Butch Says, Go ahead . . . Spoil Those Grandkids!

   Some things never change. The following poem was written by Edgar Guest in 1924 . . .

   “My grandpa is the finest man, Except my pa…My grandpa can, Make kites and carts and lots of things, You pull along the ground with strings, And he knows all the names of birds, And how they call without using words, And where they live and what they eat, And how they build their nests so neat. He’s lots of fun! Sometimes all day, He comes to visit me and play. You see he’s getting old, and so…To work he doesn’t have to go, And when it isn’t raining, he…Drops in to have some fun with me.

  “He takes my hand and we go out, And everything we talk about. He tells me how God makes the trees, And why it hurts to pick up bees. Sometimes he stops and shows to me, The place where fairies used to be; And then he tells me stories, too, And I am sorry when he’s through. When I am asking him for more, He says: ‘Why, there’s the candy store! Let’s go there and see if they, Have got the kind we like today.’ Then when we get back home my Ma, Says: ‘You are spoiling Buddy, Pa.’

   “My grandpa is my mother’s pa, I guess that’s what all grandpas are. And sometimes Ma, all smiles, will say: ‘You didn’t always act that way. When I was little, then you said, That children should be sent to bed, And not allowed to rule the place, And lead old folks a merry chase.’ And grandpa laughs and says: ‘That’s true, That’s what I used to say to you. It is a father’s place to show, The young the way that they should go, But grandpas have a different task, Which is to get them all they ask.’

   I’m glad some things never change . . . aren’t you?

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 37 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.