Grandpa memories

Family picture with Grandpa while celebrating the 4th of July at my mom's house in 2015.

My Grandpa is 93 years old and I have a lot of good memories of him. Today will most likely be his last day and I had an opportunity to speak with him over the phone. I wasn't expecting him to be able to talk, but I heard his cheery "Hi, sweetheart," over the line. It sounded just like all the other times he's greeted me since I was a little girl. I wish I had recorded that moment. It was the only thing he was able to say to me. My boys and I told him we love him and then let him rest.

I feel an urge to brain dump all my memories of him before I forget. Maybe later I'll go back and put in more detail, but this is it for now - random and in no order:

My memories of my Grandpa, James Ronald Wright

My Grandpa with a few of his great-grandchildren, celebrating the 4th of July at my mom's house in Poulsbo, Washington. 7/4/2015

1. He has accurately predicted the sex of all his great-grandchildren - and there are a lot of them. Maybe he got one or two wrong, but those were the exception. He guessed mine and my siblings' children correctly, even when we all thought the opposite. Grandpa is always right :)
2. Grandpa had rules at his house that he would always repeat when we broke them. I only remember the first, because we heard it a lot - "Rule number one - not hitting." Or maybe that was rule number two? Nicole - what was it? 
3. He had a rubics cube that I could never figure out, but he had done it and his mother could do it easily. I spent many summer afternoons trying to complete the puzzle in his or my grandma's rocking chair. 
4. On the night of my first-born son's birth, he woke up at the exact time Soren was born. He called us the next day and guessed what time the birth happened and he was right!
5. He always greeted my "Hi, Sweetheart," with a hug. 
6. We both like black licorice.
7. When Scott and I were married, he performed the ceremony in the LDS Seattle Temple. I wish I could remember what he said - it was short and sweet. I do remember that he had a hard time talking because he kept tearing up. 
8. He gave me a patriarchal blessing when I was a teenager. 



My Grandpa and my Grandma. 

9. My grandma met him on a train. She boarded and had to choose between two empty seats - one next to a soldier and the other a sailor. She chose the sailor (my grandpa!) and they talked the
   whole ride. 



My Grandpa in his navy uniform. 

10. My grandpa missed his brother's wedding because of the Zoot Suit riots in San Diego during the war. The sailors and Zoot Suits got into a fight, so the Navy forbade the soldiers from leaving the ship while in San Diego. So my grandpa couldn't leave for the wedding. 
11. During WWII, he served in the Navy as a signalman. He used to tell me about how he was in India watching a mongoose and snake fight when he first heard the war had ended. 



My Grandpa with his mom. 

12. His mom slipped on ice when she was pregnant with him. He was born too early and the doctor gave up on him - saying they might as well throw him in the trash, because he wouldn't survive. His Grandma Cgangas (I'm guessing on spelling, but is sounds like Shang-gus when he says it) wouldn't accept that answer. My grandpa was so tiny, he could fit in the palm of your hand. Grandma Cgangas lined a shoe box for his bed and placed him in the oven to keep him warm. She saved his life and now he's lived 93 years and has a great posterity. 
13. Whenever he would talk about his Grandma to me, he'd smile at me and say "You would have loved her." She was a little woman who had long, white hair. She made delicious taffy and he has good memories watching her use a hook on her wall to pull the taffy, stretching it bigger and longer. 



My little sister Nicole trying to play Grandpa's baritone. 

14. My mom played the piano, my grandma played the harp and my grandpa played the Baritone. Its been a long time since I've thought about this, but there is some story about how he sold his baritone when they were going through some rough times. Years later, my Grandma bought him another baritone. It was fun to hear and he would even let us try to play. It took too much air!
15. When I was a teenager visiting their house, I would get bored and play the piano for hours. He would always come sit in his recliner and listen to me. At first, it made me nervous to have an audience, but after he remained un-phased by all my wrong notes, I relaxed and would continue playing. He would always compliment me and encourage me to keep playing. I played him a lot of hymns. One of my favorite was "Abide with me, Tis Eventide." Later, he told me that was his favorite, too. My grandma told me she really liked "How Great Thou Art." I'm surprised I didn't burn them out with how many times I played those songs after they told me they liked them. 






16. My Grandpa liked to read westerns, so I tried to give them a try and read a few of his Louis L'Amour. They were really fun! 
17. I learned he wasn't the biggest fan of Opera when I made him listen to The Phantom of the Opera in the car and he cringed on every high note. 
18. But he does like Johnny Cash
19. One summer there were Orca Whales in the bay near his home. He got out a ladder and helped us climb on the roof with binoculars so that we could watch the whales swim by. 



My Grandpa holding me in his Grandpa chair - the most comfortable chair in the world. 

20. When I was little, he would pretend to snore to make me laugh. He snored like a bear and I loved to spy on him resting in his grandpa chair, just waiting for him to fall asleep and snore for real. 
21. I loved stealing his seat as soon as he got up. Grandpa's chair was so cozy and fun to rock. He'd come back to find me or one of my siblings there and make a game of it. He'd say in a faux-grumpy voice, "Who's that in my grandpa chair." Then we would giggle in run away. Or sometimes, if we wouldn't move, he'd pretend to sit on us and squash us. 



Wright Family Reunion at Lincoln City, Oregon in 2004

22. My Grandma and him came to all my plays, graduations, birthdays and special events. They were always there for their grandkids.



My mom and Grandpa. I don't think he is wearing his WWII Veterans hat, but it reminds me of it. 

23. My mom is the baby of the family. Before my Grandma realized she was pregnant with her, Grandpa had a dream that they were going to have a little girl and her name would be Susan. 
24. These last several years, it has been fun to go out to eat with him. He always has chocolate kisses with him to give to those around him. His favorite restaurant is Red Robin and he always made sure to hand out kisses to the servers. They were so welcoming to him. His favorite server, Katie, turned out to be a girl I went to school with! I'm grateful for her kindness. 
25. He often wore his WWII service hat whenever he went out. Completely strangers would stop him and thank him for his service. It often started some interesting conversations and I loved to hear these stories. 
26. My Grandpa became diabetic when I was a child. He used to let us watch when he would prick his finger, because he knew we thought it was fascinating. 
27. He loves chocolate! For his birthday, he loved to have the giant, chocolate cake from Costco. 



My dad, me, Grandma and Grandpa in 1988/89

28. He and my Grandma always made us drink our milk. They served milk with everything and we had to drink it. 
29. During the summer, we would eat lunch with them once a week. They would make homemade bread in their bread machine and serve it to us fresh with homemade jelly, butter and peanut butter for us to choose from. I loved those meals!



Celebrating Grandpa's birthday (which Chocolate Cake, of course).
Mom, Grandma, me, Ryan, Jen, Nicole, Tim, Tony, Bill and Jonathan. 

30. We celebrated many holidays at their house. For all meals, Grandpa sat at the head of the table and Grandma right next to him. He'd look at his watch before asking someone to say prayer. 
31. Grandpa is a big football fan and loves the 49-ers. It was fun to watch games with him. I'm not a huge football fan, but it was nice to be a part of something he loved. 
32. He had all the Disney movies when we were little so that we could watch them at his house. Sometimes he and my Grandma would watch them with us. He would usually fall asleep and start his bear snore. 
33. He loved birds and always kept a hummingbird feeder and regular bird feeder. We would watch the birds eat out the glass sliding door across from the table while we ate. He taught me to recognize Blue Jays and Robins. He could recognize different birds by there calls. 
34. It was fun to play outside in their yard. There were fruit trees to climb, ditches and fish ponds to jump over, berries to pick and stepping stones to hop along. It was even more fun when he would work outside on a project while we played. It was just nice to have his presence - unless my siblings and I weren't getting along, then we knew we were going to get in trouble and be reminded of rule number one. 
35. Every once in a while, we would go on vacation with them. They had a travel trailer and my parents would borrow my other grandparent's motor home. I have happy memories playing at Cannon Beach with them. 



Grandpa as a cute, little boy!

36. He would tell us about being a child growing up in Boulder, Colorado during the winter. His friends and he would freeze water in an old tuna can and use it as a puck to play hockey. 
37. He talked about how glad he was that our family gets along. He shared that his family and cousins never got along very well. His cousins were pretty rough and they weren't close at all. 






38. When I was a kid, Grandpa had his own boat called "At Last," and he would take us out for rides. 
39. He also loved having a goldfish pond in front of their house. Feeding those fish was one of our favorite things to do with Grandpa. We knew where he kept the fish food and we would ask him if we could feed the fish within minutes of arriving. 
40. He used to tell me about how I fell in the Fish pond when I was little (like 2). I thought it was a funny story. Then when I was older - like 8 or 9 - I was helping him clean out the fish pond with my cousin Jonathan and I fell in again! It wasn't very funny that time.