Tribute to Grandpa

Proverbs 13:20  He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. 
My grandpa (on my mama's side) has been gone for a while but I still miss him. He grew up in the hills of Tennessee but when he was in the army (wartime) he met my grandma at a bus station in Indiana and moved here with her after he was discharged. They visited his out-of-state family whenever they could and loved when the family visited them. Sometimes we could get him to talk about a shenanigan he pulled with a brother or cousin when he was younger! He didn't have a lot of "book learning," He would tell you the only reason he stayed in school through the eighth grade was because he liked being on the baseball team! But he was wise in so many other ways. Most times he didn't have a lot to say. And when he did talk, paying attention was usually a good idea!
 I remember riding around on the mountain roads of his boyhood, and thinking how far up we were or how far down the bottom was. I never was able to be at ease! But Grandpa wasn't phased one bit. He had helped build some of those roads, working for the CCC, and he would say, "It's not near as hard to drive on them as it was to build them." 
 I remember Grandpa as a carpenter. He built my "stow box" when I was a young 'tweenager. For the family, he fixed up broken chairs and built bookcases. I remember him showing my DH tips and tricks like how to use a toothpick to fix a loose door hinge. 
 I also remember how good my grandpa was at fixing cars. For a while, he was the manager of the local service station. My own father had passed away before I was old enough to drive. So in my high school days, it was Grandpa who checked the oil, changed the tires, and jump-started my dead batteries- he even gave me my first car! 
  And Grandpa was an excellent gardener. On their small town lot, Grandpa grew blackberries and raspberries, and rhubarb and onions. He would have tomatoes and potatoes growing like crazy in used-up old tires. And in one bed there was always leaf lettuce. That lettuce is what brings my grandpa's memory fresh to my mind today, because Valentine's Day will be here soon. And Grandpa always planted his lettuce on Valentine's Day. And if some would ask, "What if snow is on the ground?" Grandpa's reply would be, "Throw the seeds on the snow, they'll grow." And for him it always did. So today I'm sorting out lettuce seeds and preparing for Valentine's Day. I don't think we will have snow this year, but it's ok if we do -my grandpa said so!