My Grandad, Hugh T MacGregor was one of the most amazing people I've ever known. Sadly, he is no longer with us as he passed away on August 30, 2005. I've been thinking about my Grandad a lot lately, as I've grown up and become a man, I think about the people who have come into my life and never got a chance to meet my Grandad. I really wish that Kristen would've gotten a chance to met him particularly. There was so much that he taught me growing up, mostly how to tell a good story and how to laugh...a lot. Three stories always come to mind whenever I think of my Grandad. The first one, is pretty funny and really shows you how much fun me and Grandad had together.
This was one of the summers that Annie, Robert and I spent in Florida with my Mom and Grandma and Grandad had come down to visit. South Florida is miserable in the summer time, at least if you're a transplanted Yankee living in NC and you're visiting in the summer. It's hot and it's humid and you really can't do much outside. Well me and Grandad had been sitting around and had gone fishing a couple times in the evening and we hatched up this million dollar idea. "The Fisherman's Ruler". The whole idea behind this was that it was a standard 12" ruler, but instead of inches, it measured in feet, makes sense right? We actually drew up a rough draft of it and talked about making it the next time we were together in Buffalo, when we could put some production time in at Grandad's workshop in his basement. Sadly, we never got a chance to make the Fisherman's Ruler, but I'm convinced it could still sell and make at least a couple bucks, if not millions.The next story, is probably one of the best memories I have from growing up. I was very young, maybe 9 or 10 years old, maybe younger? Either way, me, Grandma and Grandad were going camping. The whole entire time we were riding in his truck, I talked about cooking hot dogs on an open fire. Normally, this would be no problem, except that it was POURING outside. We're talking an absolute downpour, I've heard my Dad use the term Texas gully washer and this would be the Western New York equivalent of that. We're driving from Hamburg, NY which, unless you're from the area, is just outside of Buffalo to Cuba, NY. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I seem to remember it being roughly a 2 hour drive give or take. Also depending on whether or not Grandad would "jump the tracks" with his truck. Now, I'm not boy scout or anything, but rain + firewood don't normally mix so by the time we get to my Grandparents camp, I'm thinking to myself "no cooking hot dogs". We unpack the truck and get settled in and my Grandad says "who's ready for hot dogs?" I still remember thinking to myself, there's no way I'm going to get to cook them on the fire like I wanted to. My Grandad puts on a poncho and somehow, someway, gets a fire going outside in the rain! Long story short, we end up cooking hot dogs in the rain on that fire. It's hard to believe all these years later, being that young, I can still remember the story so well. I think me and my Grandma talk about that camping trip every single time we see each other!
The last story is a little bit more somber, but still very meaningful to me. This was the last time that me and my Grandad spent time together before he passed away. It was Thanksgiving 2004 and everybody went down to my Mom's time share in Orlando, Florida for the holiday. Me and Robert drove down from Greensboro and spent a few days there. Grandad, Robert, and I sat at the dinner table just laughing and telling jokes and stories. Well at one point, I commented on the watch my Grandad was wearing and he took it off and said "son, you can have it." My Grandad was getting up in his years at this point and at some point while we were sitting there had forgotten that he gave me the watch, so he looks at me and Robert and says "what happened to my watch". Now this was tough for both of us, but I later told Robert, you can laugh about it or cry about it. What I meant when I said that was that you could laugh because my Grandad had that sense of humor or you could cry because you knew that Grandad's memory was not doing well. To this day I still stand by the first one. I explained to him that I really liked the watch and he had given it to me, but that he could have it back. Grandad said, I will get you one exactly like it when I get back home. I never saw that watch show up, but honestly I had forgotten about it. My Grandad passed away the following August, which was very hard on the family. Christmas 2005 rolled around and as we were opening presents on Christmas morning, I noticed I had a bag with a tag "To: John From: Grandma & Grandad" written in the same familiar hand-writing that my Grandma had always tagged our gifts with. I saved that bag until I had opened everything else. When I opened the bag, there was a pair of Bills socks in it and I thought to myself, well...socks. I unfolded the socks and sure enough, my Grandma remembered Grandad telling me he'd get me one of those watches, well this wasn't just another watch, it was the watch Grandad had given me the previous Thanksgiving. I still have the bag, socks and watch. I miss my Grandad everyday and I'm glad that he is no longer suffering, someday we'll get to see each other again and we'll finally get around to making that Fisherman's Ruler.
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