My Opa / Grandpa

Editor’s Note: This story has been reprinted with permission of its author: Ingrid Felsl (who was 9 years old at the time of writing)

My Opa’s name is Howard, and he is married to my Grandma Dorothy. Opa is very silly, but he is also very smart and has had a very interesting life.

Howard was born in 1931 at home in Roseland. That time was the Great Depression. Roseland is on the southeast side of Chicago, not very far from here. My Opa is the youngest of five other sisters. Imagine how that felt!

When Opa Howard was little, little kids had to make up their own fun. One thing he liked to do the most was to camp out at the Indiana Dunes with his family. My Opa saved all his old Batman and Superman comic books. When his three kids were young, they read them.

When he was 17 years old, Opa worked at R.R. Donnelley’s. It was a printing press.

He had eight motorcycles at one time. That must have been amazing. At the same time, he had a Rolls Royce car. That was an old-fashioned fancy car.

After he sold some motorcycles, Opa had a fire truck. They used to ride it in parades.

Howard knows how to say “I love you” in many different languages. When I get to see him, he always teaches them to me. I know he is smart because he skipped two grades.

You might think my Opa is cool, but listen to what I have to say about him that is funny. One time for Halloween, Howard was always hot in his outfit because, back then, the kids trick-or-treated for the whole week. Since he was hot, Howard thought that wearing one of his sister’s dresses would be cooler. He wore that and was even hotter than he was before. I guess he’ll never do that again.

Another thing my Opa did when he was young is go with his friends to the back of a drugstore and steal pop bottles. Later, they would turn in the bottles and get five cents.

One really funny thing is when Howard and his friend made a fire in a garbage can in the back yard. Howard said he saw his dad coming, and they didn’t know what to do. So they started to pee on the fire. Luckily, his dad never found out.

One time at school Howard tricked his teacher. He said to the teacher “Constantinople, spell it,” So his teacher started writing Constantinople in big letters on the board.

Then Howard said, “No, I-T. Do you get it? Constantinople, spell ‘it.'” Ha ha ha ha.

When he was an adult with three children, Howard had a fire truck, remember? After he had painted it, he had some paint left over. So he decided that he would paint the kids’ dresser red. My mom says it was bright red and looked ugly. I believe her (Don’t tell Howard I said that.)

Another time Opa had got some street-yellow paint from the road workers. He used it to paint the patio furniture. My mom, grandma, aunt and uncle said it looked exactly like the street lines and was hideous. I can tell.

One time Howard and his friend were putting up wallpaper in the hallway of his home. Guess how they put it up — upside down! So Dorothy (she is his wife) came in and said “Howard, it’s upside down!” The men said, “What?” Then Dorothy said it looked the same, so it stayed.

Now you might not think this is funny, but one time Opa left me at home. I was six years old and watching a movie; Opa was fixing a car. I got up and couldn’t find him anywhere. I looked twice. I started to cry and in a minute Grandma Dorothy came home. I told her what happened. When Howard came home, we asked him what he did. He said he forgot I was there and went to test the car. He was very sorry. I hope that never happens again.

Two years ago my Opa and Omah moved to Florida. Howard brought his favorite Indiana Dunes poster and put it up in the screened patio. The poster got torn up because the wind blew it off the wall. It got rained on and fell in the pool. Opa duct taped it up, but it fell down. He bolted it back up. Today you will see the poster torn, duct taped to the wall, and with a bolt.

Well, you now know mostly all about my Opa. You never know what might happen with him (that sounds just like me, too). But anyway, he is very nice and I love him and miss him so much. I hope I visit him in the spring. Well, that is…

My Opa / Grandpa

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Thank you for reading – PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST