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My Pappy By Ramona Griffith Phipps I was much closer to my grandfather than my grandmother because he lived until I was 19.  My grandmother died when I was 9. After my grandmother died, Pappy spent a lot of time at our house while we were growing up.  He was very skinny, and my Mom always wanted to make sure he had a good meal.  He had false teeth and always had to take them out to eat!  Pappy never got in a hurry.  He walked slow and he talked slow. Just when you thought he was done with what he was saying he would start talking again.  My dad is like that a lot too. I can remember when he and my Dad worked at their family store, Griffith's Electric.  Every day Pappy would walk across the street to Beck's restaurant at noon and have him a bowl of chili. Pappy always thought he was old the whole time I knew him, and I guess he was -- he was 70 when I was born. But my dad said he thought he was old the whole time he knew him too, and he was 48 when Dad was born. His favorite hobby was fishing.  I think he always went in a boat.  The man in the desktop wallpaper reminds me a lot of him. He had worked as a coal miner when he was young.  That and smoking affected his health.  He quit smoking when he was around 80, but he still died of lung cancer at 89.  Every time he wanted to smoke he would pop a mint (what are those pink mints that taste like pepto bismal?) or a Luden's cough drop in his mouth. He would go to church with us on Sunday and always had to sit on a cushion because he was so bony.  We called it "The Pappy Cushion."  When I kissed him it felt weird because his cheeks were sunk in. Pappy and I got really close when I went to college in Michigan.  He missed me very much and wrote me such sweet letters.  They would always start something like "My Dearest Darling Granddaughter, Ramona".  When I came home from college, his health had gone down a lot.  He had had a housekeeper staying with him for several years, Viola Hobbs, but he got so weak that she couldn't handle him any longer.  I helped take care of him full-time for quite awhile.  He had to go for breathing  treatments to the hospital several times a week and I'm the one that always took him.  Later he got so bad that we ended up having to let him go to the nursing home.  He thought he would hate it, but he really liked it and all the activities. A big family joke is about me "kidnapping" him when I got married at 19.  My parents disapproved of my marriage and didn't attend the wedding, so I went and got my Pappy out of the nursing home and he spent the night with me so that he could attend.  I was so busy the next morning that I forgot to feed him until he started griping at me.  My landlord helped me round him up something to eat and he ate outside on a hilltop overlooking some beautiful scenery.  Later on he griped to my Dad about me kidnapping him, but he just couldn't quit talking about that wonderful breakfast he had.  We believe he was afraid Dad would be upset at him for going, but Dad was glad he had a good time. No matter how old a person is, when we love them we are not ready to let them go.  I believe that God answered my prayers and kept him around a little longer for me because I got so close to him that I prayed to God not to take him yet. At that time I couldn't stand to let him go.  He lasted another year that I cherish.  I was with him when he left this world and did my best to let him know it.

God saw you were getting tired And a cure was not to be, So He put His arms around you And whispered, "Come With Me." With tearful eyes we watched you suffer And saw you fade away, Although we love you dearly We could not make you stay. So when we saw you sleeping So peaceful from your pain, We could not wish you back To suffer that way again. A golden heart stopped beating Your hard-working hands were at rest, God broke our hearts to prove to us He only takes the best. Author Unknown

William Griffith December 25, 1973

Pappy was 11 years old when this picture was taken in 1900.

And 24, when this picture was taken in 1913

Mildred wants to be just like her Dad.

Pappy and friend, Sam Wilkes, in Griffith's Electric, in the late 20's or early 30's

When Pappy first began doing home electrical service, he had to walk to the job and carry his toolbox. He is justly proud of this new service truck, which was his second.

This picture was taken around 1940

Mammy & Pappy How Their Names Got Started By Max

During World War II, Mary and Bill lived in an apartment over Griffith's Electric, as we did. If we had nothing else we had plenty of room. If I remember correctly, there were ten rooms upstairs. Barney, Dan and Johnny were all overseas in the army, and Johnny's wife Evelyn and their son Larry, moved into one of the apartments also. Mary and Evelyn both smoked, and cigarettes were rationed during the war, and not always available. Mary and Evelyn both ran out of cigarettes, and couldn't get anymore, so they were both having nicotine fits. One night after supper, Mary and Evelyn came over to our apartment. They were dressed like hillbillies and smoking corncob pipes. They had bought the pipes and tobacco to replace the cigarettes. Well they were playing the hillbilly parts to the hilt, and they began calling Mom and Dad, Mammy and Pappy, and that's how it all began. After that they went right on calling them Mammy and Pappy to keep the joke going, and after awhile everyone was calling them that. Mom and Dad both let me know that they were going along with the joke, but since I was younger, it would be disrespectful for me to call them Mammy and Pappy, so I rarely did, even when I got older.