Grandfather - Part II

A couple of more stories about my grandfather.

Grandpa Fred had a degree from University of California - Davis, in Dairy and Creamery, and worked for Knudsen in his younger days. He and Grandma Madge also owned an ice cream shop in Sacramento. In fact, my dad used to say my mother "trapped him" by saying they owned a series of ice cream shops. That wasn't true but it did make a good story. By the way, grandpa did make the best ice cream ever, and ice cream is still my favorite desert. Anyway, back to the story. We were making ice cream at my grandparents house one day, and Grandpa Fred told us a story about when he worked for Knudsen making ice cream. He made a point to explain that the sanitary laws were not very well enforced during that time. He went on to say when they were mixing a batch of vanilla ice cream, prior to freezing, if a rat fell into the vat, they would pull it out and make that batch chocolate. I would not eat chocolate ice cream for years because of what he said. He finally confessed that it wasn't true but somehow, in the back of my mind I still believed him. I now of course eat chocolate but I was sure a long time before I did.

Grandpa Fred was the first adult I ever heard cuss using really bad language. It happened one morning when we were trying to get the tractor started. No matter what we did, the tractor refused to start, and the more he tried to start it, the madder he got and the more his language deteriorated. Now you have to understand, my grandmother was what you might call a substantial woman. I can remember her standing on the back porch, yelling at my grandfather, "Fred!!! Don't talk like that in front of Freddie!" That didn't stop him but it was kind of funny. He apologized to me many times but I didn't really think anything of it. I knew he was angry and frustrated so.....

Four Generations
This is a picture of my Great Grandmother Harms, my grandfather, my mother and my sister Doris. He was really cool looking, wasn't he?

More tomorrow.