19 Comments
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Gillian Fletcher's avatar

What a fun tale!! It perfectly captures that feeling you only get with grandpa!

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Thank you, it was fun to think up. My real grandpa never set the lawn on fire, though!

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Gillian Fletcher's avatar

I think that’s a good thing…

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Probably. My parents would have been too smart to fall for the cowslips ruse. 😉

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Ken Beyer's avatar

Such a beautifully written tale! It brought out memories of a family friend from long ago! Thanks Jeannine 😊

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Your friend must have been fun to hang about with! Thank you and you're very welcome.

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Armand Beede's avatar

Jeannine: That is the most beautiful, funnest, mischievous, INNOCENT story ever!

I think the moral of the story is: LOVE, pure, whole LOVE is what makes a child whole.

Childish grandpa was very much ALIVE! And full of love and insight about children.

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Thank you! I wanted to tell it from the perspective of someone remembering the good times of childhood. The casual and mischievous use of explosives obviously marks my narrator as having grown up in a more innocent time.

But the description of Mikey's Fourth of July celebration (minus Grandpa's special surprise) is a modern true-to-life description of how it's done in my little town every year. Main Street is shut down for two hours for the parade and the Town Green is covered with venders, including the pie booth - proceeds from pie sales go towards a scholarship program for the higher education of townies. The library has a huge used/discarded book sale (as many books as one wants for whatever donation one feels is acceptable, proceeds going to the library). There's games, too, including barnyard bingo, in which a farm animal - usually a cow - wanders around a giant fenced-in numbered grid, while the humans buy bingo cards... it's just like regular bingo, but the cowpies mark the numbers. And when it gets dark, there really are fireworks at the ballpark - I can see them from the attic of my house! And city folk claim we country dwellers don't know how to have fun! 🐮

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Sandy Shaller's avatar

Beautiful, Jeannine. As a grandpa approaching 80, I can associate with so many things about your grandpa. I still roll on the ground with my youngerst granddaughter and run around the house with her screaming with delight. It's a blessing to have a body that works when you have yummy little ones to enjoy.

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Thank you. Just because we're aging, it doesn't mean we have to lose the joys of childhood . 🤗

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Sandy Shaller's avatar

Nope. Not if we're lucky and stay in good health. Oh, and don't lose our child selves. I was an elementary school teacher and principal for many decades, and I loved playing wiht the kids as well as teaching them.

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

I think that good teachers remember how to be kids. 🤗

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Sandy Shaller's avatar

Jeannine, I completely agree. I still get total joy playing on the floor with my two and half year old granddaughter, Robin and my 12 year old godson, Roman.

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Good Humor by CK Steefel's avatar

Sweet. Love the mischievous grandpa. 👏🥰

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Thank you. He reminds me a bit of my Dad. 🤗

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Nick Winney's avatar

Huge smile on my face!

you have made me want to write a wholesome story full of the simple joys we can find, Jeannine. i feel a bit bad that i always write horrible stories...you write some really heartwarming and true uplifting things...and yet you always honour me by reading the dark things i write... youve got me thinking! 😀

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

I'm happy that I made you smile! People are multifaceted critters. I have a dark side, but I'm not good at sharing that part of myself. I have depression, so I try to keep my writing on the joyful side of life - it sort of helps me keep my brain from eating itself, if that makes any sense. But a good horror story can be cathartic, and your work is good!

Though I am amused that you consider homemade bombs and brushfires to be wholesome... 🤣

Hmmm... I got you thinking? Do I want to know what I started? 🤔

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Richbee's avatar

My grandpa swore like a pirate and had a Dog Spike. That was about the size of his teeth. But could he keep trespassers away. No salesmen came to bother him. Lucky the past man delivered his Louis L’amour pulp fiction books to a mailbox at the end of the driveway.

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Jeannine Lawall's avatar

Grandfathers are interesting creatures. I only met one of mine - he was a mild mannered, sweet, quiet man. The Grandpa in this story is loosely based on my Dad - he was good with mischief, but he never set anything on fire.

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