My Pepere through the military, college, and a Monkey?

Not everyone gets to meet their grandparents, or maybe at least 1 or 2 of them. I guess You could say I am fortunate to have all four of them with me today. Over the last few years I’ve really started to see age affecting them. It makes me want to do more with them and make memories that’ll last. I decided to drive to my Memere and Pepere’s house to interview my Pepere

My Pepere is a pretty modest guy, he keeps things simple and he’s had to work hard his entire life. He grew up in Sabattus in a house that no longer exists, he’s stayed local his whole life. My dad told me a little while back that my Pepere is my only grandparent with a college degree and I was very surprised. After 17 years I never knew and I just had to ask him in person. I started off our interview talking about college, my Pepere got his degree or should I say degrees in a non-traditional way. He got out of the military in 1974 and went to college after, at this point he was married and had his first kid which was in 1975, and started going for his associates degree in 1976. He was handling his crazy young everyday life of delivering milk during day and taking classes at night, just to get up in the morning to do it again. I asked him about his milk run because that sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore, and he told me some great stories. He drove a small milk truck up to the Jay Livermore area early every morning, all the people on his route got to know him pretty well. He said “it was just so much fun to go in a house and put stuff away, lock the door behind you, they have so much faith in you.” One story was about this very poor woman that lived in a run down house. There was this hole in the exterior wall right next to her front door about the size of a bowling ball. It was there because the woman had a pet monkey named Bozo! “Bozo, for some reason had a fit, I remember he jumped up on my bread and shitn’ all over my truck and inside”. I got a good laugh.

My Pepere works from home, he spends most of his time there and doesn’t travel much. Most of his life he’s been part of the Sabattus American Legion. If he’s not at home you’ll most likely find him there. I will often visit him and help rake leaves in the fall, and shovel walkways in the winter. Recently, on Memorial Day last year his house was struck by lightning (of all things) and caught on fire, the house was saved and all of his personal belongings were okay, but ever since he’s been under constant stress. Seeing him go through the phases of getting his house back was hard. My Memere and Pepere lived in a hotel room for almost 4 months before they got an apartment that my aunt owns. The whole time all he wanted was to spend a night in his bed at home. He continued to work virtually and finally after around a year and a half, he got his house back completely restored with various upgrades and renovations. If I’ve learned anything from my Pepere, it’s that things can always work out even if they are out of order. With a crazy life in his 20’s and living paycheck to paycheck, he raised an amazing family and is very grounded to this day.

It’s nice being around him and visiting once in a while, especially right now. The conversations are always good and somehow we always end up talking about either military or music through the generations.

“Rocking Chair” by Ava Lowery is licensed under CC BY 2.0.