A Day with Woodrow

Working with my grandfather, Jim Cooper, or as us grandkids call him, “Woodrow,” is something that all of the grandkids have to do at some point. However, some grandkids had to work with him more than others.

I had the opportunity to spend the day with Woodrow on August 18. When the day started, I thought that he would have a plethora of chores for me to do with him, but instead, I was treated to a nice day with him. Now, that does not mean I did not have to do some actual work for him.

The day started with Woodrow picking me up at my house at 8 in the morning, where we went to the Co-op for breakfast. While there, we met with some of Woodrow’s friends, where they had a “meeting of the intellectuals” and solved all the world’s problems.

A perk of going out to breakfast with Woodrow is that you can get a pop at 8 in the morning and he won’t say anything about it because he is getting a Diet Mountain Dew with his sausage egg and cheese croissant.

While eating breakfast, I also learned that Woodrow will not buy bottled water because I can go into the bathroom and drink from the faucet. He ended up buying me a bottle of water anyway.

After breakfast, Woodrow said to me, “Old people need to park in the direction they need to leave or else they might go somewhere else, like Vallonia.” I will be keeping this piece of advice in mind when I start to get older.

With this knowledge in mind, we went to REMC, a place that Woodrow goes to weekly, he told me. I also learned that he is on a first-name basis with all the people who work at the places he frequents.

Once we were done in Brownstown, Woodrow and I went to Celery Signs. While going over there, he asked me if I knew who owned it and I told him Mr. Brown because I had him as an art teacher in high school. Woodrow told me that he calls him Mr. Vegetable.

As we were leaving town before going to Celery, Woodrow told me that you cannot go to the Brownstown Hardware store on a Monday because they are closed. 

“You’ll break your wrist trying to get in,” he told me as we passed by the hardware store.

We went there because Woodrow wanted a “Cooper Sales and Services” decal that my aunt Mandy had made for him turned into a sticker.

When we dropped off the decal at Celery’s, we made a stop by Mt. Zion Church, where Woodrow gave me another history lesson. 

After going to the church, we made it to Bundy’s to get the feed for the cows. We were supposed to be there by 9 a.m. We didn’t get there until 9:53 a.m. When we backed up the truck to get the feed in, Woodrow noticed that his dog, Mable, came along for the ride. She came along for the adventure!

We got the feed and a salt block and made our way back to Clearspring, where I heard some family stories I don’t think I can share here.

Once we made it back to the barn, I was tasked with unloading the feed for Woodrow while he went and fed the cows. I think I got the short end of the stick on that one. But I did not have to battle with the flies trying to get the molasses feed like Woodrow had to.

Woodrow was also surprised that I did not scare the cows this time around. The last time I came to the barn, all the cows ran away from me for some unknown reason.

With all the feed unloaded and the cows fed, Woodrow wanted me to go with him and take some photos of the school and another place he could not remember. So we drove around Clearspring to see if he could remember what he wanted to get a photo of.

We came across the new pond that had been built on the property. It does not have any water in it as of yet. Then we drove to a house that Woodrow had helped build in the 90s. He wanted to go and see if the current owner would let us stop by and get some photos.

As we parked in the driveway, we were first greeted by a friendly dog. Unfortunately, I did not get the name. Then the current owner of the house, Mike, came out to talk to us. He was a friendly feller and invited me and Woodrow inside. I don’t know why he let two guys like us into his house.

Woodrow wanted to find a specific rock that was placed in the chimney. It was a duck-shaped rock that he wanted to see again. As we were looking for it, Woodrow was telling Mike all the different stories of building the house. The duck rock was not found, unfortunately.

After that, we went to the school to get some pictures, and Woodrow told me some stories about growing up in the school. 

When we were done with getting pictures of the school, Woodrow took me back to the hog barn so he could bulldoze some. He took me home after that.

As I look back at the day, I thought it would be a day of me helping Woodrow with chores, but really, it was a grandpa and grandson spending quality time with each other.