No worries, I’m not grumpy today. The title of this post refers to Grumpy, with a capital G. He was my grandfather.
Grumpy’s real name was Richard William Dorman, and he once told me that he had planned to be “Grampy” or “Gramps”. But when I was two and experimenting with the whole word thing, I had trouble with short vowels. “Grampy” came out “Grumpy” and that, as they say, was that. Eventually there were eight of us grandkids, and we all knew our grandfather as Grumpy. When we were older, one of us bought him a “Grumpy” hat at a Disney store, and he wore it with pride for the rest of his life.
Grumpy, in Germany after WWII
On this Veterans Day, a day for honoring the men and women who have served this country, I’d like to honor him. Grumpy was a good soldier, and the most perfect grandfather that ever was. I miss him very much.