My granddad was better than anyone currently living and its not even close

at 75 when i would stay for a week with them in the summer my granddad would make fun of me for eating 'late breakfast' at 6am when i woke up. he'd already eaten breakfast and tossed the cold hungry jack biscuits to the squirrels.

we got in his car and drove to visit an old black man he knew named Sam and eat sweet potatoes right off the stove in the back of his shotgun house. i clearly remember my granddad burning his fingers trying to hold the thing and eat it.

then we'd go pick up a lawnmower wheel at OTASCO and stop by 2 or 3 other people's houses where he'd sell them ball point pens and pocket knives out of the trunk of his car. then we'd hit the Gulf gas station where he'd drink a chocolate soldier and chat with Gus the owner. Usually 5-10 cars would also stop by to chat and if i was very lucky he'd find a penny for me to get a gumball out of the Ford gumball machine and if I was lucky I wouldn't get a black one.

then back to his house to bundle up a huge pile of brush and drag it over the levee using nothing more than a ball of twine he had. It was damn sorcery that he could bundle a massive pile of brush with some string.

by 9am he was done for the day and kicked back to whittle a stick and shoot jaybirds off his martin house with a slingshot he kept on the back patio and eat wild cherry lifesavers.

i miss him so much. he made me realize what a soft entitled piece of crap i was even as a little kid.