Author: Donald Guenther
Written: Mar 18th, 2014

A Grandpa Delsman Story

Farm life can be a lonesome at times. Working out on the farm with no one to talk is difficult. A guy tends to have a lot of thoughts but no one to share them with. Grandpa Delsman knew this well. When he was out mending fences one day his old neighbor walked up to him and wanted to talk. Grandpa was focused on his task and wasn’t paying much attention to him. The old guy began to get frustrated. Grandpa Delsman felt sorry for the neighbor because he’d recently been windowed but he had work to get done. Finally the man asked Grandpa if he could stop by on his way home for dinner and of course some relaxing conversation. The neighbor was a little odd and hesitantly grandpa agreed. 

Grandpa was surprised at how good his neighbor’s dinner smelled and the conversation with him pleasant. The man took plates off his shelf and served grandpa up a big plate full of delicious food. As dinner neared to a close grandpa sympathetically said he bet life was hard when you didn’t have a wife to do dishes for you. The man said that was the least of his problems, he simply used soap and water. Grandpa looked questioningly at his neighbor. The man took grandpa’s plate and his plate and placed them on the floor. Next he started whistling and calling out soap and water. Two dogs came hustling around the corner and began licking off the dishes. When the dogs retreated the neighbor proudly picked up the clean dishes and put them back on the shelf. 

Single old men without a woman do these sorts of things. When life confronted our family with that fact mom would tell us this story of grandpa getting caught off guard thinking there was an exception to this rule.