The doctor was perplexed. He seemed sane enough. He was too old for a gang member. He was too happy for a crime victim. Something was just not right. This man sitting in the ER, a bullet wound in his finger, smiling and comforting others in the waiting room. Who is this guy?
Then it was cleared up.
He got tired of seeing/hearing the rats. The final straw was sitting by the pool watching a rat run across the phone line strung across the backyard. It was time to take matters into his own hands.
So Gramps got his gun. A little .22 that was always trusty and true. He sat there, waiting for another chance. Then it came.
"There's one" shouted grandma...
Gramps jumped up and took aim...careful aim. Like when he would shoot the prairie dogs or the skunks growing up in Nebraska. But his hands were not quite as steady as they had been 40 years earlier. So he slid his left hand down the barrel just a bit to steady the gun.
Then the rat made a break for it...and gramps, not wanting to miss his opportunity, pulled the trigger.
His finger-tip did not stand much of a chance. The .22 went right through the end, blowing through the nail, and continuing on to drop the rat.
One bullet, two hits...unfortunately, the tip of gramps finger was one of them. He wrapped it up in gauze, got the dead rat out of the pool, and then drove to the hospital, where he ended up inviting a few other patients to church that Sunday. One of them even became a regular attender...so there was some good in the great finger incident of 1988.
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If you have any interest, here are a couple other stories about gramps...
The Skunk Hunting
The Squeeze Box
Getting Married (Grandma even commented!)
Saying Goodbye
13 comments:
Love this story! As soon as I get home, I plan to read the rest!
Hallie :)
Cool story
My grandpa died almost six years ago on the 4th of July. He was 85 and had cancer. I loved him so much. He was a hoot in an Archie Bunker grouchy kind of way.
He and my grandma's youngest is down syndrome. She is now 50 years old. She had the same social worker assigned by the state of CA until she was around 41-42 when he retired. My Aunt Marilyn is 4ft 9 in in every direction and when the new social worker, just out of college, came along she was very concerned about her weight. She instructed my grandparents to put her on a diet.
The next time she came out there had been no change. She informed my grandparents that they were abusive by allowing their daughter to be so fat and that she was bringing a scale the next time she came and if she hadn't lost any weight that Marilyn could be taken away.
The next time she came... my grandpa met her on the porch with a rifle. Thankfully, the judge understood that my grandpa was from another time and they were assigned another social worker.
That's some vigilante justice right there. Or, more exact perhaps, vigilante testifying!
This was a great story. I'm going to come back to read the others tonight!
Great story about Gramps! I will defintely have to read the rest later!
Thanks for sharing!
Kimmy
That's such a neat story! I love stories regarding grandparents. They're always so...nostalgic and fun.
I hope I live long enough for people to say..."Wow, they really made it work...all those years!"
I am so inspired by people who have made it work, and so disgusted by how the world just thinks that if it doesn't work...just get out of it. No biggie.
It is sad...and as a product of divorced parents, I can honestly say how hard it is on everyone.
Thanks for the Grandpa stories...obviously I read more than just this one.
Neat to think that Grandpa traded a fingertip for another's soul.
The Maid
Your comment on my blog made me LOL! Just tuck that little bit of info in the back of your mind... don't forget it... because one day you will be married with a little one and... well, sometimes a mama has got to have a little bit of fun.
Your grandpa RULES.
What a great story. I'm going to read the others when I'm not supposed to be in bed sleeping already.
WWoW - Hope you enjoyed the others.
William - Thanks.
Coffee - I have a lot of love for people who dedicate their lives to helping others, but some of them go way too far in "protecting" those that they are serving...the shotgun seemed like an appropriate response.
DKG - He was a very gentle man, but that day he was not mess'n around.
Kimmy - Thanks.
Lauren - They are.
Becky - He would have made that trade every day if he could.
Chardsy - He was the greatest.
OK - Sleep another time, read good stories now.
Fairly cool to have the dead rat prove you still made the shot!
Fairly cool to have the dead rat prove you still made the shot!
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