My Grandfather Was A Very Exceptional Man

By: Dana Garringer

My grandfather was a very exceptional man. And while many of you know about his professional career you may not know a lot about the reasons we as his family thought he was exceptional. And I wanted to share just a few of our memories with you today.

Riding with Grandpa ANYWHERE was always an event. He usually would blare some 1940’s big band music that no one had ever heard of except for him. And he always knew all the words and would sing them loudly and with theatrics. If he wasn’t singing he was spinning some wild tale. For instance, with most of his vehicles during his time with Farm Bureau the center part of his back seat would fold down so you could get in the trunk. But that wasn’t just the spot to easily access the trunk. According to Grandpa that was how George the man that lived in his trunk would get out. So we would talk to “George” in the trunk on a lot of our trips. Imagine how concerned we were when he brought home a new care WITHOUT a George hole. We never did find out whose trunk he moved too.

Growing up Grandpa went on a lot of trips. At some of our young ages we didn’t necessarily comprehend how far away he was traveling but Grandma would always take us to their globe and show us where he was traveling. We did know that if Grandpa was going somewhere we were surely going to get a present when he returned. On every one of his trips he brought us grandkids back a present. Usually a t-shirt from the country he was visiting. At the time it didn’t seem like a big deal but there are 9 of us so to get something EVERY time he went somewhere was really something.

We were a very close family growing up. Us grandkids spent a lot of time with grandma and grandpa and with 9 of us there was bound to be some fighting. Grandma dealt with it by stopping the car and making us walk or by making us sit on opposite sides of the living room. But Grandpa just had to say 7 little words to let us know he meant business and we better settle down, “I’ll put your head between your ears!” I won’t say how old most of us were before we realized that actually wasn’t a bad thing and maybe he wasn’t so scary after all.

Due to grandpa’s impeccable speaking ability he was quite fond of tongue twisters and limericks. I’m fairly certain most of us could pronounce his made-up name like “hilda cahinicaboobler fuzzy wuzzy was a bear fuzzy wuzzy had no hair fuzzy wuzzy wan’t very fuzzy was he” long before we could even tell you our own address.

But on top of all of the silly things he said and did he was a great man. He loved ferociously and would have done anything for anyone. And we learned so much about life from him over the years. It has and always will be an honor and a privilege to call him our grandfather.