PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 65 - Rats! I’ve Been Beaten By Rats!

PAWPAW'S  MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS

Pawpaw loves Connor, Bryson and Archer!

I miss you guys so much. I hope you find these messages some day. I want you to know that I love you. I never left you. I was no longer allowed to visit you. I hope these messages help you know your Pawpaw and your family better. All my love forever, Pawpaw

Rats! I’ve Been Beaten By Rats!

 

   The houses we grew up in were all pretty lousy but we made the best of each one. We had a roof over our heads, a way to stay out of the rain, snow and freezing Ohio winters. The basement flooded regularly and there were huge rats in the basement and in our walls. Sometimes they came into the kitchen and living room. I tried to shoot them with my BB guns. It was gross. It’s hard to sleep when you can hear a rat gnawing on the walls and I wondered if they might crawl into my bed at night. It never actually happened but I thought about it a lot. This is not a good thing to be thinking about when you are trying to relax and go to sleep!

   One day, I was home alone and a big rat made its way into our living room. I put a blackboard across the living room door so he couldn’t get out. I got my BB gun from my bedroom upstairs and came down the stairs quietly. When I got to the landing, I planned to jump from the landing over the blackboard through the doorway into the living room and onto the recliner chair in the corner. Once I landed deftly like Spiderman, I could then shoot the rat from the safety of the chair. The perfect plan. I was a genius!

   It didn’t quite work out. I jumped from the landing about three feet off the ground. While jumping through the doorway and over the blackboard, I hit my head on the top of the door frame, saw stars and knocked myself out. I woke up lying on the floor. The rat got away obviously. If he died, he probably died of laughter.