Happy Grandpa Sings This Song, Dadoo, Dadoo
Dadoo they call me. Like Dad plus oooo. Rhymes with who.
I wanted it to be DooDah. You know, like they sing in the song: “Camptown Ladies sing this song, doo dah, doo dah… But there was a vowel movement.
The girls are now 12 and 8. Bella Rose and Amelia May Kerby. I love saying their full names when I tell people about them, and I am sure that when I say those names out loud, there is a glow that comes over me. Picture Charlton Heston came down from the mountain as Moses in “The Ten Commandments.”
I never talked to a burning bush, but it’s hard to stay the same when your life has been enriched to such a degree. Time is now measured before and after those two girls.
The absolute best moments have involved rocks in the front yard garden. We all gather round the rocks and I turn them over to see what might be under them.
At that moment I am scientist, explorer, philanthropist – sharing the excitement of discovery with them. Roly poly bugs are common, but they are still a valuable commodity. Worms are good. Once there was a little brown snake, and Bella was not intimidated at all. She grabbed it immediately and showed it off to Nanee (Jane). Amelia wanted to hold it too.
She wasn’t quite as confident and dropped it, allowing the snake to slither off in the grass. It left behind a story we still share. The snake is one of the reasons that when the girls come over they immediately say: “Lets check the rocks!”
They love girl things too. Like when Nanee (Jane) fixes them tea using fine silver, and we all assume characters. We are a cross between “Downton Abbey” and “Duck Dynasty.” I am usually the butler. Once I attempted to be royalty, but was immediately overthrown.
In the fall and winter, when the weather is too cold, we go upstairs and dance. Usually we dance to the “Nutcracker” or “Into the Woods.” Sometimes I try to introduce my 80s disco music, but that gets thrown out. The choreography always involves leaps, pirouettes of amazing complexity, and I secretly pray I won’t pull something. Once the music ends we stand together bowing as if on stage, receiving applause and flowers presented to the prima ballerinas by Nanee (Jane).
These are nothing events that are everything.
If the 2016 me went back in time to tell the 1971 me that I would one day gush over a rock, over pretend ballet, over afternoon tea, and that every second would become a treasure, I am certain the 1971 me would’ve checked into an asylum.
The 1971 me was driven to make a name for himself. Who knew that two little girls would one day carry my ticket to immortality.
Happy Grandparents Day.
That’s “grandparent,” an English word meaning unconditional love.