When I was in 7th grade, I broke my ankle. Since the school bus dropped us off a 1/2 mile from home, and since my Grandparents (Traxler) lived just three doors down the street from us, they spent four weeks picking me up at the corner of our road and taking me to their house until one of my parents got home. You have to know that my Grandparents weren't (and my Grandmother still isn't) the bake cookies and read stories kind of Grandparents. My Grandpa skied almost until the day he died and my Grandma still does (she recently turned 82). She bowls and plays golf and, yes, she also plays bingo. Some of those afternoons with my Grandparents were spent watching television or playing ping-pong, but most of the time, we played Cribbage. Their Cribbage board had pegs for two players, so my Grandpa would always keep score with a pad of paper and a pencil (not a pen). And he always won. After a couple of weeks of this, I decided that there may be something to this pad and pencil method and insisted that I was going to keep my own score this time. I won. The first and only time I beat my Grandpa in Cribbage was when I kept score on that stinking pad of paper.
This Holiday season was spent at the house at Pretty Lake for the first time in 8 years. My Dad's birthday is on January 1st and we spent the day at the lake for it. Between dinner and cake my dad and I played a game of Cribbage with the football game in the background. (I won - but no pad and pencil) Welcome home Dad.