My blogless grandfather has joined the game of sharing five things we might not know about him… (transcribed from our phone call)
Did you know… I remember when we got the first electric light in our house in Willis Texas. Next store was a filling station. They ran a wire across from the filling station to our house and so we had our first electric light.
Did you know that being little kids in the country… that on a hot day we would go out on the highway and it was so hot that the tar would melt and we would take that tar and chew it like it was chewing gum.
Did you know that when I was a little kid I saw President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was on the end of a train (in his wheel chair) and Daddy took us down to Houston and we saw the president.
Did you know that I was stuck at the North Pole for 2 weeks in the ice and we couldn’t move because we were iced in. I was in the Navy on board a Navy ship. We were in Thule, Greenland. Did you know that when we went ashore (we only left the ship one time) they told us to be very careful because if you fell in that water, you would freeze to death in a matter of seconds.
Did you know that I was so cute with my little red ringlets all over my head that my mama wanted to take me to Hollywood so I could be like Shirley Temple. It’s true. She thought I was the cutest thing since sliced bread!
When I was about 3 or 4 when we lived in the country, the African American woman who was working for my mama… the way they washed clothes in those days was they had this great big black pot and they put fire under it and boiled the water and everything. I must have been about 2 because I was a toddler and I had a cookie. I dropped that cookie in the wash and I pulled it out. If you ever noticed on my right shoulder, my right hand and my right arm I had a scar. After that I had pneumonia and I was a sick little boy… but I was cute.
When my sister, who was 8 years older than I was, when she was old enough to go to highschool and Natt also… the 2 of them went to live in Houston by themselves for education and so that Natt could be Bar Mitzvahed. Saturday night after daddy closed the store, we drove to Houston (about 50 miles away) and we spent Sunday night there… the teacher knew I wouldn’t be back to class until Monday at 12 oclock. When I was in the 2nd grade, daddy sold the store to uncle Harry so that we could all be in Houston and go to temple and live together.
On Halloween, they used to take the outhouses and put them on top of the stores and the buildings (not me, I was too young).
Our store was the only drive through store and all the farmers would come in on the weekends on the horse and wagons as that was the only transportation they had. You know, I was born in 1927.
When I first went to college I was an assistant manager on the football team at Texas A&M and my claim was that when it was half time I would take out towels to the huddle and then hurry up and run off the field. One time I dropped the towel on the middle of the football field. I had to stay on the side lines and then run out and get it. That was embarrassing.
They used to have something at Texas A&M called kickball, a variation of soccer and football. They carried me off the field twice. We played the varsity team that was made of football players. They beat the hell out of us. When I came home there was a banner that said, “All-College Pryzant.” I was a little fart. But I guess I was tough because they gave me the honor of being All-College.
I went to military college because of my mama. Natt and Jack were already in service, Natt in New Guinea, Jack somewhere in South Pacific. My mama wanted me to have military training. I was taking pre-dental and the reason was because her dentist was a red headed guy.
