8 is great….well according to the Mormon church that is the saying and I just so happened to turn 8 years old when I lived in Woodgate Court. The reason 8 is so great is because that is the age you get baptized when you are a Mormon and this is a pretty big deal.
My cousin Nancy (who was my favorite cousin and I spent gads of time at her house) also turned 8 that year and so we waited for our Grandpa RL Barker to come out for his visit from Utah to baptize us.
I loved my Grandpa… he was my dad’s dad and he came out every year if I remember correctly in a Winnebago…I’m not certain of that but it’s what my mind wants to remember so I’m gonna run with it.
When my Grandpa came out he was the type of Grandpa that was not afraid to crawl on the floor and play and when he visited me he would always play dolls with me. I remember that I would always keep the pretty doll and give him the one with the pen marks on her face and the hair sticking up five ways to Sunday….and he never complained…but always laughed about her appearance.
My cousin Nancy and I would lay a whole deck of cards out along their hallway to play match game and if Grandpa was around he would play with us and we would make anyone coming down the hallway tiptoe around all those cards….but my favorite part of having Grandpa around was I realized pretty early on that if I had to listen to what MY dad said then I was pretty sure my dad had to listen to what HIS dad said… and I took full advantage of this.
Nancy and I would always go up to Grandpa and make him “order” our dads (his sons) to let me and Nancy have a sleepover….I am certain they would have done it even if Grandpa wasn’t there to usher the command but to me it always felt like this little secret twist of victory because we had them cornered!
I don’t remember much about my baptism except that I had reallllllly long hair and I was ultra paranoid that a piece of it was going to float up above the water when I was plunged under and I would have to be redone….I saw it happen once because of a toe or something and I really really didn’t want that to happen to me. The one thing I do remember is walking down into the baptism font and my grandpa smiling at me and holding out his hand… it was really quiet as I got ready to step down into the water and when I put my foot in the water was freezing and I looked at Grandpa and said pretty loud “Holy moley this water is freezing” and he started to laugh and when he did I just remember all my nervousness disappearing.
I didn’t spend lots of time with my Grandpa…since he lived in Utah and I grew up in VA but I do remember when he died my dad was really really sad… and as a little girl I hated seeing him that sad. And sometimes at night when I would sit at the kitchen table with him late into the evening as he would drink and talk….he would talk about his dad and it was one of the few times I ever really saw him cry. R. L Barker was a great man… and I think that greatness rubbed off on my father. He didn’t approve of a lot of my fathers choices but he loved him….veraciously and because I saw that it made me adore him as a Grandpa.
When Grandpa died Nancy and I were really sad too… and Aunt Renee, Nancy’s mom, did the neatest thing. She got out some paper and crayons and she told us to write a letter to Grandpa to let him know we missed him and if we put them in this certain drawer in her kitchen they would magically be sent up to heaven and he would be able to read them…. And so we colored him a picture and wrote him a letter and we sealed them up in an envelope and then put them in that drawer and she and I went out to play. About an hour later we came back in and ran to that drawer to check to see if our letters made their way up to the pearly gates and to our astonishment they were gone! And I felt a little better knowing that even though he was gone… he knew that we still missed playing match cards and dolls with him and it made the sadness just a little softer!
What a clever woman that Aunt Renee was!
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Questions for the Day:
• In your church did you have a confirmation or baptism or some ceremony?
• What was your Grandpa like?
• Did you have a favorite worn out toy?
• Did you have any special cousins or extended family that you were close with?
• What did you picture heaven like when you were a kid?
• Where there any tricks you played on your mom and dad that you can remember?
Of course you don’t have to answer all of them or any of them for that matter… but if any of them made you think… I’d love for you to capture those thoughts so you have them to share… because they are worth being heard !
My cousin Nancy (who was my favorite cousin and I spent gads of time at her house) also turned 8 that year and so we waited for our Grandpa RL Barker to come out for his visit from Utah to baptize us.
I loved my Grandpa… he was my dad’s dad and he came out every year if I remember correctly in a Winnebago…I’m not certain of that but it’s what my mind wants to remember so I’m gonna run with it.
When my Grandpa came out he was the type of Grandpa that was not afraid to crawl on the floor and play and when he visited me he would always play dolls with me. I remember that I would always keep the pretty doll and give him the one with the pen marks on her face and the hair sticking up five ways to Sunday….and he never complained…but always laughed about her appearance.
My cousin Nancy and I would lay a whole deck of cards out along their hallway to play match game and if Grandpa was around he would play with us and we would make anyone coming down the hallway tiptoe around all those cards….but my favorite part of having Grandpa around was I realized pretty early on that if I had to listen to what MY dad said then I was pretty sure my dad had to listen to what HIS dad said… and I took full advantage of this.
Nancy and I would always go up to Grandpa and make him “order” our dads (his sons) to let me and Nancy have a sleepover….I am certain they would have done it even if Grandpa wasn’t there to usher the command but to me it always felt like this little secret twist of victory because we had them cornered!
I don’t remember much about my baptism except that I had reallllllly long hair and I was ultra paranoid that a piece of it was going to float up above the water when I was plunged under and I would have to be redone….I saw it happen once because of a toe or something and I really really didn’t want that to happen to me. The one thing I do remember is walking down into the baptism font and my grandpa smiling at me and holding out his hand… it was really quiet as I got ready to step down into the water and when I put my foot in the water was freezing and I looked at Grandpa and said pretty loud “Holy moley this water is freezing” and he started to laugh and when he did I just remember all my nervousness disappearing.
I didn’t spend lots of time with my Grandpa…since he lived in Utah and I grew up in VA but I do remember when he died my dad was really really sad… and as a little girl I hated seeing him that sad. And sometimes at night when I would sit at the kitchen table with him late into the evening as he would drink and talk….he would talk about his dad and it was one of the few times I ever really saw him cry. R. L Barker was a great man… and I think that greatness rubbed off on my father. He didn’t approve of a lot of my fathers choices but he loved him….veraciously and because I saw that it made me adore him as a Grandpa.
When Grandpa died Nancy and I were really sad too… and Aunt Renee, Nancy’s mom, did the neatest thing. She got out some paper and crayons and she told us to write a letter to Grandpa to let him know we missed him and if we put them in this certain drawer in her kitchen they would magically be sent up to heaven and he would be able to read them…. And so we colored him a picture and wrote him a letter and we sealed them up in an envelope and then put them in that drawer and she and I went out to play. About an hour later we came back in and ran to that drawer to check to see if our letters made their way up to the pearly gates and to our astonishment they were gone! And I felt a little better knowing that even though he was gone… he knew that we still missed playing match cards and dolls with him and it made the sadness just a little softer!
What a clever woman that Aunt Renee was!
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Questions for the Day:
• In your church did you have a confirmation or baptism or some ceremony?
• What was your Grandpa like?
• Did you have a favorite worn out toy?
• Did you have any special cousins or extended family that you were close with?
• What did you picture heaven like when you were a kid?
• Where there any tricks you played on your mom and dad that you can remember?
Of course you don’t have to answer all of them or any of them for that matter… but if any of them made you think… I’d love for you to capture those thoughts so you have them to share… because they are worth being heard !
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