Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Uncle Popeye

Uncle Popeye's real name was Lee but for as long as I can remember we all called him Popeye. He was my grandpa's brother so not my direct uncle, but a great uncle. He was always around when I was a kid. My grandpa (moms dad) had 6 brothers and sisters, but Popeye was the closest to him, they hung out all the time even when my mom was little, she said he was around all the time. 

I've told you a lot of childhood stories, but this one is from when I was in my 30's. Uncle Popeye moved out to the desert with his nephew, Johnny and while I wrote to him pretty often, he stopped writing when Johnny passed away suddenly of a heart attack. I didn't realize it at the time that Johnny had been writing the letters when Uncle Popeye would dictate to him what to say because his eyesight wasn't very good anymore and he had a hard time writing because of it. His hearing was darn near gone so calling him became really difficult. At this time, he was 80 years old. The neighbor who lived down the road from him wrote to me trying to get a hold of my mom. So, I told my mom, and the neighbor told her he really couldn't take care of himself anymore. So, they made arrangements for him to come live with my mom. 

When he was settled with my mom, she took him to the doctor and got him hearing aids and a motorized wheelchair like she had. One night she called me after her and Uncle Popeye had ridden their motorized wheelchairs down the street to the grocery store to get his bacon, potatoes and eggs that he wanted to eat every day for breakfast. 

She was laughing hysterically when she told me that Uncle Popeye could not drive his motorized wheelchair at all. He kept running into the back of hers, slamming himself into the fence, hit a mailbox, bounced off a chain link fence when he was going too fast and all the while was cussing up a storm. My mom said she couldn't stop laughing as they drove down the street to the grocery store. She said it was like bumper cars.

Once in the store he was once again going too fast and took out a display of cookies that was piled pretty high. He ran into the back of a few carts and almost took out a guy who was walking down an aisle. My mom said she had to turn down the speed he was able to go so he could maneuver easier and not knock anything else over. 

While my mom was on the phone with me, Uncle Popeye asked her what they were having for dinner and she said steak. He heard, "Snake" and had a fit saying he was not eating snake! Even with the hearing aids his hearing wasn't great so she had to show him the pack of steaks before he would stop yelling about eating snake. 

I laughed so much on that phone call. 

He passed away in his sleep at my mom's house just a few years after he moved in with her. But I think they were both happy he was there for a while. 

This is me and Uncle Popeye in the back and my mom in the front. lol She liked to ham it up for the pictures.