23 Short Stories From Grandpa's Childhood

So often stories or tidbits are so small that they don’t get passed on. A child or grandchild might hear their parent or grandparent tell the same little memory dozens of times, but since it's so short or was only told in certain situations, like driving past a particular spot, rarely do these little gems get retold after the original teller is gone.

However, these sort of mini stories and memories, especially when there are many of them, tell a lot about a person — maybe even more than just one or two more memorable or entertaining yarns.

Here are almost two dozen stories and memories Grandpa Jerry Van Wie told me about his childhood. They are all, of course, as I remember them.

1 “Hunting” Animals on Wesley’s Farm

As a little boy, Grandpa would visit his Grandpa, Wesley Van Wie’s, farm. His grandpa said, “You can keep whatever animal you catch. He said he never caught anything.

2 Missing Feathers and Walnuts

One time, Grandpa told me that recently he looked for the nuts (chestnuts or walnuts, I think) that he gathered on his grandpa’s farm as a kid. He couldn’t find them in the closet on the landing up above the stairs next to the linen cabinet.

He said that he asked Grandma Jean where they were, and, come to find out, she “cleaned out the closet”. (Grandpa hated it when Grandma would move his things for the sake of being “clean” or “organized”). He told me that he couldn’t find his feathers from his grandpa’s peacocks he had stashed up there either.

3 You Can’t Catch a Goldfinch

I remember him saying that he used to catch birds with a net. He said the one bird he could never catch was a goldfinch. He tried and tried to get one but, because of how they fly, swooping up and down as they go, he couldn’t catch them. I remember Grandpa really liked seeing goldfinches. It seemed like he told this story every time he spotted one.

4 Moving By Wagon

He told me that the first time he moved, he moved by wagon. His dad didn’t own a car yet. If I remember right, he was only about five years old. I think they were going from Jasper to Woodhull, NY. Even though the distance was only about eight miles, it took three days to move. I’m not 100% certain it was three days, but I know for sure he said it was a multiple-day journey.

5 Name on a Tree?

When Grandpa would take Grandma and me on long country drives, he’d point out things from his childhood. I remember him pointing out the window towards a forest to the left and saying, “I carved my initials in a tree over there when I was a kid. I wonder if it’s still there?”

6 “I Planted Those Trees”

Another time, he pointed to the right, at a stand of big conifers in what was otherwise a deciduous forest. “When I was a little kid, I helped plant those trees. My whole class planted those trees [on a school field trip].”

If I’m not mistaken, the stand of trees is around 2448 Clement Hill Road in Canisteo. If you’re driving towards Canisteo from the farm, they’re up on the right.

A painting of the hills of the Canisteo Valley. The area Grandpa pointed to is off to left and out of frame.

7 Running to School

Grandpa said that he’d often run to school and run back. He got pretty good at running doing that. I think he said that he’d win when he raced his friends.

8 Sledding Behind Cars

“During the winter,” he told me, “we’d get our sleds and a rope and tie it to the bumper of cars so we could sled down this hill real fast. That was a lot of fun.”

He told me this story in Woodhull; I remember where, but I can’t find it on the map right now.

9 “That’s Where I Got in a Fight!”

On the way to take Grandma and me to my first Friday fish fry, we were in a town, I’m not sure which, and I remember Grandpa saying, “I got in a fight right there. My friend threw a rock at me for no reason, so I beat him up.”

I’m pretty sure it was the same friend who was with him in the service. The one who got sent to Okinawa in his place (Grandpa got to stay on base because he was the only one with a license to drive to the store for cigarettes and food).

10 A Cigarette Stomping Dog

As a kid, Grandpa liked to watch men work on things. He said that at the gas station in Canisteo, there was a dog that would stomp out cigarette butts with its paws when people dropped them. It was the gas station at 33W Main St. in Canisteo, which is a Citgo now.

11 “I ‘m So Old I Remember When We Got Electricity!”

He remembered when electricity came to town. I’m almost certain it was Jasper, and that he was about five. He said he followed the men around as they put up the wires. He gathered the leftover copper wire off the ground and sold it for scrap.

12 Dip vs. Fountain Pens

Grandpa used to tease Grandma, saying, “I went to a better school as a kid. We wrote with fountain pens, while you used ink wells set into holes in the desks and dip pens! You were so old-fashioned!”

13 Driving Since He Was a Kid

When he went to take his test for his driver's license when he was 16, Grandpa said that after just a few minutes, the instructor had him pull over and said, “You’ve been driving a long time, haven’t you?” Grandpa said something like, “Yup — since I was 10!” (I don’t remember the exact age). It almost goes without saying that he passed on his first try.

14 Free Rides From a Civil War Soldier

I asked Grandpa if he’d ever met a Civil War soldier. “Well, let me think… There was a really, really old man (“he was probably as old as I am now,” he chuckled), and he used to let me jump on his back, and he’d carry me across the river so I wouldn’t get wet. His daughter told me to stop doing that because he was so old. I think he had been in the Civil War. That’s what I remember, but I’m not sure.”

15 Trying to Fix an Old Clock

“My dad had an old clock. It stopped working, so I took it apart to fix it. I’ve always liked to tinker with things. Well, I couldn’t get it back together again. Eventually, my dad sold the clock to a man.

Years later, when I was an adult, I saw the same clock in the man’s house. I bought it back from him and got it fixed. (There is a video recording of Grandpa telling this story when my brother Michael interviewed him about his family history. I can’t remember who has the clock now. One of my uncles).

16. Noah’s Ark

Grandpa grew up going to the Methodist church in Jasper. When he was, again, about five years old, he had a Sunday school lesson about Noah’s ark. He told me that even at five years old he knew that all the animal species in the world couldn’t fit on one boat! He said he ran out of the church and has never willingly gone back. “I’ve been an atheist ever since.”

(It was the church in Jasper that’s next to the cemetery. Today it’s the “United Church of Jasper”).

17. “Come Home For Supper!”

Yet again, at five years old, he was allowed to roam around. He’d go alone in the woods and by himself to play in the creek. He just needed to be sure he was home for supper.

18. Sick Family. No Electricity. No Running Water.

When he was five or so, he said that his family got really sick. (It sure seems like he had a full life when he was five!) At one point, he was the only one who was healthy enough to go out in front of the house and use the hand pump to pump water in a bucket for his bedridden family. This was before they had electricity or running water in the house.

(This is one of the stories I remember the most faintly. But, I remember him pointing to the pump, which is still outside of the house in Jasper… at least I think it was Jasper. I know which house it was, and that we have photos of it and its location on file).

19. Martha Bobs Her Hair

When Grandpa was a child, his mother cut her long red hair because bobs had gotten so popular. Grandpa kept these two long braids of his mother’s hair in his big trunk in the garage. I saw them several times. The hair looked red to me at least, but I’m not sure how much it had changed color over time.

Grandpa told me that he was going through stuff in the garage. Cliff’s dog Zoey somehow got a hold of the braids and ripped them apart. So, we don’t have the hair anymore.

(Funny story about that — in high school English class, my teacher one year was Mr. Dalton, who was from the UK. He said he’d noticed how Americans have, at least to him, really odd family heirlooms — guns, and things like that. He asked us about our family heirlooms to see who had the weirdest. I said, “We had my great grandma’s hair from the 1920s, but it’s gone now because a dog ate it.” I won.).

20 A Disaster During the Depression

When Grandpa was a teenager, he helped his dad milk the cows and take care of the animals in the morning. He said they’d use kerosene lamps (the hurricane lamps he had hanging by the window by the back steps in the garage) to see in the dark barn.

Grandpa would use some machine, I think it was a generator type of thing, to get electric lights to work in the barn, or something like that. One morning, something caught on fire while he was starting the machine. He panicked and threw a bucket of water on the fire. Since it was an oil/grease fire, throwing water on it only made the catastrophe worse. As the fire grew, he and his dad were able to get all the animals out safely. The barn burned down. Grandpa said that his dad never said one word to him about it.

They were able to use their neighbor's barn for a while (I assume until they could rebuild it). They would sometimes herd their cows right down the street back then. (I can remember which house the barn was next to if I saw it. I’ll have to check. I think it was Green Street. I know it was when they lived in Canisteo, right in town).

21 Elm Root Flutes

He used to make flutes from freshly-cut elm roots. “There aren’t many elms around anymore,” he told me. There used to be a lot of them on the banks of creeks. I remember him trying to show me how to make the whistle, but it wasn’t the right kind of wood, so it didn’t work.

22 Catching a Huge Turtle

One time he and some other boys caught a big turtle. I’m next to positive it was a snapping turtle. It was stuck in the mud, trying to get away. Grandpa ran and got his dad, who managed to lift the turtle out of the mud. “My dad drilled a hole into the top of its shell so he could screw in a metal eye-hook. He attached a rope to the hook, and then the turtle could pull my wagon.

(Most people back then didn’t know that turtles’ shells aren’t like a horn or an antler. They are part of their skeleton, and it really hurts them to drill holes into their shells).

23 Dickey the Amazing Pigeon

There is also a recording of Grandpa telling this story. This is probably my favorite story he told about his childhood. As a boy, when he lived in Canisteo, Grandpa raised pigeons. He had a pigeon named “Dickey”. Grandpa loved Dickey. Dickey would fly around and come back to him. Once, Dickey flew to Grandpa’s school. His teacher told him to take his bird home.

One time, Dickey didn’t fly home. Years went by and no Dickey. Then, when Grandpa was a teenager, he was plowing a field with a team of horses when he noticed a pigeon flying around him and then landed. It was Dickey! Grandpa knew because of a distinctive marking the bird had.