Grandpa and Granny MacLean

Grandpa MacLean coming from Edmonton on the train. We'd pick him up at the train station (where the Calgary Tower is). He would stay in the front bedroom. I remember his tank top white undershirt he would where before he got dressed for the day. He had a rough beard and I remember watching him shave and could here the blades chomping away at his wiskers. His hair was sort of blown around

his head ... but he cleaned up pretty good. He always wore a shirt and tie, polished shoes, a hat, overcoat and gloves. Also spats, which were a covering around the top part of the ancle covering the top part of the shoe. He had bands that held up his shirt sleeves (more like a metal elastic band ... they were metal and could pinch if you weren't careful).

Jody

He would give me $20.00 to go to Barney's and get a bucket of chicken.

Lanny and I would take the train or ATCO truck to Edmonton to stay with him. He always had a meal ready and had to pay the driver.

He gave me my first package of dentyne gum (the whole thing) ... I was in hog heaven.

I remember watching "The Old Man and The Sea" with Spencer Tracey at his apartment one late night.

I remember sleeping with him at his house ... the long stair case ... the smell of the sheets ... the bed seemed high up.

He would cut the toast in strips and lather them in butter. We would suck out the butter and he would slab on somemore.

He had a small shed out back that had deer antlers above the door. A small garden at the back, and poppies along the side with a Mountain

Ash tree. Even sitting in the back yard, he would have a dress shirt and pants on.

I still have my bible he gave me at my baptism ... it has a cross on the zipper.

I loved Grandpa and more importantly, I knew he loved me. He is one of the few adults I have ever trusted in my entire life!

I named my son after him so I would never forget. 

Jody

Grandpa MacLeans roast drippings on finger toast broiled in the oven, grandpa's electric razors and the smell of electric cut whiskers, the clock radio alarms the moccasins, the  zip up black boots that were only ankle high.

Lanny

I remember Mom getting some money from Grandpa MacLean and buying each of us something special ... she bought the piano, and I got a real official football. Thanks Mom. That was a real treat.  

Jody

Does anybody remember the stuffed cocker spaniel dog Granny MacLean had on the back of her couch or the white hospital shoes.  She told us "it's not ya but, it's rabbit".  Does anyone remember the birds and bees talk in Edmonton in Grandpa and Granny MacLean's dining room as we slept under the dining room table on the red persian rug next to the buffet?  I had the rug (rescued from the cabin) in my office at Social Services until it was too worn to keep, but I kept the smaller mat that matched it and have it to this day.  I also have the buffet about 5 feet away as I type this.  Lori has the dining room table in her house.  

The reason for the talk was that on the highway up to Edmonton we passed a herd of cows and they were in the process of mounting each other, when one of us made the comment that "cows play leap frog too".  I would have been 5, so figure how old you were.  We used to go twinkle, and breasts were bosees.  what was the rest of the vocabulary?

Lanny

Lan ... Yes, I also remember the "Sex talk" at Grandpas ... I've never been the same since.  Dad was very graphic in his explanation ... I couldn't believe Mom and Dad or anyone else that was an adult did that. I remember telling Vern and Gary and they thought I was crazy.

Jody