When I was growing up, I will always remember the hours I spent with my grandfather. My parents were divorced when I was a young lad, so I never did meet my birth father's, father. If I did I was too young to remember anyway. But when my mom remarried, I got a new grandfather. After a few years of my family moving all over the US with the Navy, we finally ended up in Florida. My step-father's family resided in a small central Florida town called Ocoee, located a few mile west of Orlando.

When we were at our last duty station in CT, my new grandparents drove up from FL to see us all. What made the visit more memorable was that the trunk of their car was filled to capacity with oranges, tangerines,temples and both pink and white grapefruit. There was so much fruit that we had to store it in the coal bin attached to the house. It was empty because the Navy had recently switched to fuel oil. So this now became the perfect plsce to store our treasure from the south.

Their visit was great and they spoiled us rotten, as the saying goes. I remember when my youngest brother was born, my grandfather put me up on his shoulders to see my new brother. Grandma used to make us breakfast every morning. She also got me hooked on southern-style ice tea.

The day finally arrived when they had to return to FL. The car was packed and they were ready to go. Hugs and kisses were passed around to everyone. Everyone that is except for me. I was no where to be found. They searched the house, the yard and all around the neighborhood; nothing. Finally my father got into the car and went around to several of the places he knew I frequented. Finally having no success, they decided that they must leave anyway. As they were walking down the steps, grandpa heard a noise. He stopped came to the coal bin and lifted the lid. There I was stuffing down citrus as fast as I could. Later when asked why I did that, I replied that "If I ate all the fruit then they (my grandparents) would have to come back soon and bring more fruit.

As my step-fathers term of enlistment in the Navy drew to a close, we were undecided as to what we were going to do or where we were going to do it, whatever it was. Dad was working in a small general store right next to our house. He had thought that he would continue to work there after his enlistment was up. Fate had different plans however. My other brother had developed bronical asthma, the doctor suggested that the southwest or Florida. That made our decision a lot easier. Now all we had to do wasa find a job and figure out how we were going to get to Florida to start our new lives.

The owner of the general store had a friend in Florida in a small town called Groveland. He got my dad a job there. My grandfather found us a house a mile from his own and now the only matter was to get us and our belongings to Florida. Late one night the phone rang, my dad's Uncle Buck was in town. He was hauling potatoes in his semi-truck back down to Florida. He was complaining that he only had half a load. As he and my dad talked a plan was formed. He pulled the truck into the alley behind our house and we all started unloading potatoes. When we got them all off, we loaded all our furniture and the rest of our belongings in the front of the trailer. The next morning we started reloading the trailer with the potatoes we had just taken off, stacking them all the way to the ceiling. We packed ourselves in the car and started our trip to Florida and our new life.

As per state regulations, trucks carrying fruits and vegtables had to stop at the agricultral inspection stations at each state line. We all held our breath as the inspectord threw open the big doors and saw nothing bu potatoes from bottom to top. Sometimes we had to wait over a hour for Uncle Buck to pull along side and wave us on. Finally we saw the sigh "Welcome to Florida", and we all cheered as Uncle Buck pulled the big rig back into the travel lane after going through the last inspection station.

A little over five hours later we pulled into my grandparents driveway. They came running our to meet us as Uncle Buck hit the air horns on his truck, Everybody hugged everybody as question after question was asked about the trip. Myself, all I wanted was a bathroom, for you see, I'd been eating the last of the oranges and I had to go...

After a meal fit for a king, we all piled back into the car and went to see our new house. It wasn't really new and it wasn't really ours, we ere going to rent it from Mr. Crabtree. I didn't think I was going to like it because of his name, that was until we pulled into the driveway. The house was situated in a couple hundred acres of citrus trees, All kind and all varieties, some I'd had never heard of or even tasted before. My days after school and weekends were spent roaming the groves and woods behind our house. I truly believe that was when I developed the love that I have for the outdoors. I was a frontiersman, fighting mountian lions and giant grizzlies. At the same time I'd climb into my space ship (orange tree) and became the legendary "Flash Gordon". Despite how involved with my adventures and no matter how far back into the groves or woods I went, my mother's voice would penetrate my best pretense."Dennis !", would come the call and I would be drawn back to reality.

One such day my grandfather stopped by the house on his way home from work. He was driving "Jigger", his old model "A" pickup. I loved that old truck. While he was in the house having a cold drink, I sat in the drivers seat and instantly became a race driver. Reaching for the pedals, I noticed a funny looking bump in the floor beside the gas pedal. As I pushed it the truck surged forward trying to start. I had found the starter. But I hadn't learned how to turn on the ignition yet so all it did was move a foot or so every time I pressed the pedal. I pressed it once and then twice and each time I moved a little more. Then I got the bright idea that if I held the pedal down I could drive like grandpa. So here I go standing on the starter and surging across the yard heading for the beckoning highway. I was going to drive! "Dennis !" I froze, and the truck stopped just short of the end of the driveway. That yell probalby saved my life.

I was afraid that Grandpa was going to be mad and not like me anymore. To my suprise he laughrd and clapped me on the back. He then picked me up and put me on his lap and let me steer has he drove us back to the house. My parents weren't guite as nice however. I was given the worst possible punishment, after school I was to come straight home, do my homework and not go into the groves or woods. I was grounded for four weeks. To make matters worse there were only two weeks of school left. I was totally depressed.

Grandma would always pack her husband's lunch everyday. Along with the edibles, she would always pack a big mason jar filled with her special ice tea. Grandpa would stop by every day and bring me what he had left. He worked in the groves, and I sure it really got hot and dusty. But he would always save some for me. He'd also bring a couple tangerines (my favorite) or some other fruit. Although I was excited to get the tea and the fruit, he knew that I was subdued because I couldn't go into my beloved woods and groves. This however was about to change.

Today when Grandpa arrived he told me to wait in the truck, as he walked away he turned, laughed and said "no drivin now". I looked suprised, he just laughed again and said it was ok. I didn't know it at the time but he had installed a dead-man's switch which would not allow juice to go to the starter. Despie that I sat on the tailgate and would not go near the cab. "Dennis !" came the call and I went into the house. My parents were setting there talking to grandpa.

"Dennis", started my father. "Your grandpa needs some help and asked if you could stay with him till school starts. You'll have to get up at dawn every morning, even Saturday and work all day in the groves. "The groves!" That was the magic word. I said "yes!" The next few weeks were the start of many summers with my grandparents. They bought me a lunchbox like grandpa, and now I had my own ice tea. He taught me how to drive the tractor through the groves, I learned how to sprig a tree in order to create a different variety of fruit. He even showed me how to shoot rattlesnakes, with a 22 rifle he kept on the tractor for just that purpose. One day as we were on our way to a paticular location, he directed me to steer the tractor down a wide path. We went for another quarter of a mile and then crossed a small stream, and then he told me to stop. He grabbed the rifle and the machete, we tromped through some high grass and then I saw it. A grove of horse-shoe bannas on both sides of the stream. There must have been a hundred trees, each hung heavy with a stalk of bananas, each about four feet long. He selected a paticular stalk and swung the machete and we carried the stalk back to the tractor. Off we wnt to work. I think that was the first day that I didn't have some kind of fruit to eat when we got home. He hung the stalk on the back screened porch. We were to visit that grove many times that summer.

One day when we came home, Grandma said; "honey, mommy's on the phone, she needs to talk to you." I couldn't inderstand why but all the sudden a cold chill ran down my spine. I was soon to find out why. "Hi mom, what's up?" I said. "Hi honey, how are you doing?" she replied.I could tell that something was indeed "up". "Well", she started, "Mr. Crabtree, the man we rent from, passed aqay last week and his son is going to tear down the house and build an apartment house here on this spot". "That's o.k. mom I don't mind living in an apartment" I replied. "That's fine honey, but it's going to take over a year to finish and we have no place to stay. Grandma and Grandpa said we could stay with them, but their house isn't big enough for five more people". "Then what are we going to do?" I asked. "Well dad wants to move closer to the store, so we've gotten a house in Groveland". "How far away is that from here?" I asked. "About fifty miles" said my mother, "which means you won't be able to spend so much time with Grandma and Grandpa as you have been lately." WHAM! My world suddendly came crashing down. Then a glimmer of hope tweaked in my mind, "We'll still see them on Sunday for church won't we?" "I'm afraid not honey, it's just too far to drive back and forth, besides we already found a new church close to the house. Your new school is only two blocks away and guess what, we'll be living across the street from a lake called Lake David! Isn't that great?" She asked hopefully. A hundred things were going through my mind right then and all I wanted to do was be alone. "OK mom, see to next week" I said. "No, honey tomorrow morning we're moving to Groveland, your things are already there, Dennis? Dennis?,are you there? hello?" But I had dropped the phone and was out the door. As I went I grabbed and broke about a foot of the last bannana stalk, and grabbed a handfull of oranges out of the bin. There was only one place I wanted to be right then and that was deep in the woods, but dusk had already begun and I promised I wouldn't venture out after dark. There was only one other "special" place and that was my tree. My tree was a forty foot tall golden rain-tree. In that tree I was untouchable, I was a pirate, a king, a spaceman or a mountian climber. Anything I wanted tobe; came to be when I was in "my tree".

About a hour later, I heard footsteps in the grass below. "You can come down now, Denny, grandma saved your supper. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and sweet corn." "Iced tea?" I asked. "In a mason jar just the way you like it." As sorry as I felt for myself, my love for my grandmothers's cooking cured all very quickly. AS I climed down, I asked my grandfather, "Ho'd you know I was up here?" Grandpa flipped on his flashlight and pointed the beam at a pile of bannana peels and orange rinds on the ground. "Oh!" I said and took off for the supper table.

It was extremely hard leaving my grandparents the next day, but God has given each of us the unique ability to adapt to situations no matter how hard. I adapted, in fact I can recall a lot of good times in Groveland, then Orlando, Melbourne, Eau Gallie and finally Rockledge where I still reside presently. My grandparents have long since passed away, and with them they took a big chunck of my heart. I still miss them to this day.

As I approach my 54th birthday in about a month and a half, I have five grandchildren of my own. I'm "papa" and the "apple" of their eye, just like my grandfather was to me. I hope I can be half the man he was. I will always cherish the times we spent together. Am I talking about then...or now? Both I suppose.
See Ya next time
Bull Gator