Well, I didn't go to Weight Watchers today. It is not a trend I would like to start. I plan on going to another meeting later this week to make up for it. Today my mom, Jacob, and I went to pick up my inheritance from my grandparents.
My Grandma and Grandpa Calfy were not wealthy. They didn't leave a great deal of money to be divided up or anything. They left a home full of memories, my Grandma's dream house in South East Oklahoma (a small A-frame cabin), and a place we call the Creek down and old dirt road in Walters, Oklahoma. My mom and her sister and brothers have been slowly going through my grandparents things. My grandma would have been a wonderful candidate for the show hoarders. She kept EVERYTHING! She was a funny lady and when you look back grandpa really let her have what ever she wanted otherwise how did she have so much stuff?
Anyways, growing up we spent a great deal of time with my grandparents. Summers, spring break, every holiday, and for a time we would go see them every other weekend. I spent every Christmas and Thanksgiving with them for as long as my Grandma was alive. I LOVED them. I have the best memories of them. My Grandpa owned a store in town called the Calfy Brothers Building Center. It was a building supply store. I love the smell of that store. The smell of wood and sawdust. We would go down to the store with Grandma and help her clean the rooms that the store rented out to out of towners. Like clock work every day my Grandma had lunch ready at 11 am and dinner ready at 5 pm. While Grandpa was at work, we would drive around town and get groceries and visit with people. Every now and then Grandpa would meet us down at the Creek for lunch and Grandma would have gone to get Mac's chicken. That was considered a real treat as the town didn't have any fast food places.
I have so many memories from Walters, Oklahoma. The time some of us tried to sleep outside on the trampoline, the time Kaytie and I thought we were being attacked by aliens when Grandpa threw a glow in the dark nerf ball at us in the dark, when Grandma lassoed Jacob to a light post so she could keep an eye on him, setting off fireworks in the city limits then singing kumbya on the porch when the cops drove by, Grandma getting speeding/seat belt tickets all over town and telling us not to tell papa, hiding in the cellar during bad storms, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, being chased by a goose, going every Christmas Eve to the Moore's house to see the Santa fly on a rocket ship, going to Walters Church of the Nazarene every Sunday Morning, Sunday Night and Wednesday night when we were in town, Grandma letting us build forts in the living room out of the kitchen chairs, swinging from the wagon wheel chandelier and breaking it, setting up a grocery store with the groceries Grandma just bought and making her buy them from me to use for dinner, all the neighbor kids that Grandma would baby sit and we would play with during the summer, mom hurting her knee on the trampoline and then on a moped, crashing a go cart into a fence, and me and Kaytie getting in trouble when we would be laughing and laughing at night when we were supposed to be asleep. We also used to look up dirty words in Grandma's encyclopedia's, but don't tell anyone! :)
There are so many precious memories, I swear we probably spent 50% of our childhood with our Grandparents. I loved it and I will cherish it forever. So this brings me to my inheritance. I got my Grandpa's truck. My Grandpa used to drive an old brown ford pick up. Every day to and from work. After that truck bit the dust Keith, my uncle, rebuilt 1995 Ford F-150 for my grandpa. From the moment I saw it I was in love. I don't know why but there was just something about it. I have a vivid memory of Grandma riding with me to the Walters car wash and letting me wash the truck. She said it looked good on me and that all the boys were looking at me too! Any chance I got I would drive that truck around town. It sounds funny, but that truck has a certain smell to it. I am pretty sure it just smells like a work truck, but to me that smell reminds me of my Grandpa.
It was no secret that I wanted the truck and when my mom asked me awhile back if I would like to have it I said yes. Driving the truck from Walters today I cried part of the way. I felt like I was taking it from it's home, but at the same time it felt like I was with my Grandparents again. I can't explain it. This may sound strange but there is a part of me that wants to curl up and take a nap in the truck and just pretend for a moment they are still here.
I think they would both be happy that the truck is with me. I miss them with all of my heart. It's been two years since my grandma passed and a year and a few month since my grandpa passed. I still cry, not as often as I used to, but every now and then I will remember something and just cry a few tears and go on. They were a second set of parents to me. They helped to make me who I am.
I plan to keep the truck as long as possible. We won't drive it much, but its always good to have a truck around. I'll drive my mustang as my primary car, but I'll take the out truck on days like today. A Sunday afternoon that is warm and windy and drive it around with the windows down and just remember. I plan to drive it this week just because then I'll park it and get back to the mustang.
A part of me is that truck, I am a small town girl at heart. One day we will probably live in a small town with a house with a wrap around porch and the truck sitting out in front and Grandma and Grandpa still watching out for us from Heaven.
There are just some things in life that are worth more than money and to me this is that truck. Now let's just hope I don't back into anything this week!! ;)
Until next time,
Leigha
