Grandpa.. the crazy years.

I never had much interaction with my grandfather. He suffered from various mental problems and the VA marked him 100% disabled by 1960. He seemed normal at one day and mean and curmudgeonly the next. I was in the same house with him every summer but he stuck to himself, drank coffee and smoked cigarettes all day without saying a word.

The rest of my family were very disrespectful towards grandpa. I was about 9 years old before I realized his name wasn't "that damned old man". My dad told me grandpa suffered from shell shock and possibly schizophrenia. I knew grandpa could be rough to live with but I never once thought about being disrespectful to him. He was on huge doses of Thorazine and lithium which probably explained his lack of motivation.

Once in a blue moon grandpa would awaken from his stupor, stop taking his medication and disappear off into the city. My grandmother would try to get him committed to the mental ward of the VA but they said there was nothing they could do unless he hurt somebody.

During these times the family would be in a panic. Grandpa would call the house and tell us how exciting it was to be able to communicate with the pope through telepathy, his job at the peep show and all the fine pieces of ass he was getting.

Grandpa wouldn't come home for a weeks at a time. When he did finally arrive home my grandmother would go off on a tirade that could curdle milk and make a hooker blush.

It took grandpa a little while to settle down completely. We would be sitting at the dinner table and he would take out a penthouse magazine, open it up and start a commentary about the aesthetic quality of modern pubic hair styles. I was half entertained and half afraid that a bowl of potato salad was going to fly across the room.

My uncle who lived next door, like me was sympathetic towards his father in law. However, he told me he was worried because grandpa was offering fifty bucks each to anyone willing to watch him masturbate...

Luckily, summer was nearly over and I would miss this pay per view event.