Yo, Dude

with my grandparents and my sister at the Landfall in WoodsHole

My grandfather passed away on Wednesday and I don't want to be doom and gloom and realize this blog is not the Obits, but it's my party and i can cry if i want to.

Poppa
Charles F. Dodson

My grandfather was the the guy from Tennessee who could and did.  Hearing stories about his childhood on the farm from what I imagine is the smallest and quaintest town- McMinniville, Tennesse, was as foreign and rich like reading tales from One Thousand and One Nights. The everyday life was so genuinely packed with Americana that he said The Andy Griffith Show reminded him of the characters down "home."  He lost his father, Venus, when he was two and was raised by his mother, Mariah on a farm.  Being the baby of the family and with quite a few years apart from his siblings, he had an incredible bond with his Momma.  He loved his pet pig, Arabella, and still missed her till this day.  The big, fat pig (is that redundant?) Arabella would follow my grandpa down the long dirt driveway from the house to the mailbox and even got stuck one time in between houses.  When they had to go away for a few days, they asked their neighbor to watch Arabella and were devastated upon return to find out she had "died".  It was no coincidence the neighbor was stocked up on new ham, pigs feet, bacon...
     My grandfather had the most tremendous work ethic and was out selling things as long as he could remember.  Whether it was something from the farm- cured hams and jellies made by his mother out of a wagon, or working at a sock factory; he even lied about his age to enlist and serve in the military just because he saw it was a way to move forward.

  Classic WWII love story, my grandparents met on Nantasket Beach in Massachusetts when he was on leave dressed in his navy uniform.  They were married during the war and started their lives like everybody else did then with nothing much but love and determination. He was one of the few survivors of the sinking of the USS Pollux.  In true dry humor, his usual regale was how all he could think about when the ship was sinking was wanting to go down below to his locker to retrieve the 20bucks his mother sent him (a fortune then)....The survivors were covered with oil from the ship when they was pulled by rope from the freezing water up the cliff off the shore of NewFoundland.  They were taken care of by kind, poor village folk until military help arrived days later. The fisherman who my grandfather was staying with asked him what he would like and he requested a glass of milk, thinking it was simple enough.  The poor guy did not have any and went out to find some only to come back with a can of condensed milk.   My grandfather could see the trouble he went through to get it and knew he had to gulp down the can to show his appreciation.
   After the war, he went onto become a lawyer and was always helping people out since he practiced general law.  There was always some bric-a-brac around the house that was used as bartered payment if the person did not have the money.  The most exotic to me when I was a kid was a massive whale tooth covered in scrimshaw.
    Cape Cod is a special place for our family.  My grandparents started summering there when my mom was a little girl and eventually purchased a house in East Falmouth.  A few houses later, they purchased the house I was Christened in and summered until we moved out to California.  A few years after we moved to Cali, my grandparents bought a condo near us and would spend the winters here and the other 6 months there.  I started to spend a chunk of summer there the past five years with them.  Traveling all around the Cape, eating home made ice cream (my grandfather loved peach anything), enjoying life, listening to stories about the family....
  My grandfather traveled to Spain a lot for both business and pleasure and learned Spanish in his seventies.  He took my sister and me with him when I was in high school and I can't believe we never went again on his numerous trips back.
   Papa liked nothing more than hanging out with his family, hanging with his friends, having a great meal, a glass of wine (or two) and playing some golf.  He was always up for anything and was still working and traveling up to his last few months at 86.
    His last few words were, "I'm a lawyer....I'm a Cape'r.....I've been married a long, long time."
Here's to Papa!

with my grandparents at the Cape