Tuesday, July 03, 2007

The Italian-Stallion

Ferris and his grandfather have been doing some landscaping work together this past week. After Pop-Pop retired a few years back he modified his pick-up to be a dump truck and has since been delivering small loads of mulch and soil.
And now that he’s got a big, strapping grandson – he is taking on some small scale landscaping work.

I dropped Ferris off at Pop-Pop’s house this morning … it’s on my way to work and …well… Ferris is currently without a car.

I sat in front of the house for a moment this morning …and the only thing I could think of was – please, please just shoot me if I suddenly become enamoured with stick on letters.
You know the ones – they are vinyl and come in ALL CAPS, and all shiny and sparkly.
They are generally used for say… mailboxes and house numbers. But, OH, the possibilities!

Pop-pop has used them all over the back of his big red truck.

In addition to his name and number, it says things like:
‘THE MULCH MAN’
and
GITTR DONE’

I can’t decide whether the fact that they are not aligned or spaced properly adds to …or detracts from the look.

This morning I also noticed he is started to write little sayings on the house.
He’s got this Sox banner hanging on the screened porch and next to it has printed in 3” golden block letters ‘LINE DRIVE’.
I have no idea of why… I am sure there’s a story.

This is the curse of the retired Italian man. First they start to ‘letter’ things – then comes plastic lawn animals, this inevitably leads to homemade wine and leather sandals with black socks.

So while our son may enjoy a full head of hair well into old age – vinyl letters are his destiny.

9 comments:

Middle Girl said...

Makes me yearn for my srong black coffee drinkin, checker playin, engine building grand-dad.

I'm sure Ferris appreciates the treasure that is Pop-Pop.

maxine said...

Better black socks than white.

WenWhit said...

That is FUNNY.

Those boys, they're good laborers. :)

Zoe said...

I hope Ferris at least aligns and spaces his letters evenly when reaches that wonderfully eccentric stage of his life.

Amaya said...

That's pretty funny. I like the way you wrote this - very cute story.

Val said...

That's so cute... wonder if Ferris even notices any of it!

Lachlan said...

There are worse fates than vinyl letters.

You've been tagged!

Suzanne said...

Sounds like a great way to grow old. And how cool is it to watch a son and his grandfather work together? I love that stuff. :)

Gunfighter said...

You lost me with the BoSox pennant.