As I get older, I’m becoming more and more aware of how my life has been impacted by my grandfather. Pa Pa loved his Days Work chewing tobacco, his pipes, his hats and his Zippo lighters. He taught me the importance of having your own produce garden and knowing how to shop...

well and talk at length with your farmer’s at the local Farmer’s Market. He told me how to make sure that I owned as much land as I could traverse in a single day and memorize four verses a month for the Bible. He taught how to never strike a woman, no matter what she says...

or does & that if it ever had to get physical, then it was time for the man to leave. He said, ‘Mickey, a door swings both ways & you can always leave when the love & respect is gone.’ He said, ‘There is more fish in the sea, than suffering a rotten one in your bed. Go fishin’.”

Pa Pa was a proud Freemason and loved his daily slices of tomatoes with salt, black pepper and apple cider vinegar. He said, ‘Tomatoes and Apple Cider Vinegar are good for your innerts and drink lots of water every single day.’ He loved his gold plated watch on a chain that...

he received as instead of a pension after working for a textile mill for 25 years. I never heard him complain about the ‘white man’ or use a single racial slur regarding white people. He said, ‘Mickey, you have the right to own a shotgun and I have never seen a man disrespect...

00 Buckshot heading in their direction. Never. So you make sure you never have to pull the trigger, unless your life or family lives depended on it.’ He taught me how to cook a tortilla on an open flame and add thick slice of bologna. He said, ‘Never disrespect a Mexican...

because Texas was once his land and if you do, you had better be quicker with your knife. So try and always be respectful to the Mexicans. They make good friends.’ He taught me that hard work can never take the place of a lot of sleep. He said, ‘You can sleep when you’re dead.’

The story about my Pa Pa was that he was a genius that could watch a train roll by and add up all of the serial numbers up in his head and give you the total without using a pencil and paper. In fact, I never saw him miscount anything at the Farmer’s Market and always had the...

total called out including the tax long before the grocer rang everything up with his cash register. I now see my Pa Pa as one of those Mutants that had to conceal his ‘hidden powers’ in order to survive & have a ‘normal life’ on Earth. It’s funny how much I’m becoming him.