Going Back To Dad's Roots

Thursday morning brough forth another trip to Monroe. I didn't have time to run see Aunt Agnes, Bibus, or possibly gay Wayne, but I did have time to go see Congressman Robin Hayes at American Legion Post 27. Hayes was traversing his district today talking with veterans. This was his first stop. He then went on to Fayetteville, then to Rockingham, then back east to Laurinburg. Hayes actually impressed me today. I mean, he's always nice and easy to deal with, but he answered all of these veteran's questions with ease displaying his knowledge on multiple topics. Then again, I wasn't there to talk to him about veterans affairs, but about the shennanigans in the House right now thanks to a representative hitting on a young page.
I shot enough video and hung out in a corner waiting to get the interview when I started looking around. There's old beer signs, ashtrays everywhere and that general feel of a really 0ld bar. I then realized that this is likely where my grandfather drank a good portion of his beer. I'm talking about my Dad's dad. He died when my dad was twelve. He was prisoner of war in World War II and evidently was never the same when he got back. He was a real son of a bitch when Dad was growing up. Never went to any of his football or baseball games. Was a raging alcoholic. Would drop Dad and my grandmother(she died when Dad was 19) off at the supermarket and then go get hammered and forget to pick them up.

After the Q&A with Hayes was done, I asked one of the the Legion folks if there was an old member's list around somewhere. He said he didn't know of one. I wasn't sure if it was the American Legion or the VFW that my grandfather did his drinking at, so I called Dad. He said he drank heavily at both places which were an easy drunken stumbling distance away from each other. I sat there for a while and looked at the old bar where my grandfather drank his family away. I wasn't upset or anything, but I wish I could know more about him, even if he was a horrible father to my father. I've got a couple of qualities I think came straight from my other grandfather. The only similar quality with this grandfather I'm aware of is we both like to drink beer. I'm guessing there are others. I'll probably never know. Dad doesn't really like to talk about it. Dad doesn't even really enjoy his hometown because there's so many bad memories there.

Dad also mentioned one of his old houses was behind the Legion. His mom bought this house for $9,000 dollars back in nineteen sixty something.