Grandpa’s Checkerboard

My childhood name was Pammy Sue; I outgrew it. Family and friends later called me Pam. That was with the exception of Grandpa Ford. He never thought of me of anything other than Pammy Sue. Married and with our first child, I received a letter from Grandpa; he called me Pammy Sue.

I remember being young enough to be bounced on Grandpa’s knee. The song he sang still lingers in my mind.

‘To market, to market to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.’
(Mother Goose/circa1598)

Grandpa loved all of his grandchildren and was happiest when we accepted his invitations to join him in games of checkers. Neighborhood children also made their choices of red or black as they set up Grandpa’s checker board. He had hand crafted the wooden checkerboard set and my younger sister proudly has it as her own.

When not in checkers competition, Grandpa was often found reading the Bible seated in his favorite living room chair. He lived to ninety one years of age and for several years had needed a magnifying glass to read the small print. I cherish an old snapshot of Grandpa doing just that.

Today, I wear bifocals and have requested trifocals in my new eye glasses prescription. Open my eyes, Lord.

“Open my eyes [to spiritual truth] so that I may behold
Wonderful things from Your law (Psalms 119:18 AMP).”