The First Installment...

If you read my most recent post, The Time Traveler, you know that I just finished a colored pencil portrait of my 89 year old Grandpa Don.  It was a fantastically rewarding experience. I spent almost 50 hours on the drawing, focusing on every tiny detail of his face and through the process, a back and forth text relationship, which already existed on a small scale, totally flourished between the two of us.

I was spending so much time trying to bring a photograph of him to life, I started to wonder more about who he was. Not just the Grandpa I remember growing up.....like who he REALLY was, what were his life experiences, his hopes and dreams, his mistakes and lessons....what was his STORY?

So It Begins...

My Grandpa, Don is a texting wizard. His technological fluency is astounding for someone his age; he has taken on the challenge of digital communication and conquered. We had been texting back and forth periodically for sometime, using  it as mostly a means of sharing pictures and updates on the grandkids.  I could not have predicted how technology was going to open up the doors to an entirely new relationship. Technology would  be the key to ME to hearing HIS story.

I can't pinpoint the exactly when it started but in October 2018, we were casually texting back and forth about books we'd read and/or wanted to read, chatting about golf, discussing the drawing of him that I was working on.  We started discussing family resemblances and I told him that my mom said  that every time she looked in the mirror  she realized ow much she resembles him and the drawing I was working on.

My Grandpa sent me a photo and told me that every time HE looked in the mirror, this is what he saw...

I asked him where and when the picture was taken, thinking it was a picture of HIM just younger. He replied that it was his FATHER fishing in Lake Montana.  I'm pretty sure that's when it started, a tiny  spark ignited, setting off a chain reaction of memories. I received another picture, this one of the badge  my Grandpa Don's DAD wore while he was working at a service station in Rexburg, Idaho.

The Prologue...

We 'chatted' back and forth  for a few weeks after he sent this photo. I thought it was interesting but it didn't given it much more thought. I couldn't have predicted the effects that moment of nostalgia would have. So we just kept 'chatting' on, discussing a few books, In the Heart of the Sea and Dead Wake, both about sinking ships,. Then it happens, he  drops this story lead on me...

I think I told you about our near death trip in a small boat on Yellow Stone lake...Or did I?

Why I had not heard that story but OF COURSE I wanted to. It took no more encouragement than me asking to hear the story and the Time Traveler Chronicles had begun.  My Grandpa said he just needed to find a few photographs and then he'd tell me. I did not know at the time that I was about to hear the first of many well crafted and cleverly told stories about his life.

Several days later I received the following photographs:

Yellow Stone. Look behind Glen. That's the boat under canvas. That should give you an idea how small it was.

He had my attention. I was putting it all together...our conversations about sinking ships, Yellow Stone Lake, the small boat, near death trip...THIS was going to be good.  But my Grandpa, being the careful story teller that he is, doesn't tell the entire story at once. O no, he grabs your attention, sparks your interest, and drags you on like a rabbit chasing a carrot.

The Little Tin Boat...

The first story came in bits and pieces over the next week and a half.  A scary story about a small tin boat, a trip to Yellowstone, and several recent  high school graduates, excited and anxious to catch some fish.

So it happened, I was HOOKED, consumed with reading each text,  intrigued and curious. But most of all,  excited  watching my Grandpa come alive by sharing his memories.  I have decided...it is time to share his memories with you. Stay tuned for the COMPLETE STORY.