We usually have to park behind my grandparents house by a nursing home because their driveway is so small the rental car doesn’t always fit, and we walk down an uncleared path of leaves and branches and go inside to a house that usually smells like vinegar and bacon. My grandparents always greet us with a hug and a kiss.
After we settled in, and everyone else was in the other room my grandfather took my hand and led me into this small room. He turned on the light and there was all this equipment that I had never seen before. He sat down and I sat on his lap, he told me that it was a ham radio, and that I was old enough to talk to people on it. He showed me the buttons and how everything worked. The microphone was huge, and he precisely called into it W3FYA and people responded. I got to sit and talk to people from far away places such as Ireland and all over the United States that had Ham radios. To this day, he lets me sit in the Ham radio room and talk to people. It was just special to do this for the first time when he presumed I was “old enough.” That same trip he told me all about his experience with the Great Depression, and World War II stories that I will want to pass on to my kids some day because that was a first hand experience that needs to be told.
1 comment:
This is so cool because my grandfather has the exact same thing! He didn't get to serve in the army because of medical problems, but he has the radio and has talked to people all over the world. I really liked the way you made the situation important. You really showed the sentimental value of your relationship with your grandfather through your description. I'm not sure what a mixture of vinegar and bacon smells like, but it's a fascinating description. Nice post!
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