My Grandfather was a sailor. Sailing is what caused him to meet my Grandmother. They met during the trying time that was World War II and never forgot one another. When the war ended my Grandfather sent my Grandmother a telegram that she kept with her until the day she died. It contained two simple words that carried an incredibly deep story with it: "Marry me"
When my Grandfather was still alive, I used to go visit both of them. Grandma would always make me a sandwich with ham, cheese, butter or mayo, tomato and iceberg lettuce. Then she would ask me how I wanted it cut, diagonal or straight. I always liked it cut diagonally even though my hero and idol was sitting across from me with his pumpernickel sandwich cut straight. Maybe it was because the sandwich looked like a sail..
It kind of feels odd to be telling you about my Grandfather without telling you what we called him. To my family, he was Papa. Sometimes I called him Pop for short. He was a handyman that learned to be a craftsman by fixing steam engines on his ships, but he didn't start out that way. And the reason I know that is because I used to ask him open ended questions and then listen to every word that followed. Two such questions painted an incredible picture of his life for me, a picture made of words.
The first of the two memorable questions was "what was your first job?" He told me that his first job was selling honey. He'd pick up 6 for a penny and sell them for a penny each. When he had enough pennies to rub together, he'd go see a motion picture. The first job I had was mowing lawns for cash, but my first job where I got a paycheck was at a movie theater. I don't think that was a coincidence. I've loved movies as long as I can remember and most jobs I've had were somewhat related to that business. Movies drew me in, but the sea drew him in. After he told me about selling jars of honey, I heard about a newspaper job and then another job and another. When he was old enough, he went to sea. He eventually became a Merchant Marine and brought many supplies to men that were on land. On a ship there's lots of time to read, so my grandfather used that time to educate himself on steam engines that powered the ship. He qualified to become an engineer without ever stepping foot on a college campus because he studied on his own.
As much as Papa loved the sea, he never married it. Instead he married my grandma and found a career on land. When the war was over, he had a career waiting for him checking steam engines all over Louisiana. He worked with that same company doing the same job until he retired. And that was the end of his story about his first job. It took him about 2 hours to answer it. You could easily feel how much he loved being on the water. He talked about all the things he was able to see because of being a sailor. It got me hooked on the idea that I need to see the world from a boat.
The second open ended question was "how did you meet Grandma?" They answered that one together. It was their life story. Grandma was born in Wales, lost both her parents and lived with a kind man that knew her mother when she was growing up. When she was entering her teens, she went to live with an Aunt because the man didn't want rumors about them flying around. She spent the war in fear of being bombed by the Luftwaffe. There wasn't much food to go around, to give you an idea of how little they had, she told me they would use the same teabag at least 3 or 4 times before declaring it useless. At night, if you lit a single candle, the whole neighborhood would chew you out because the Germans were bombing the area with some regularity. Light meant life and the Germans would aim at even a candle. Cardiff, Wales was a tough place to be a young woman during that stretch and it shaped her into a tough and honest woman. She didn't take guff from anyone and she didn't ever cheat or want to be cheated.
Papa's job as a merchant marine wasn't easy and it was dangerous, but they were paid regularly and ate square meals. It was dangerous because submarines and bombers were always on the lookout for supply ships. Cutting off the supply line was better than winning a battle, so they were sitting ducks out there. But the people that deliver meals have access to their fair share of food.
My grandparents didn't have very many dates before getting married. You could count them on one hand and have a finger or two leftover. The second date was the most memorable and to listen to the two of them describe that date is amongst the greatest experiences I've had in my entire life. They planned to meet up because they had seen each other the previous day. My grandfather went back to the ship and down into the galley. He asked the chief cook for a special sandwich for his second date. The chief cook knew what was going on in Cardiff so he grabbed the biggest loaf of bread he had and exaggerated the contents of the sandwich. My grandfather told me about how he took his knife and cut the absolute thickest slices of ham he'd ever seen. How he got a huge amount of butter on his spatula and spread it all over the bread. Then he filled it with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. It was the same sandwich I had been eating for years.
That sandwich made it to the front door of Grandma's Aunt's place and it was dismantled by the starving Welsh family. They stripped the butter off, the ham, and the veggies. They made a small sandwich for the two lovers to split on their date and they all shared in a sailor's gift from the sea. Anyone who brings food to the starving is a hero and like all good heroes, he never thought he was one. But I know he was a hero because he was mine.
This story and many more stories that I haven't shared stayed with me. So now I feel it, I know it's my turn to sail. My turn to see the world from a boat. I'm selling my house and I'm going to use the money to buy a 36 foot Pearson sailboat. It will look somewhat like this:
The sailboat will be where I live and my home will be where my anchor lies. I'm excited to get going. Everyone that I tell about this idea to sail about the world seems to like it. My plan is to learn to sail the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico, cross the Panama Canal, go to New Zealand to pick up a Kiwi friend of mine and head back to Pakistan. The birthplace of my book, 'The Pod'. It's the place where I learned about the Green Man, Khizr. The place where I found out about Sufism and 'The Conference of the Birds'. It's also the place where I learned to see the world with a new eye.
No comments:
Post a Comment