Shelby demotion.

[deathsled]

Once the terror of the streets, now the terror of the grocery aisles.

[deathsled]

There were brighter times though...

[trotrof1]

WW2 vet?

[deathsled]

WW2 vet?

Almost. War ended when he was 17 years old. He was learning to fly a Spitfire when the war ended. His father was in the Canadian navy though. Patrolling the Atlantic and up around Murmansk.

[Side-Oilers]

Once the terror of the streets, now the terror of the grocery aisles.

Love it!  How far can he pull a wheelie down the cookie aisle?

[deathsled]

Once the terror of the streets, now the terror of the grocery aisles.

Love it!  How far can he pull a wheelie down the cookie aisle?

No wheelies in the cookie aisle.  Just skid marks from braking too fast.  I warn him about how bad sugar is for the body but he ignores my admonitions.  Hey, he made it to 95 and I just turned 60 a couple/ few days ago.  I won't make it to 95.  Something or someone is gonna get me I am certain.

[Side-Oilers]

I love old guys like your dad and my Uncle Larry,(whom I posted about a few months ago.) Their attitudes about modern life are usually spot-on correct, and often hilarious.

As for Uncle Larry: Finally having his car (and driver's license) taken away from him by his well-meaning son, he started driving his golf cart everywhere...including inside the supermarket, and anywhere else it would fit through the front doors. No license plate, blinkers, insurance, nada. And it was a gasoline cart. So, lots of exhaust fumes.

He told me "What the hell are they going to do to me, I'm 94, legally blind, deaf, have a pacemaker, and only have one leg (all true.) 

He still had FUN!  In the supermarket, he'd often yell for people to watch out because he's blind, and then purposely ram his golf cart into someone's shopping cart, or a display, just to get their reaction. 

He'd take the golf cart out at night, too, and drive somewhere. I'm talking on city streets, not in some gate guarded retirement community.  He said the he could see just as well at night as during the day...because he's f-ing blind!  Hard to argue with that.

He never got lost, had an accident, or anything, driving like that. And he was usually about 50% "schnockered" as our dad's generation would have called being tipsy.

God, I loved him. Great guy, with a great attitude and lived every day to its fullest.  The most surprising thing about his great attitude for life is that he spent his entire working career as a mortician. As in an embalmer and ambulance driver in the years before coroners in the little town he lived in .  The mortuary was a family business his dad started in about 1910. Larry was "strongly encouraged"  to work there by his parents and then inherited it decades later. His wife worked there too, fixing hair and makeup of the deceased.  Talk about a rough life. But, he and his wife (Aunt Dorothy) were some of the nicest, most fun, young thinking and just great all around people I've ever known.

That generation truly was the greatest. 

We should all be so lucky.  Get your dad a more powerful motor for his scooter, and install wheelie bars.  Then tell him that Larry said to have fun in the supermarket!

[deathsled]

I love old guys like your dad and my Uncle Larry,(whom I posted about a few months ago.) Their attitudes about modern life are usually spot-on correct, and often hilarious.

As for Uncle Larry: Finally having his car (and driver's license) taken away from him by his well-meaning son, he started driving his golf cart everywhere...including inside the supermarket, and anywhere else it would fit through the front doors. No license plate, blinkers, insurance, nada. And it was a gasoline cart. So, lots of exhaust fumes.

He told me "What the hell are they going to do to me, I'm 94, legally blind, deaf, have a pacemaker, and only have one leg (all true.) 

He still had FUN!  In the supermarket, he'd often yell for people to watch out because he's blind, and then purposely ram his golf cart into someone's shopping cart, or a display, just to get their reaction. 

He'd take the golf cart out at night, too, and drive somewhere. I'm talking on city streets, not in some gate guarded retirement community.  He said the he could see just as well at night as during the day...because he's f-ing blind!  Hard to argue with that.

He never got lost, had an accident, or anything, driving like that. And he was usually about 50% "schnockered" as our dad's generation would have called being tipsy.

God, I loved him. Great guy, with a great attitude and lived every day to its fullest.  The most surprising thing about his great attitude for life is that he spent his entire working career as a mortician. As in an embalmer and ambulance driver in the years before coroners in the little town he lived in .  The mortuary was a family business his dad started in about 1910. Larry was "strongly encouraged"  to work there by his parents and then inherited it decades later. His wife worked there too, fixing hair and makeup of the deceased.  Talk about a rough life. But, he and his wife (Aunt Dorothy) were some of the nicest, most fun, young thinking and just great all around people I've ever known.

That generation truly was the greatest. 

We should all be so lucky.  Get your dad a more powerful motor for his scooter, and install wheelie bars.  Then tell him that Larry said to have fun in the supermarket!

Hey Van, great story about your Uncle Larry! I believe that those who work so closely around death have a different attitude on life compared to the rest of us. They see every day how fleeting and temporary we all are and then make a conscious decision to enjoy life more. Many of us mouth the words to enjoy life and try but quickly fall back into the rut of dissatisfaction whereas someone such as a mortician is on a constant high save for the preparation of a body of course.

[FL SAAC]

Blessed to have him !