I never knew it existed. Grandparents day may be another one of those greeting card invented days that are meant to make money for the companies than actually honor or appreciate someone. Today is Grandparents day. Grandma doesn’t get her own day and neither does Grandpa. The get lumped together, so for the permanently disgruntled there is one more thing for you to complain or protest against. It doesn’t get any respect as far as I can tell. I consider myself reasonably “up” on things, but Grandparents day is a blank spot in my mind.
They say that my Grandfather cried when my mother took me out of his arms and put me in the car and took me from North Dakota to San Diego CA. We moved there because that is where my father found work. When we arrived in San Diego we had no phones and communication was by letter that came once a week from “the folks”. I was able to see my Grandparents once a year because of a pledge my Dad made that as long as they were alive he would make sure that we went back and visited them as often as we could. They would pack me, and later my brother, into the car and we would drive through the deserts and the mountains back to North Dakota and spend two weeks every year with the “folks”. One year my Grandfather had scarlet fever. I was not allowed in his room but they held me up to his window and I waved at him. He cried then too.
Today things have changed to the point where the Grandparents make the journeys to see the Grandkids. They seem to have made the commitment that as long as they are alive they will go and see the Grandkids. Their children are pretty much consumed with other things. I guess that is the way of the world today. So Grandparents, as you pack up the car to make the long trip to see the Grandkids, God bless and happy Grandparents Day.
