Grandpa and the "F" word

bigride

bigride

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My grandpa enjoyed fishing with us whippersnapper grandsons. We often went catfishing at local lakes and ponds. On one occasion with my brother along, they settled into a comfortable spot with a picnic table. After putting a couple lines out, Grandpa decided he wanted a cup of coffee. He had no thermos with him, but there was a bait shop about a quarter mile down the gravel road so he decided to stroll down there for his coffee.

After his journey there and back, Grandpa took the lid off his still full cup of coffee, the steam rose from the hot beverage in the cool morning air, and he set it down on the picnic table. He asked my brother if his poles had any bites and sat down to a enjoy his coffee. At this precise moment, nature intervened. A songbird on a tree branch took flight for another perch. As it flew over, the little bombadier scored a direct hit into Grandpa's fresh full cup of coffee.

And then it happened...Grandpa looked up...looked at his coffee...assessed the sad situation...and said, "Awww, flitter." Then he calmly stood up and headed back to the bait shop for a fresh cup of coffee. That's as close as Grandpa ever came to uttering any profanity.

He died when I was 11. So many people came by our house during that sad time. I remember one particular statement a friend said about Grandpa: "I never heard him say a bad word about anyone." I sure would have liked more time with him, but he sure taught me a lot in those too brief 11 years. He and Grandma lived with us most of that time, and his death was a sudden blow for the family. To this day though, I still hold dear these memories...and whenever something doesn't go my way, I still employ Grandpa's "F" bomb.

"Awww, flitter."
 
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That was some generation. My gramps was only 39 when I was born so he was close to being a father to me. At his funeral , a story was told that after suffering through several days and nights of German shelling in a foxhole during the Battle of Monte Cassino, he said if he survived through it he would never complain about anything the rest of his life. I believe he lived up to that, I never ever heard him complain, swear, or speak badly of someone. He always had a smile on his face.
 
I was talking to Gramps one day in my young teens (maybe 1963)
Don't remember what brought it up, but I remember saying I learned that from the school of hard knocks and he said calmly never learn that way, learn from the ones that graduated , its faster and easier . Like most I wish I had spent more time with him.
 
Funny timing on this thread, I was just going through my Grandpas tool box looking fore something. Every time I do I feel a connection to him.

My Grandpa died when I was 16. As rough as he was he was a cool guy to be around. He taught me so much and I didn't even realize it until later in years.

He swore but not badly. Grandma wouldn't have that.

I never heard my other Grandpa swear. He was cool too but died when I was 11. He was talented too. I coulda learned more.

I miss them both.
 
A-37 said:
I find the commonly used word "freakin'" almost as offensive as the other F-word when used in normal conversation. There's no question as to the word you really want to use.
Click to expand...



I totally agree with you! Just say it. That's what I tell my kids. That word is banned at my house.
 
More drifting but I had to share,

I was at my friends welding shop an hour ago and met a guy there that was having some work done. We got to talking and wound up talking about sheet metal which led us to airframe mechanics. He said his Dad worked at Pan American back when. I told him about my Grandpa working there and he asked me his name, Then he called his Dad and put me on the phone with him.

You guessed it, He knew my Grandpa well even though he was way younger than him and Grandpa retired about two years after he started there. I knew Grandpa used to go there to see his friends for quite some time after he retired too.

It was hard hearing him on the phone so I'm gonna go to his house when he's up to it. He has COPD.

This could be pretty cool.

It's a small world.
 
I'll admit to having a foul mouth, I keep a pretty good filter on it and will apologize when I slip around more genteel types. My granddad used them sparingly and I never heard him drop the F-bomb, he used God**** as his favorite expletive and had a way of drawing it out that was funny unless it was aimed at you. I was at least in my thirties before I heard my dad drop the F-bomb, he used it rarely.
I had a good friend that was a high muckey muck Mormon, I liked John alot and since I had lived in Utah as a kid we had something in common. We worked together in the Union during most Union meetings the language is quite colorful to say the least. John never uttered a foul word, never....My buddy Jimmy and I used to work on him to upset him just to get him to loose his temper and finally once we got the better of him and he lost it and started sputtering about how irritating we were and we just goaded him on and finally he completely lost and started "YOU!.....YOU!....HAMBURGERS! Hamburgers? Jimmy and I looked at each other Hamburgers? John cooled down and seemed all at peace leaving Jimmy and I utterly confused...HAMBURGERS, thats all you got? That was enough to satisfy John and the closest I ever heard him to saying anything coarse. My dad used to say about someone like that "He wouldn't say S*** if he had a complete mouth full of it." I'll admit to having a good deal of respect for folks that manage to control their mouth and use a better command of the English language. The guy I used to love to listen to talk even though I didn't agree with his politics was Buckley, I didn't care what he was talking about his absolute command of the language was amazing to me, I know he was an effete Patrician type of guy but man could he talk.
 
I started working in a machine shop at 15 and have spent my whole career in factories. I wish I'd never learned to use foul language. I remember as a teenager the first time I heard some adults use the bomb.....we were rebuilding the engine in a pal's GTO with his dad helping us. Now his dad was a mountain of a man, about 6ft 4 and 275....the song Seasons in the Sun came on the radio and Mr Shock was standing right beside me adjusting valves, and he let out with,"what the ....kinda stupid song is that!" I just leaned under the hood and pretended I was busy and said, "I don't know, I hate that song."....the tone of his voice shook me up....and that was only the second time I heard an adult use that word outside the shop I worked in.
 
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Our Mill was located by water, so we always had a problem with gulls. One day one of the guys was going between buildings and a gull dropped a huge load into his big bushy red beard. I think he dropped enough "bombs" to sink a battleship.
 
As I aged I came to realize that the power of my words were stronger if I did not use profanity. I'll still cuss at myself for doing something stupid and hurting myself, but if I want to tell someone they are stupid and endangering me by their actions I try to do that with words that have more or less than four letters in them. I love to see the shock on an idiot's face when they realize I told them that they were stupid without using profanity.
 
You are absolutely correct, Sir! I never heard either of my granddads or my father use that kind of language. Of course, I heard it from others, including classmates. Sadly, during time spent in the Army, as well as later constant time spent with several of the LEO's I worked with, I learned to use it as unconsciously as most of the rest, perhaps not to the fullest extent, but those words became ingrained in my mind. It became a real challenge to refrain from using them in places where they would not have been appreciated or allowed.

I'm old enough that it was still an actionable violation of law to use obscene language in a public place when I first became a police officer. I determined to clean up my language. It has been a lifelong struggle, and if I happen to be in the company of others who use it, it's very easy for me to use it without conscious thought. And sometimes I hear it without the influence of others when I lose control of my temper! I look around to see who said that and realize it was me! It just seems to appear unbidden at times, fortunately not nearly as often as it used to!

It has been for some years language that I do NOT wish to use ever! It's a constant challenge to keep it suppressed. Because of my grandparents and parents, I've always known to do better than I sometimes do, not their fault at all, but mine. I give thanks for the example of those people. I am truly blessed because of them, and it's a constant challenge for me to live up to their examples and teachings. I am without excuse!!!
 
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Witnessed a first today! Was watching the movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot on HDNET.
George Kennedy's character said the word, it was heard, and the closed captioning printed it out! First time I have seen closed captioning print out that word.
 
A-37 said:
I find the commonly used word "freakin'" almost as offensive as the other F-word when used in normal conversation. There's no question as to the word you really want to use.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you and don't allow it around my house.

Just about my whole family worked in the shipyards including myself. I don't ever remember any of my grandfathers, uncles, my father or older brother using any language. What very little I ever used was never around any woman. Now I can't say the same about my daughters but they don't use any around me but every now and the I'll catch a word or two when they talk to their friends or their sister. And I've heard them tell their friends when they bring them around that I don't go for that so they are pretty good about now using any language but they think the frig*** word doesn't count until I let them know otherwise. I guess it was part of my family not to use language and especially around women.
 
You guys were fortunate to have that much time with your grandparents. One of my Grandfathers passed when my Mother was still a young child, one Grandmother died when I was 3, and the other 2 grandparents died a month apart, just a few months after my 5th birthday. I barely remember any of them, and can't recall 2 words that were spoken between us.

Tim
 
My granddaddy was born in 1898 and lived until the age of 60. I was not quite four when he died. I still have good memories of him, like riding with him in his 1952 Buick and him playing the harmonica.

My barber growing up was a retired Army 1st sergeant. He had served with my granddaddy in the late 19teens and early 1920s. He told me several times that my granddaddy was one of the finest men he had ever known and that everyone liked and respected him. That meant a lot to me.

"Uncle" Al Foy, my barber, was an interesting man as well. He had lost part of his ear in WW I and while he was cutting your hair, he was prone to grab your ear and comment that he needed an ear! :) He rose to the rank of 1st sergeant and during WW II, he was promoted to colonel.
 
I didn't know either of my grandfathers well, both having passed when I was very young. My maternal grandma taught me lots of lessons though and I adored her. One day at the age of 5 I dropped an F bomb. She sat me down on the edge of the bathtub and said " one day you'll be a man and sometimes men use language like that. If you're old enough to use those words you're old enough to know when to NOT use them, and one place you never use those words is around your wife, mother and grandmother." Then she made me brush my teeth with Lava Soap almost till my gums bled. She lived to be 100 and I never said so much as "darn" around her again.
 
I rarely heard my granddad use any kind of profanity. But once in a while he would get his dander up and erupt. If he said an individual was a no-good *** you can bet your life that he was.
 
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