Grandpa's Home


I have been sitting here trying to think of what I should write about my life. I can’t think of anything so maybe my life is over, and I just don’t know it. There are a lot of things that I don’t understand any more, and I’m not sure that I want to. I would ask around, but it is not good for me to go outside with the allergies, and there aren’t any people outside now because of the pandemic. I am going to have my head lasered tomorrow, maybe that will help.
My brain reminds me of the old TV set. TV didn’t come on all day and on many channels. It had a test pattern that would come on, and that would be all that was on until a certain time when a program would come on. That is what it is like for me sometimes. I just sit here, and then finally my brain leaves the holding test pattern and turns on. Now back to the story, such as it is.
 
Albert Owen Stubbs with Mail bag 1948
Colorized by myheritage.com
The whole family would go to my grandfather’s home on Sunday evening after sacrament meeting and watch the test pattern until The Ed Sullivan Show came on. It was a variety show. The Beatles were on before they became really famous, so was Elvis Presley; they launched their careers on his show. It is funny now to think of twenty or so people in his front room watching a TV with a small round greenish screen. To be honest, it was fantastic. Grandpa would always have a large bowl of popcorn he had made and would get up and make more as it began to run out. Sometimes Afton would make the popcorn if Grandpa had had too many beers.
This event was every bit as much a part of our Sunday as the three church meetings we had already gone to. It was really enjoyable to be there with so many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. The extended family attendance at this get together was somewhat better than at the meetings at the church. I think that one reason my dad went was because he was the bishop and could see each family member and they could see him. Also, Grandpa had invited him, and it was kind of a time for Dad to make peace with his father.
I really enjoyed being at my grandfather’s home. My dad had planted grapes all along the fence on one side of the yard, and the water overflow from the cooler on top of the house ran down and watered them. I used to play along the fence with my cousin Richard Stubbs. It was cooler than anywhere else in the summer to hang out. There was an old wooden garage off to the side, and in the back of it was nailed up a basketball standard. We could play there as long as the older uncles weren’t there wanting to play. To explain, there were three uncles that were still in school. They were Afton’s sons, and there were some older cousins that were their age also.   
I remember when the basketball, which was pretty smooth, got a hole in it, so we didn’t have anything to play with. We weren’t allowed to play with the good balls that belonged to our uncles. We took the ball up to the gas station and the attendant there buffed it up, put a little glue and a patch on it, and after a few minutes pumped it back up, and we were ready to go again.
That is probably about the time that I realized how poor we were. We had gotten a smooth ball patched so we would have something to play with. Nowadays if a ball just gets low, it is time to buy a new one. We are so spoiled with so many things to buy, and no idea how to repair the old ones.
The lot in the backyard was dirt, and so it was great for drawing a circle on the ground and playing marbles, and when we got more ambitious, we dug a small hole in the center and four holes around the corners and played pots or poison. Poison, was a great game, a little like Parcheesi, especially since we could make up different rules each time we played. The only problem with marbles was it was in the direct sunlight. The only time the adults would be upset was on Saturday when they got together to do the wash in the back yard and had to work around the holes that kept magically appearing.



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