Allen Ward

The best part about coming to Florida was Meeting my grandfather, Allen Ward. He was a gentle person who taught school in the Panama Canal Zone (CZ.)
Tomorrow will be his birthday. When He died, It was on this very spot where I am typing now.
I hope that some way I am as good a person as he was.
Allen Used to love Music. He sang Barbershop. I had an old book of songs that were from his era. He must have picked it up at a yard sale. I actually learned to play guitar by picking away at Danny Boy and When You and I were Young Maggie. He would laugh if I got the notes wrong. and I'd Get him to sing them the right way. Once some one donated an old Hammond Organ... the churchy kind,with two keyboards and foot pedals. It had slider bars for all the different stops. Allen used to sneak over and play it when no one was around. That's why we got the thing really. My stepfather hated it. He always wanted to be a musician, and he could play piano reasonably well. Some how he missed the part where people gathered around wheezy old beast like the Hammond, and sang songs from another era.
Among Allen's other accomplishments was his military service. He flew in the Army Corps in WWI. He never flew any actual missions, But we still have his flight log and an old leather helmet. The plane that he trained in was called a Jenny . It was basically canvas an balsa wood with an engine. He really flew by the seat of his pants. I know most of this because my friend Denny was a Helicopter crew chief in Vietnam. He loves Aviation history, and would often draw him out about aircraft and flying. Denny was with Allen when he died.
My cousin Perry knew Allen when he was growing up. Allen showed him how to make kites. There is also the rusted remnant af a unicycle which Perry used to ride here. Once, in the garden, I dug up an old cap pistol. corroded almost beyond recognition. This house was built back in the sixties and my Grandparents were the first occupants, so i assume that the pistol was Perry's
Somehow I envy him. I only knew Allen as an old man. As an Adopted child, I knew only one Grandmother. She did not like me much. In fact My Adopted parents totally disowned me. At least I did get to know Allen in his later days. It's taken me twenty years to realize how much I loved him. When we first met, he was so exited that he could barely contain himself. he accepted me as if he had always known me and always loved me. I believe that Masha sought me out because she knew that it would matter to him to have a grandson. I just wish that I had realized what it meant sooner, while he was still living.