Babe

I was not until I was in my twenties that I finally understood the nature of the relationship between my grandfather and his wife. My grandparents divorced when I was just a few years old. The only memory of my grandpa being at the house when it was still called Grandma and Grandpa’s involves a swimming pool and family members tearing it down. Right now I am seeing that pool as I did when I was four, it seems twenty feet tall. Something out of a circus. Too big and too dangerous for use by average citizenry so it had to come down, flagrantly in violation of many city ordinances. Neighbors and Councilmen called for its immediate destruction. All nonsense, of course. This is how that simple vision evolved into a memory in my head.

After that, when it was just Gramma Nonna’s house, I remember the greenest grass I have ever set my toes in. I would run and slide and roll around in it. It was so thick it held me up, cushioned me from the hard clay below. I remember jumping over the sprinkler. I remember rolling along the sidewalk on a skateboard on my stomach and announcing to anyone driving by or within earshot that they were indeed Polaks. I did not know what a Polak was but my Grandma thought everyone was one, and so did I. And I made sure they knew it. I even made a song out of it, more of a march really, which was just the word Polak repeated as I bobbed my head from right to left and stomped my feet. Good fun until my parents overheard, they pulled me inside and explained I should not use that word, not outside anyway.

That’s one of those stories that gets told every Christmas that always brings Gramma Nonna to tears from laughing so hard.

Grandpa had a house in the old part of Schererville closer to us. It had a carport. Which if you know anything about that part of Schererville, it is pretty much mandatory to have a carport. Grandpa shared the house with Ann. So the house was called Grandpa & Ann’s, pronounced Granpaenannes. As far as I knew Ann was just some younger lady that was always at Grandpas house. I was so young when this system was introduced to me that I never thought to question it. Together they moved to Florida then Arizona when I was still very young. We only saw them once every few years for reunions, weddings and certain funerals. Their distance further removing their arrangement from my consciousness. Even now I do not know for sure if there was an affair that broke up the marriage between my grandparents. They are still together living in Arizona. She has always been a nice lady and my grandpa has always been a decent, if not slightly odd guy. A few years ago they were in town for a family reunion. Grandpa had taken to calling me “Babe.” Which I found curious and endlessly amusing. It was at that reunion I leaned over and asked my mom about Ann. I was 24 years old and it was the first time their relationship had peaked my curiosity. My mom, appropriately surprised, informed me they had been married for about twenty years. I, also surprised, wondered why no one had told me that before.