Pappy's Ponderings

Pappy · 12-23-2007, 11:11 AM

My wife says I should tell these little stories to you people. She likes them and says I should share them. The stories are mostly true, to the best of my recollection, but may have been embellished over the years.

Pappy · 12-23-2007, 11:33 AM

Heinie was an older guy who lived a couple of blocks from us. He lived in a small shack, with an outhouse in back of his place. He used flattened out beer cans for shingles and flattened sixpack cardboard for insulation.
He was a house painter, by trade. And quite good at it, according to the oldtimers around town.
When I was about 6 years old, some friends and I would play in the alley, behind main street, in the early afternoon on Sundays. We were waiting for the theater to open for the matinee. Heinie always came by on his way to 'Fritz's', a beer tavern. He was a frienly fellow, always greeting us kids.
He would ask us if we wanted to play catch. It was always the same. We would tell him, "But, we don't have a ball, Heinie."
And he would say, "I think I have one here, someplace", and reach under his well worn jacket, and pull out a handful of air, pretending to hold a ball.
So, he throws the imaginary ball to one of us, and we pretend to throw it back to him. Back and forth, around between the 4 or 5 of us kids. This would take just a couple of minutes, and he would say he had to go meet someone and take care of some business.
Before he left, he always reached into his pocket and brought out a handful of change.
After handing us each a nickel, he shook our hands and ambled down the alley and entered the back entrance to 'Fritz's".

the.fatman.cometh · 12-23-2007, 04:25 PM

really cool, pappy, i hope you got more comin' !

Pappy · 12-23-2007, 04:45 PM

While in junior high school, we kids from 'town' would work on farms in the summers. 'Walking beans', for 50cents an hour, was what alot of us did. We'd walk beans on several farms over the summer.
One farm we worked on had a hired man, named Ceilo (c-low).
Not a very large man, Ceilo wore bib overalls, a blue shirt, and usually had a striped, engineers' cap. He was what the older people called, "off the beam". I don't remember him ever not needing a shave, and he always had a certain 'fragrance' about him. Ceilo worked along side of us kids, in the fields.
All the farmer's wives, whose fields we worked, would fix lunch for us during the day, and a huge supper in the evening, after the work was done for the day.

We were washing up for supper, on the porch of the farmhouse where there were a couple of basins of water, and towels.
Ceilo splashed about 3.8 drops of water on his face and then turned a nice white towel into what looked like a mechanics rag.
The farmer said to Ceilo, casually, "Well, it's Saturday night, Ceilo. Bath night."
Ceilo looked the farmer straight in the eye and said, "I ain't had a bath in 35 years, and I ain't gonna start, now!"

the.fatman.cometh · 12-23-2007, 04:51 PM

holy shit!

SHAMAN · 12-23-2007, 05:06 PM

HaHaHa!!!!!

Pappy · 12-25-2007, 10:11 AM

Heinie had an old, rusty, dented up, green, '49 Chevy. One day he came off main street, crossed the 2 sets of railroad tracks, and ran the stopsign on highway 14. Unfortunately, a car was coming from the west and hit Heinie's old Chevy. There was glass all over the highway, from headlights and windshields.
Heinie casually got out of his car and went to the driver's side of the car that hit him. He asked if everyone was o.k. Finding that no one was seriously injured, he told the driver to contact the authorities. "I'll be down at the 'powerhouse', said Heinie, and he walked the half block or so, to the municipal liquor store.
Sometime later, a highway patrolman, dressed in his khaki colored uniform and 'smokie' hat, came into the bar. He asked the bartender if he had seen Henry M. (Heinie's real first name was Henry). The bartender pointed to the far end of the bar and told the patrolman which one of the 4 or 5 men at that end was Heinie.
The patrolman made his way to the other end of the bar and asked, "Are you Henry M. and did you just have an accident?"
Heinie answered, "Yes, I am, boyscout. Sit down, and I'll buy you a drink." The officer politely declined the drink, and asked, "Could you show me your driver's license?"
"I'd like to", Heinie replied, "but I lost it."
"When did you lose it?", asked the patrolman.
"Oh, I don't know," said Heinie, "40, maybe 45 years ago."

Pappy · 12-25-2007, 07:53 PM

This may be somewhat disturbing to some...

Cielo, and his brother Ivan, lived with their mother in town. They had an average sized, 2 story home, which sat at the corner of Birch and 3rd Ave. E.

Their mother was a nice, friendly old lady. She was in her late 70's or early 80's. The neighborhood was fairly close-knit, and the neighbors stopped in to visit each other, every now and then. Not every day, usually a couple times a week.

A neighbor of Cielo, Ivan, and their mother, hadn't seen the mother for a few days, and decided to go over and maybe have coffee with her.

She knocked on the door. Ivan opened the door and wordlessly allowed her to enter. She was almost knocked down from the odor. She looked across the living room and saw the old lady lying in the doorway to the dining room.

The mother had aparrently had a heart attack, and fell in the doorway. She had been dead for at least 3 days.

Cielo and Ivan had been living there, those few days, as if nothing was unusual. They must have been stepping over her, as the kitchen was on the other side of the dining room.

Cielo wound up in a nursing home, shortly thereafter. I have no idea what became of Ivan. I don't remember ever hearing Ivan speak.