As I said in the previous post, I am gonna share a few moments that I hold dear with my Grandpa Shane.

My Grandpa Shane was quite an amazing man. He was a man who personified selflessness.  He was always willing to give people a helping hand, whether he knew them or not, and it showed by his 43 years of service to Jenkins Township, PA.

One of my earliest memories with Grandpa was how all of the family got together to swim in the “huge” swimming pool in his backyard.  Mind you, the pool was a normal size pool, but I was 3 or 4 years old at the time, so in my eyes, the pool was almost the size of Lake Wallenpaupack.  He was a jokester, through and through.  In the pool, he would act like a big shark and chase me and my older sister Tanya around the pool.  I couldn’t really reach the bottom of the pool yet, so I would frantically try to swim away, and somehow, I would always get away.

Another memory is whenever I would stay at Grandma & Grandpa Shane’s, I would always be doing one of two things: Reading the newspaper, or watching the Weather Channel.  Mind you, again, I am only 3 or 4 years old when this happened regularly. Grandpa caught on to this very quickly, and never did change the channel while I watched the TV, and encouraged me to read more and more (especially the Sports section and the Horse racing information).

Speaking of horse racing, we also took many trips down to Pocono Downs so he could play the horses, and I could marvel at watching them race by, and come up close so I could pet them or whatnot.  He always had me run up to the railing at the edge of the track and shout encouragement as the horses whizzed by.  I always loved going to the track with Grandpa.

Perhaps the most memorable moment for me came when I was about 6 years old.  You see, my Grandpa worked for the Jenkins Township Road Dept., and that entailed that he drove many vehicles, including dump trucks, recycling trucks, plow trucks, and the garbage truck.
Being a boy and all, I loved seeing all these trucks up close, but never got to actually be in one.  But one early morning, Grandpa woke me up and gave me a huge surprise: I was gonna go with him and drive in the garbage truck.  I was so excited, I couldn’t control myself, and kept jumping up and down.
So I got in, and just marveled at how high up I was as Grandpa also showed me what the endless buttons on the inside all did. We went along all morning stopping and going, waving at the people who stood on their porches, waiting for Grandpa to go by, as everyone knew who he was, and was very friendly with him.
When all the pick up was done, we headed on up to the landfill to take everything out, and then he got out of the cab of the truck, and I was there all alone.  I remember staring at all the buttons, wondering what would happen if I could just push this or that button just once. But then I pictured how angry Grandpa would have gotten if I didn’t do as he told me. So instead, I sat there, just looking around outside at all the endless big trucks and diggers.  It was such a great day, and I remember it fondly and vividly to this day.

One other thing I wanted to share is a little thing he always said when talking about me.  He always said this little rhyme with my name that went, “Robert Knight, go fly a kite.” To which I mustered up my own back at him, “Grandpa Shane, go grab your cane.” He answered back the first time I said it, “My Cane? I guess like how you don’t have a kite here, I don’t have a cane, so we’re even Robert” and then let out that signature laugh of his.

There are many more memories with Grandpa that I have, like the first time I tried Piggies with him, Grandma, and Aunt Uka, and the terrible reaction I had to it the first time I ate it because I hated cabbage.  It turns out, the last time I ate at Grandpa’s with him, there I was eating Grandma’s halushki, proud that I finally gained the taste for cabbage, and other traditional Polish foods.

So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed these few moments from my times with my Grandpa Shane from over the years.  These are just a very, very small piece of the many fun times we shared together.  Times that I will cherish forever, and will never forget.  Just like I will never forget my Grandpa.  And I hope just, that over the course of my life, I could be as good a man as him, so that I could see him again, someday.

I love you Grandpa.