Grandpa Stanford

I have very few memories of my Grandpa Stanford.  He died when I was in fifth grade and I feel like I barely knew him.  Through the amazing process of Family History I feel like I've come to know him  through the years more than I ever knew him in this life.

Here are the things I knew about Grandpa before his death.  (true or not true.  Remember, I was a just a kid.):

He was gruff.

His father died when he was a young boy.  His mom later remarried a man who was not good to him.

At the age of 14, he ran away from home and became a hobo, bumming from one freight train to another.

He had many talents and interests: woodworking, airplanes, bowling, and more.

He was not a man of many words.

He worked for many years at General Motors.

His things were not to be touched.

According to Grandma Stanford, he was not affectionate.  (And she wished he was.)

Here are some of the memories of him that I have:

He would sit on the front porch with Binki the dog by his side and watch the cars on 8th Avenue pass.

He slept with the police scanner on.

He went to bed very early and got up very early.

He would walk through the kitchen and down the hall to Grandma's TV room and ask her to "dig" him some ice cream.  Then go back down the hall and through the kitchen to his TV room where he waited for his ice cream.

I was always afraid to talk in front of or to him.

He would listen to bowling the TV with the volume very high.

He had a few heart attacks during my lifetime.  After one heart attack, my family went to visit him in the hospital but I could not go because I was in bed with a badly sprained ankle.

Honestly, I was terrified of Grandpa.  He was so scary to me!  He wasn't a warm and fuzzy person and I wasn't sure how he felt about me being around.  As I've grown and wondered more about his life, I've set out to learn more about him. 

He was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on August 14, 1918.  He had one biological sister named Martha.

Grandpa and his sister, Martha.

His father died of pneumonia when he was about 4 years old, leaving his mom with two small children.  She eventually remarried a man by the name of Walter Hall.  Walter didn't take to his new son very well, so eventually, Carson left home.  

Grandpa got married in 1940 and started a family but that marriage ended.  In 1947, when he was 29, he married Grandma who was 18.  They met while Grandma was working as a soda jerk.  Things were never smooth sailing for them.  The Gospel was not a part of their lives until much later and they lived lifestyles that did not bring happiness the way the teachings of Jesus Christ does.  Eventually they pulled their lives together and were sealed in the temple.

I've had some very special experiences that have helped me see that Grandpa is a wonderful man who loves his family very much.  Considering his difficult childhood I feel like he did the very best he could but had to develop a hard shell to make it.  I am certain he wasn't all gruff and hard edges during this life, just from a kid's point of view, it seemed that way!



Without the ability to study his life and learn more about his childhood I would have never had the chance to see a different side of him.