Pop
(This was originally written in August of 2008 and posted on the Georgia River Fishing site)
I was in Charleston SC today at the Citadel for business (sweating in 105 heat at the football stadium). I got a call from my Dad. My Grandfather had just passed away. I’m posting this to try and explain how much he meant to me in my life. In my mid 30′s now I look back and remember all the times he took me hunting and fishing. He bought milk for Sealtest dairies so we got the run of almost every farm in GA. I had a good time growing up. Lots of deer, bird, and rabbit hunting. Lots of trout fishing up on the Jacks River in N GA where he had a cabin. Camping with him and his little brother Bill (Uncle Little Willy who is now gone on too) up in the mountains around Mineral Bluff and Blue Ridge.
He was raised back in the hills around Copperhill. Worked in the copper mill as an electrician before being drafted in WWII. THen worked on bombers in the Army Air Corp. Including servicing the Anola Gay between the Nagasaki and Hiroshim runs.
Pop was a great cook. Fried Chicken, green beans, biscuits, hot cakes, my mother’s favorite chocolate pies and fudge. We eat a lot in my family…
He loved the outdoors but most of all Pop loved to bird hunt. He had Irish Setters and English Pointers. He liked both. Shoot he just liked bird dogs. Dixie was the last good one he had after her there just wasn’t enough wild quail to hunt and he wasn’t gonna hunt no tame birds! He always made sure I had a place to fish even though he didn’t care much for it. And every friend of his had a place to deer hunt all the time. He always found his buddies a place to hunt. And he had lots of buddies. He was 87 back in May so not many were left. Sad that that’s what happens to us late in life. We outlive our buddies. Remember to touch base often with those you have and to make more each day.
Pop always said the quickest way to make a friend was to let someone help you. You know that’s true. And the next quickest way to make a friend is to help someone.
My Grandmother died about 4 years ago of lung cancer and he was just never the same after that.
So I just want to tip my hat to all the Pop‘s out there. All you grandfathers who take the time to hunt and fish with your grandkids. They will always have memories to make them smile no matter what happens.
