"Out of the Mouth & Actions of Babes" at Grandma/pa's House

My dad recalled the cutest story about Spencer to me and I told Brian of my desire to see my dad's journal page on it. Well, low and behold, without my dad knowing of this desire, he sent me this e-mail:

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Having the grandkids over for the night, its’ early Saturday and they are still sleeping. When I got up this morning and got ready to leave for a walk, Spencer was just giggling as he slept. Funny to watch.

Yesterday I took off work. We are celebrating Brooke’s birthday. Have some presents and do what the kids want. So as we go and get the kids at Holland’s Spencer holds out some change that he has gathered up and says he is going to use it for a game. He doesn’t know what game it is, he just knows that the wants the change for when we play a game. Becky and I talk with him as we drove home about games we could play. When we get home we hurry to get on the road and he is either holding the changes in his fist or kept it in his pocket with his hand down in the pocket or over the top of his pants, holding the money.

We went (Amy, Grandkids and Becky) to the Pioneer State Park. I wasn’t really excited about it, had hoped to go to the zoo instead. But it was a fun thing and glad that Becky encouraged us to go there. I’ve learned long ago even if I’m not excited about something, just to keep it quiet and go along. Becky never leads me astray. Some things are more fun than others, but she never does anything to make my life worse and usually it is better.

At the Pioneer Park they have either brought in the old pioneer buildings from around the state or recreated them. They are many farm houses, (small wood frame buildings), social building, general stores, school houses doctors offices etc. All around the time of 1850 – probably 1880. They have people in the various buildings in period costumes and they will tell you stories about the time. Maybe about a specific person who lived and worked in that building or about the kind of life that a person in such a building would have.

The lady in the school house was about 45 years old. She (like others) was dressing in period costume and did a good job of “being” the school teacher. She described the school, when it was built, when students would come due to working their farms, how she got paid and where she got supplies. Each desk that we sat at had a small slate (chalkboard) used for writing. She told that there wasn’t money for paper and pencils and so the kids used the slates. And if she didn’t have enough slates the kids would go outside and with a stick draw in the dirt to do their school work. To get paper she would have to pay a lot of money and have someone carry it across the plains in their wagons, and she didn’t have that money.
Spencer raised his hand (being so quiet as he sat in the school desk) and she pointed to him asking what we wanted. He had the most pleasant smile on his face as he slipped out of his chair and walked to the front where the teacher was. He held up his fist and she held her hand underneath to take what he was giving – unknown to her what it was. Hen he opened his fingers and into her hand dropped 42¢ - all the money he had.

For a moment she just looked at it, very taken back. Getting her composure she then thanked him. He was already back in his seat, but she called him back and gave him a special present from her bag – a marble.

She said that she has been doing this for 17 years and never has anything like that happened. “That’s a journal entry” she said, speaking of her own journal.

More anecdotes added a day later in e-mail:

Spencer has a sun burn on his shoulders, probably from our work party the other day that they kids came to. Becky said something about it, asking if it hurt and then reminded him that he needed to remember to ask for sun block. Spencer says with some tone of frustration “I told my dad, ‘Dad, I need sunscreen!’” I suspect this conversation happened after the fact, but cute.

I had just showered, put a towel around me and went into the bedroom to get my cloths. Brooke was in the bedroom with Becky at the time. As I come out of the bathroom and Brooke sees my chest and back she says with big wide open eyes, “Grandpa! You have a lot of hair. You need to shave!"

I love my kids so much. Hope you read the stories, and got a kick out of all of them as I did. :)