My grandpa who passed away a long long time ago, 1968 to be exact, started a small business in Stamford bearing our last name. It repairs electric motors. Anyway, I never met him but I love hearing stories about him. I often stop by when I am in the downtown industrial area to re-connect with my past and see the shop and employees.
One of the things I like about writing is that no matter what happens to me, and you never ever know how long you will live, my writings will live on. In some ways I view writing this blog as a way for athletes to be able to read about their games for the rest of their lives, maybe convince their kids one day that once they were good. Maybe in 150 years from now one of my descendants might want to know about me. The easiest way to communicate with them is through my writing. This probably sounds really really really really mature for someone my age, but I always wonder what my grandpa was like. I never met him, yet he's part of what makes me me. I don't want them to wonder about who I was. I want my descendants to know that I loved sports, hard workers and was a nice, helpful person. They will also know that I have an unhealthy obsession for writing about Meghan Cunningham, a person he's never met.
Back to the shop.
As you can imagine many of the old employees are no longer there, but there is someone who was. C.B. is what I call him, his shirt says Carlton. He's 70, and he's been working at the shop for 44 years. Ever since 1965 when he immigrated from Jamaica. He asked about my entire family and I kept him in the loop. He remembers almost all of us. He also remembers my grandpa pretty well so I asked him about him. He told me that he was really really really nice and didn't discriminate at a time when people did. He said the same thing about my grandma. What struck a chord with me was how he said that my grandpa told him that he doesn't care about a person's skin color etc., what he cared about was who they were as a person, that they were respectful and hard working...So those values are something that have been passed down. He told me that my grandpa traveled up to Hartford to make sure that C.B.'s immigration into the country went on without any problems. C.B. also told me that my grandpa would often go fishing and pick him up on his small 17ft boat from his house so that he could go too. C.B. told me that I had my grandpa's strong legs, and actually similar body type. He told me that my grandpa was a Red Sox fan...My grandma, who he says I have similar facial features of, was a Yankees fan. That ought to have been interesting. I am a Mets fan, which I'm guessing stems from not liking the Yankees. (It's funny how people's lives are sometimes defined by what sports teams they like.)
C.B. and I have also always talked about sports. I talked about sports like I do now when I was 10 and at summer shop parties. We talked football. I think he's a Raiders fan in football. Not quite sure, but I think so. I do remember talking to him about the Raiders a long-time ago. He remembers my love of sports and sports always come up when we talk.
I found out that he watches the UConn women's basketball team, and he brought them up in conversation, not me. Again I am amazed at all the different places that our Women's Basketball team is talked about. This time it was at an electric motor shop. I found out he is a Tina Charles fan. He doesn't know a lot of their names, but he told me he was a fan of the center. He was proud to hear about her being a Jamaican. I told him the story about how Kaili McLaren was in love with my shoes, and showed Tina. Tina said "They'd be great if they were in Jamaican colors." I also told C.B. about O'Brian White, Akeem Priestley, Clive Terrelonge and Trish Ann Hawthorne, other great UConn athletes/coaches with Jamaican heritage.
I love stopping in and saying hello to old acquaintances. He appreciated it. I remember him really well. I think what I did, stopping in an industrial shop to talk to a worker about life is straight out of a country music video. If you turn on CMT or GAC you would see what happened today. Just two people enjoying each other's company and talking about life now and how it used to be.
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