail for San Fran. some time that summer. The boat cook needed an extra hand; so, I pitched in during our trip home. I went from the boat and took orders for the train, being set in charge of the cooking there.

   Just for the record, I had my secrets. I knew how to make the boys happy. When we ran out of meat, I found the boys some meat for their eatin'. They didn't need to know I dressed the kitchen rats. I did what I could with what I had and that seemed to make the boys happy enough. This made my job worthwhile. My train north connected with a train east and I was headed home.

   Home. The word had a particular ring to it that seemed so sweet. I mean, landing state-side felt pretty good but getting home was unmatched. The way my baby embraced me. The smell of the October sky, all lit up with flickering stars undimmed by the noise of city lights. This was home.

I got home and Dad was picking corn. I thought to help out a bit or maybe it was just that he suckered me into doing it for him. In any case, I ran the picker a couple different times that fall. I got to know the Zirkles a bit better. They were a unique bunch in much the same way as Keith's kids. Lord knows they cared for each other, though wives and husbands brought more chaos and tension that any of them new how to manage. We could only pray that things didn't get worse… They did, though. Truth is, I don't think I prayed near as much as I should have. It’s easy to grow bitter. Too easy.

   Sometime after getting back I started work at the Sechour's Bakery. Three months after I got back, Betty and I got married. Funny thing is, Momma Zirkle had to sign Betty off to me cause she was a day shy of 18. We got married January 18, 1947. Keith was born 10 months later.

   I made porterhouse rolls and wedding cakes until sometime that spring. Offenbacker, our mailman, gave me a job as a farm-hand. That season I planted for him though I didn't get to harvest the crop. I took on a new position under Hershel Covault. Keith was born that November. Dick's birth marked about the ninth year we were there.  I stayed at Covault’s for about thirteen years.

   There was a time that it became clear we needed to leave so I left the farm… and for good. We moved to the Bradegon's, taking up a factory position in Sidney. I stayed at Bradegon's for 'bout 2 years, 'til I moved to Fletcher. Right around the early 60's, we bought and moved into the house on 2 East Main right next to the Fire Depot. At Stolle’s Sidney factory, I work along a line of boys pressing parts and then moved to another section of the plant where we set up zip-top stamping machines for bottling companies. After a lay-off I re-applied and was given a different position under Stolle. I was assigned to metal sidings.

   Stolle owned half of Sidney, at least it seemed like it. I got to meet the man once. Though I didn't treat him the same way I treated Cap in the army. Things were different. I had a job to do. Stolle stood right in front of the aluminum roll when I had to stitch a new roll. I pushed him out of the way and did my job. Though I don't really think I made too much of an impression, I was given the foreman position soon after I started.

   Eventually, it became clear I needed to move on, so I found good work with Ferguson, a construction company. I painted on the side to make ends meet only to take it up more once I left Ferguson's. Things kind of blossomed and withered from there, a little of both as is only natural. Keith went off to college got married had kids… Dick, well, poor kid… He…

   Just then Dick came and told me that Mom wanted to go. I pushed myself away from the table and one of Keith’s boys brought me the walker. I said my goodbyes and they were said to me as I made my way to the car little by little. I found myself seated in the back seat on my way back to Fletcher. Sitting back, it’s funny what people remember. Joe remembered the candy treats. Seth, my false teeth tricks. Sam remembered my smoking and how I wished they would never start; Ray, my silly goodbyes. Maxine, said something sweet about how I try to take care of my Girl, and Jean, my Girl's mom. Whatever was said, I am sure thankful it’s these things they remember. I am thankful that I got to play a bit of euchre on my birthday and I am glad I won.