He lived next door to my grandmother when I was small. He could usually be found in his backyard working in the garden or just sitting around visiting. P'an called me "Neek." I can still hear him saying, "Hey, Neek." Not really a nickname that I would want everyone to use, but with him, it seemed to fit.
He was fond of gray pants and white undershirts. I'm not sure why, but his pants always looked real baggy and he wore suspenders to keep them up.
He use to have a travel trailer that stayed park in the backyard. I don't really remember him travelling much, but I was young, so maybe I just didn't know.
His wife was named Bert. She wore pointy glasses and really kept a lot of stuff in their house.
One of P'an's favorite things to do was the cajun dance. I was little and I don't really remember he and Bert cutting the rug, but after she passed away, P'an had a lady friend that he use to go dancing with all the time. Jeff and the boys and I would see them every time we went to Bayou Delight. They would dance every song to the cajun band that plays there live. They always looked like they were having a blast.
The other place that we would see him was at mass at St. Francis. He'd trade his casual T-shirt for a dress shirt and coat...but the suspenders would stay. He would also add a cowboy necktie like the one below to really dress it up. He would pass the basket and act as an usher and would always smile and give me a "Hey Neek" as he passed by.
P'an with my grandmother and grandfather.
No comments:
Post a Comment