EPTYeah. Stephen Lynch songs aside, this is about grandfathers... Well my grandfather in particular. I'm writing this on a whim maybe because I saw something inspiring, or something subconscious made think of doing this. My grandfather's condition hasn't been totally awesome as of late, but he still keeps going to work and owning all the 'kids' at the boat company. He fiberglasses boats or something like that. They offer him supervising jobs and he doesn't take them. The reason being he can't “speak english”. He's been working there for a long time now. Last night my grandmother and my mother took him over to the hospital for monitoring and thats when a little switch flicked up (or down according to how your lights work).
It'd be pretty empty in the house if he was gone, eh? I live with my grandparents (its actually pretty damn cool cause old people rock. The details of why are a bit out there, but it had to do with a little inter-family dispute we had about the restaurant (and me lol) which is way long gone now. My gramps was a pretty mellow dude. He didn't talk much unless he really had to and usually he just grunted a lot hahahaha. He'd come home and eat and then watch his lakorns. He liked to play cards too, but it was usually kind of asian stuff (I can't really tell you what card games, I only know them by watching) Yeah he'd pass time playing cards, or checkers with a fabricated board and lots of beer caps (one side up, one side down yeahhh). He was really cool, and kinda random since he would just buy stuff whenever he felt like it. “Oh lets go get a new refridgerator,” “Oh, I want a new TV,” stuff like that. He'd buy me stuff if he felt like it lol.
Other than that when I was growing up I didn't really know him that much. I knew that he, my grandmother and my mom came to America around the time of the Vietnam War. Yea my mom and grandma have told me stories about what he did during that time. He was pretty badass I guess. He was a soldier but when they were called up, I guess there was a period of disagreement or some shit, because a lot of the Laotian soldiers fled across the Mekong to “safety” Thailand. Basically he turned into a wanted fugitive. He left my mom and grandma at the village (they lived in Pakxe, in south Laos) and told them that he would be back to get them. And after a while, when he got enough money he put it on his word.
He was going back to get them. First he paid some military comrades or friends or something to send a message to my grandmother that they would be leaving the next night. Apparently the villages are tight -knit so if unfamiliar people aren't seen everyone would be alerted, so the “scout team” had to arrive at night and crawl through rice paddies and stuff. They got there successfully and got the message to my grandmother. They packed up for the next day, and they gave the land to great grandmother to tend to (she's still alive btw. Amazing? Yeah I talked to her about a month ago on the phone rofl :s). They had to leave and go through the rice paddies at night too. And when they met up with gramps he carried my mom while hacking through random crap with a machete for at least two days until they got to the Mekong.
Also, there were Laotian patrols that they had to be careful for. Those dudes were shooting defectors. Luckily though Thai dudes were out to watch for any refugees and bring them to safety. My mom described it as one of the longest moments of her life. Debris was every where in that river and it was totally murky. The boat wasn't a really strong (or heavy, w/e) boat. So if they drifted into huge crap it would be trouble. They went in and got across slowly, no patrols showed up and they weren't hit with any debris. Hey, the danger was still there. They stayed in the camp for a while until they got a sponsorship from a church to move to America (They made it to Michigan. Lol, asian people in michigan.) Gramps is a pretty cool dude. He's always family first even if he doesn't say so. Always looking out. Looking out for others more than himself. Haha, my grandma and mom also told me he was jailed for awhile after smashing some guy's face in too. He hasn't been back to Laos ever since then either, so I want to take him back at least once. If you read this thats cool, I just thought I'd share and get this off my chest. I'll probably read this later and go O_o!? But whatever. Its just that Gramps is a baller.
