A tribute to an amazing grandfather

Joan is a prolific writer and chose to share a story about her uniquely talented and inspiring grandfather.  She brought in the wonderful eggs he decorated to show our group his handiwork and flair for design.  Ken said that he could just picture Joan's grandfather and I think the rest of us would agree.

                                                Diddie

                                             By F. Joan Clelan 11/05/17

My grandfather was a very unique person in his later years.  His wife died the year I was born, and the only thing I know about her is that she was a Quaker by faith and what she looked like from a beautiful picture I have of her.

I called my grandfather "Diddie," and I loved him very much.  His occupation was a Painter and Paper Hanger, with his own business.  After he retired, he became Justice of the Peace for all of Bird-in-Hand, which was quite a large area in addition to the small town there.

On nice summer days he would sit on the porch of a large brick double house that he owned.  The policeman enjoyed stopping in to see him often.  He sat there with a cigar in his mouth, chatting with them for long periods of time.

We only lived down the road from him on the Old Philadelphia Pike.  As a young child I could walk up to visit him and he would always say gruffly, "What do you want?"  At that time he frightened me but I would reply, "I just came to see how you were doing and to say Hello."  Usually  he was in his study on my visits and there was always so much to look at.  He was a staunch Republican, and there was a very large bulletin board hanging on the wall with all the buttons for each Presidential candidate at least back from the 1900's.  Hanging with the buttons was all of the related paraphernalia.

He had many interesting abilities such as painting pictures of animals, houses, and flowers.  Beside that, at Easter time, he was well known for the hand-painted Easter eggs he designed.  For larger eggs, he obtained Goose eggs. On one I remember (and still have), he scratched the entire Lords Prayer with a penknife.  First he would paint them a solid color, then he would scratch designs such as Easter bunnies, chickens, stars, animals and so forth.

He carved many animals, some barnyard ones, a camel, a pencil-holder soldier, but mostly elephants.  On the elephants, he painted a cloth on their backs on which he would put individual names of family members.  He also made a set of wooden blocks which fit into a long rectangular wooden box that he made.  Today his great-great-grandchildren play with them.

One time when I was visiting him he asked me to pick out a picture that I wanted.  So I selected a house and when I look at it now, I think of him and what he would have to say about the world we live in today.

In earlier years he had a garden, which my Dad helped him with.  The two families canned many vegetables from that garden.  If you had a garden, Diddie would say "You have to plant sunflowers."

He had a good-looking black Ford automobile.  Each time it got dirty my eccentric grandfather painted it.  He became the talk of the town.

At Christmas, he always stopped by with a bushel of the largest Red Delicious apples I have ever seen.  My brother and I could pick out an apple and he always gave us both a silver dollar.

He lived with his 3 daughters, two of whom had careers, and he was proud of them.  I loved my Diddie who lived to be in his 90's.  There are many memories to hold dear in my heart.