April, 1969

One year to the month and my grandmother, Beth, (my mother’s mother) is back in the house. My mother is only weeks away from delivering her newest child and once again my grandmother has been called in to help out and this time she brought her husband - my grandfather - Pryce, with her. After her last birth, my mother must have felt a need for backup in this one, despite the fact that my father had become nothing short of helpful to the point of doting - very close to doting, but not quite.

It is the lot of grandparents that most grandkids have always will see them as old. This was not the case with my own maternal grandparents. They were the only grandparents I would know and their positive energy was as contagious as a 3^rd grader’s cold. Beth and Pryce, even after 40 years of marriage, seemed an unlikely pair. He, with a ruddy face, excited eyes and a quick smile, and her, carrying the consignment of those who’ve lived their lives on the edge of society, maintained a more dispassionate demeanor – not at all cold but certainly more reserved than my grandfather. Greater than the odds that had been stacked against them in marriage was the fact that they had somehow managed to overcome the inevitable boredom of familiarity. Beth and Pryce never seem to tire of each other. What I most remember about them is that ever the opportunity arose that were they seated next to each other, my grandfather always held my grandmother’s hand in both of his, cupping her small hand between his rough carpenter’s hands. It is the pose captured in film, photo and video throughout their time together.

I am told my grandmother seemed to make me, now known for my somewhat dour and serious nature for one so young, into a - while hardly effusive - at least a happier baby. And whether or not it was because my frighteningly wild hair was slowly taming itself or the fact that I was loosing some of the excess baby fat, my grandmother always called me her “pretty boy”. She would call me her pretty boy for the rest of her life.

From April, 1969
Hawaii Five-O by The Ventures
(the date shown in the video clip is inaccurate – 1969, not 1964)