The USS Kendrick

December 7 is Pearl Habor Day.  It is celebrated because on that day in 1941 The United States Naval base at Pearl Habor in Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese Airforce that caused the death of  2403 personnel and wounded 1178. All sorts of hell broke loose and this sucked the United States into WWll. It also was the reason my maternal grandfather was drafted into the Navy and served 2 years on the USS Kendrick. (pictured above). His uniform is in a box picture frame and proudly hangs above the fireplace at my sons home in Virginia. I passed it on to him when we moved back to Costa Rica.

 

He left 3 children and my grandmother home to go and fight to keep the freedoms and liberties that they enjoyed intact. As do all the brave men and women do. But I digress. This is about my grandfather. A man that I knew well since I spent most of my childhood being raised by him, Paw Paw and my grandmother, Granny. For those that are not blessed by being southern, that's the endearing names that most grandparents are called by their grand younguns. In fact, my Costa Rica grandchildren call me and my wife that.     

 

When he returned home there were 5 more children to father as he learned the house painting trade. He also had a HUGE garden each year in the lot that they owned attached to the side of their 4 bedrooms 1 bath home. Four of the 8 children were girls so you can imagine the battles that he had to also fight over that 1 bathroom! I am sure that there were times that he thought, 'My God, why did I leave the battlefield, it was safer there'.   

 

I spent a lot of time with him in that garden. The man had two green thumbs and eight green fingers. On Saturdays, during the growing season, you only had to look out the window and find him weeding and nurturing corn, beans, okra, lettuce and just about everything that man can grow in a massive garden. He got up early and ran any errands for the day, often times allowing me to tag along, then into the garden for the rest of the day. My grandmother would bring him/us lunch. The day that he finally allowed me to stand behind and guide the tiller was the proudest day of my life at that time. Granny even gave me an extra big slice of cake to celebrate the momentous occasion. Paw Paws job was to walk beside me and grab the tiller and get it back on a straight path when its strength would overcome my young small body. 

 

Paw Paw was a big strong man and gentle. If you did something that you should not do all he had to do was look at you with that stare of his and you immediately felt horrible and would repent for the rest of the day. At harvest time he would come home early on Friday and we would bend and pick until late dusk. Now, of course, I was allowed breaks whenever I wanted one. But it was he that taught me a strong work ethic and the importance of perseverance. 

 

The only flaw that I found in him was that he was a chain smoker. The only time you would see him without a cigarette dangling from his lips was working and in church. He was also a very religious man. He spent most of his downtime reading the bible. He was not a highly educated man so his lips moved constantly as he read. One other thing. He always ate with his mouth open. But you got used to the slopping sound, eventually. Ya see he was just a good ole country boy at heart. And boy, did he have a BIG HEART!! And PLENTY OF VEGETABLES to slop down.