The Plights of Papa Roy

[Fozzie Bear]

It's been a LOONGGG time since I posted anything about my Papa Roy (my grandfather on my Mama's side of the family). But, with recent events, this seemed like a time to do it:

On Tuesday, April 19, 2005, Papa Roy was preparing to bush-hog my mom’s property and attempted to start his tractor standing on the ground because his stomach is too big to reach over and crank the tractor. But, he didn’t realize the tractor was in gear, and when he started the tractor, the big tire in the back came forward and caught his over-alls and pulled him back against it and then the tractor tire ran over his shoulder before going down the hill and ending up upside down in the ditch.

Papa Roy had laid there for most of the day until my cousin was going by and happened to notice him on the ground. He couldn’t even get up by himself, but once he got up he went inside the house and said he didn’t need to go to the doctor or anything.

Well, Wednesday, April 20, 2005, he woke up sore, sore, sore. He finally had the folks around there call my Aunt Janet who came down to pick him up and take him to the doctor. Apparently he’s okay, but very sore. As well he should be, he’s 98!

Well, in a conversation about all this with the family, my mom spoke up and said, “Well, I suppose it’s God telling him not to get on that tractor anymore.” I said, “No, mom. God doesn’t tell you things by running over you with a tractor!” My uncle replied, “No, when you get that old he comes to you in dreams!”


I find out about all this Thursday, April 21, 2005, and so I call to check on Papa Roy.

Papa Roy (PR): Hello?
Kevin (Me): Papa! What’ve you done to yourself??
PR: Oh, not a whole lot.
Me: I heard you’re feelin’ a little run-down?
PR: (Laughs) Yeah. Well, I’m okay. That lil’ ol’ light tractor can’t do nothing.
Me: It’s a tractor, Papa!
PR: I don’t care none. I ain’t hurt. Didn’t even hardly bruise me none.
Me: That’d still put me flat on my back.
PR: I was, but your cousin got me up. I didn’t want to go to the doctor cause I wasn’t hurtin’ any til yesterday mornin’, but I went and they said I ain’t hurt none.
Me: Well, are you going to be driving any more tractors?
PR: Well, they said they ain’t letting me! Your uncles are taking the tractor away from me.
Me: Does that hurt your feelings?
PR: Nope. Not like it did when that ol’ tractor ran over me!

I found out finally that he’s okay. We said our “I love you”s and I got back to work. He's the venerable "tough cookie." Not that he couldn't eat a tough cookie since he doesn't have teeth.

I'll keep updated posts here about Papa if anything in the future ever comes along...

 

[christyb]

Thanks for that Fozzie. He reminds me of my grandfather. I'm sorry about his little run-in with the tractor. But it put a smile on my face.

 

[Whatever]

I'm glad he's okay!

 

[King Jim]

Wow! 98, My mother-in-law is 101 years old and she still walks.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Hey.

He always hears about my Muppet-pals from the internet and around the world.

My mom called him and he told her he was planning to go down the road and bush-hog around her land. She called me crying, "I feel so terrible!"

I told her, "Papa Roy said he's okay! He told me not to worry and to just keep doing what I was doing because he wasn't hurt."

I finally calmed her down.

Here's a good Papa Roy story I posted LONG LONG ago, happened in '93 or '94:

My mom and 3 aunts had gone down to clean the house for Papa and Granny Ethel (Granny's gone now--since '95). Well, in the top of the bathroom closet there was a little bag of firecrackers. Not little firecrackers, either. Those big fat red ones. They were mine and one of my cousins from YEARS ago. Well, the bag of firecrackers ended up in the trash bag.

Down in the same ditch the tractor ended up in recently, there is a little stream, and it widens at one end and becomes a creek with a sandy area, and that's where Papa burns his trash. It's down the hill from his barn.

He took all the trash down the hill from his house to the ditch's sandy place and threw it down in there and began the fire. He stood by it watching...watching...making sure it doesn't fly out and spread in the pasture...watching...POW!..."Wha'?!"...POW! POW!!

My mom and aunt still laugh now talking about Papa running up the hill to the barn, and with ever POW! waving his hands all around until he got in the barn and hid there. He didn't come out of there for a LONG time.

One of my aunts walked out to see what was going on and he hollered out of the barn, "Who throwed (shotgun) shells in th' trash?!"

 

[Whatever]

That would be quite an experience!

 

[Manda:-D]

Heh, that's great, Kev. Kinda reminds me of my Great-Aunt, a fantastic 75-year-old Sicilian lady. She's stubborn as anything, too, but tough as nails, insists on doing everything herself, and won't move closer to my family because where she lives she's got a lot of neighbors she "has to take care of." When she was 65, she once chased down a guy who stole her purse and taclked him for it, because she had a lot of paperwork in it she didn't want to have to fill out again!

 

[TogetherAgain]

This whole thread reminds me of various grandparents. Most noteably, my 91- or is he 92? -year old grandfather, who had a lung removed at age 15 and was not supposed to live past 30. Also, my great-grandmother, aka Gingi, (other side of the family) who lived to the ripe old age of 103 and 7 months (but who's counting) and at 89 was still getting on her hands and knees to clean the kitchen floor. And for years, she would walk to the nursing home to take care of "all these old people" who were younger than her. Even when she eventually, ever so reluctantly, moved from grandma's to the nursing home, she complained about being surrounded by "all these old people" who were still younger than her. Hm, considering the old age on both sides of my family, I just might be sticking around for a very long time... I just hope I never make Gingi's complaint of being too old. <shudder>. It's past bedtime. Hope everybody's grandparents, parents, great-grandparents, random elderly friends, etc. are doing well. And if they're not ... I hope they ... <yawn> ... get ... better ... soon ........

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I took Papa Roy to the mall once for Chick-Fil-A, and while we ate breakfast, he kept looking at all the old folks (the Mall Walkers) and looked down at his chicken biscuit and shook his head, "Mm, mm, mm." I said, "What is it, Papa?" He said, "Look over yonder at that poor old man; he can't hardly walk." I'm sure the guy was younger than Papa by at least 15-20 years.

 

[King Jim]

My mother in-law who is 101 years old still swims in her pool.