Spare the Rod and Save the Child
The year of our Lord, 1943, was about the time Granny referred to when she would tell how Granddad Vado spanked one of his grandkids for the first time. It seems that Claude Alvin (three years old at that time) had been following behind Vado; turning over the chickens’ water pans as they were filled. When Vado noticed what Claude was doing, he just grabbed him up and swatted the seat of his pants with the palm of his hand a couple of times. Granny always thought this was funny and Granddad would say something like"Oh Maw I didn't even spank him that hard". My strongest, early memory of Granddad is when they lived in Grandma Morris's house in Pampa. Granddad was standing in the Kitchen door from the front room, with his feelings hurt, for everyone was making comments about Bruce and his predicament, whatever it was. Granddad worked at the Feed Store in the fifties and we lived on the next street north in nineteen fifty and fifty one. Granddad would bring the one hundred pound sacks of feed on a hand dolly and load them on the customer's truck. We would go around to see him as the little chicks in the brooder's needed someone to look at them. When Enos and Adell moved the family to Borger, Granddad would stop and pick me up to go with him to Liberal Kansas for a load of Feed for the store in Pampa. That old Chevrolet truck would really whine as he downshifted to make it up the next hill. I was looking through one of our picture boxes the other day and ran across a little leather bound award for School attendance about 1954. The only thing is, after roll call of the last class of the day on Fridays, I would ease around the corner of the building and take off for the East highway from Borger to Pampa. I would just walk until someone stopped to give me a ride. Granny always pretended to be surprised, and Mother never really got angry. They just left me in care of a higher power I suppose. Morris would take me home Sunday night, thank goodness, as I didn't have the will to hitchhike back home. After Dot and I were married in 1966 we didn't see Granny and Granddad very often, but I was Honored to have been present in the Room when our Granddad passed away. Looking back "I think there should have been a few more whoopins for myself".