Americans

The Great Omnipotent One’s father, Granddaddy, was an Electrician in Birmingham. He actually helped build the big plant I used to work in down here in West Palm. I used to love to walk through the shop, thinking of my grandfather as a young man, up in the rafters wiring it, in the 1950s.

He was a tough guy. He served in WWII as a Seabee. I wish he was alive at times… people speak so much more freely of their WWII experiences that I feel that maybe we would finally know something now… he NEVER spoke of the horrors he saw. He died in 1991, 10 months before I got married, 2 months before I became engaged. I am happy he met my husband. I miss him.

When he and Granny were in such failing health they could no longer live so far away (my folks are in Pensacola) TGOO moved them to a retirement community near their home. My grandparents HATED it. They said, “It’s nothing but a bunch of old people”, so they moved to a neighborhood in a small home that had children and dogs… and they were happy. They wanted to live amongst society, not die with the old.

I remember being nervous when I got my job and bought my first car. It was a fuel efficient dependable cute little Mazda. Granddaddy only owned American. I drove up to his house to show him, clenching my teeth. He got in the front seat, shook his head and said, “Why can’t American build something like this?”

He was a good man, although very rough around the edges. He wasn’t highly educated, but he was smart. He knew things; he knew how things should be. I miss him. A lot.

He was a Democrat. He would more than likely voted for Kerry, but he would not have been happy doing so. I would not have thought less of him. He was a smart man and would have made his choice accordingly.

My Mom’s mother, Nana, lived in Toledo until she died nearly 6 years ago. My grandfather, Poppy, worked for a glass factory. He died of lung cancer when I was 9. We think it was job related as many of his coworkers died around the same time of the same thing. He was in his early 50s.

Nana lived off of Poppy’s pension in their little home I loved so much, on the East Side of Toledo. It’s not a nice section of town, but I loved their home. It was one of those homes like you would see in "All in the Family"... homes narrow and close together, with cement steps leading to the front porch. It was so old that the glass in the windows was thick at the bottom from 100 years of melting in the morning sun.

She was frugal with her money, but she always looked out for the poor and elderly… never regarding herself as either of those, for she had a home and food, therefore she could not be poor… and she was able to walk and read and be active… therefore she could not be old. She hung out at the local VFW. (Poppy enlisted for WWII.)

When one of the young guys who hung at her VFW had a wife that took sick, she made them batches of soup… she was so worried for his young child. She took meals once a week to elderly people she knew. She would RUN to the door to open the door for someone she thought was old… even though she was 75 and her knees ached in the morning and her hands were arthritic.

She was not highly educated, but was damn good with numbers. She had a big heart and a strong mind. I miss her. A lot.

She was a Democrat and I KNOW she would have voted for Kerry… no doubt in my mind. I would not have thought less of her. She was a smart woman and would have made her choice accordingly.

I see all this hostility on the blogosphere towards ‘the losing side’, the ‘other side’, the ‘liberal lefties’. Hunh. It makes me sad. I see the other percentage whose candidate did not win as ‘Americans’ who exercised their right to vote for who THEY thought should run this country. I think the nastiness from far left folks in the blogopshere and on TV is a very small percentage of the people who actually voted Democrat.

So I am saddened when I see this… when I read this rancor. I was taught when on a winning team in a sport, or when I won a swim meet heat (not often) that the winner extended the hand first to the losing team or competitor… a gesture of good will and good sportsmanlike conduct. It was ‘Good race!”, not “Screw you, LOOOOOSER!”

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being small minded. But when I see all those people being ugly to the Democrats because their candidate lost… I take it personally that someone is spitting at my grandparents… smart people with big hearts, who put their pants on like me every morning, who loved their country and had BIG 4th of July celebrations, who helped the poor, the sick and the elderly, who gave up their seats for pregnant women and opened doors for others. Suddenly these people I loved are being pegged… as liberal lefties. I see them as Americans.

I think I am sadder today than I was the day before the election.