some of Grandpa at his best

Whoo-ee Grandpa was feisty today (as he'd say).  He loves joking around with Y, his home-care nurse from hospice who comes 3x a week.  Today she joked that she wanted to move the desk from the window and bring in a wading pool, fake palm tree, and straw hut.  Grandpa could chill out in the pool and she could give him his baths there.  "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard," he replied.  "Oh, come on!  It'll be fun!"  "No.  It's silly."  "Just a little one?"  "No."

Later, I wanted to check my facts on his corn-shucking skills - he and his family shucked it by hand and threw the cobs in a horse-drawn wagon box.  The horse was trained when to move forward and when to stop.  Did I have it right that he once shucked 100 bushels in one day?  "Oh yes!  100 bushels, six days in a row!"  He probably could have extended his streak, but they didn't shuck on Sundays.  Did they work from sunup to sundown?  HUGE nod - "Oh yes!!  A wagon box could hold 26 bushels, but you could fit 28 or 29 in there if you put the corn down the sides," (or something like that; I didn't quite catch it.)  "My friend Luther Goldberg once shucked 140 bushels in a day."  Several minutes later, he was dozing off and I asked him how many corn cobs were in a bushel.  "Huh?"  he said.  "How many corn cobs/husks/thingies were in a bushel?"  "Oh I don't know!  Good grief!"  I decided to let him sleep.  :)

This is Grandpa at the Great Lakes Naval Training Base in Lake Bluff, IL, where he trained when he was in the Navy during WWII.  He tells it best:  "I was in the Navy, and the closest I ever got to water was a rowboat in Lake Michigan."  That's okay, Grandpa - we're so glad we have you with us.