[St. Paul, Minnesota; 1960] "I cleaned under the porch, grandpa, as you said; you said yu'd pay me four-dollars...? I cleaned it all this morning." "Yu dats god dn aldedy yaw...!" said Grandpa with is ornery Russian rustic voice. He stood looking at me, kind of staring, not sure as usually if (the Old Russian Bear) if he should believe me. "...vat you gwin do ef dat rat comes git out, dis crap al-here?" "You dont think its clean, grandpa?" I said. He looked at me with that annoyed gaze, kind of a wanting to eat me up look, I was thirteen then, and I think he liked my older brother Mike much more than I, but then I could annoy people I suppose, and for some reason Mike didn't; or so he had me believe. "I guess I better clean it again!" I said to Grandpa, watching him check under the porch as if it was the Taj Mahal. Then, as he pulled his body out and up, from under the porch he said, "noa..noa, No! I clen my self..." and he mumbled something else, I couldn't make it out, a ramble that is; as usual. He stood up looked at me (a serious face now), "dat no good"loks...vike...shit!" Old Grandpa had a hard time speaking English, but he knew them swear words perfect, every letter came out of his mouth flawlessly. In any case, I left him alone for the afternoon, he'd pay me later I told myself, he was a complainer"moody at times, and this was one of those times; but his word was like gold, if he said he'd pay, he'd pay. I found a softball game going on and joined in, in the empty lot next to our house. [4:30 PM] Mom had called Mike and I for supper; her voice would echo across the large empty lot, and down Cayuga Street: "OHHHH...Mi...cooo clll"Oh...Chick...time for dinner," and she'd do the same when twilight came about. It got to the point, we both [my brother and I] felt a little embarrassed that the whole neighborhood heard her calling us; that is as we got older and deep into our teens. And when I got in for dinner that evening, we had pork chops on the table, and brownies. She cooked pork chops a lot; hamburgers with crushed onions in the hamburger, a lot of chopped onions, with apple crisp pie. Grandpa saw me eating, and mom was walking back and forth from the kitchen to her bedroom (along side of the dinning room), and crossing through the dinning room, she saw Grandpa in the living room by the T.V. pacing to and from the porch, mumbling "Vat I got to pay, hit I clen the crp out me-sef..." he looked at mom, said, '...her, gie to Chick," it was four dollars for the cleaning: then he went back to his not so good language, "Gd dmn, sn bith, do evy ding me-slf..." on and on and on he went with such language. Then he went out to the screened in porch, fixed his pillows on the sofa he had out there, and put his pipe in a standup ashtray, and laid down on the coach, as he did so often, in the heat of the summer, and fell to sleep. |
