D - Word

I wasn't really feeling the holiday buzz this year for the 4th. My family is in Iowa City today to see my grandfather, and just be together. This was not a planned gathering, my mother's father is currently in the ICU trying to recover from Legionnaires Disease. I've been spoiled having all four of my grandparents play a huge role in my life up to this point. They have always been there, teaching me, supporting me in everything I have set out to accomplish. The idea of them not being here is difficult for me to wrap my mind around.

My mom's dad is intelligent, kind, humble and the hardest worker I know. He can fix anything, and always wants to make sure everyone is taken care of. He cheats at cards when ever he can get away with it, and always blames it on my grandmother if he gets caught. He is a goofball, and loves to make people laugh. I'm pretty sure one of his many heroes is Peter Pan. His full name is Richard Leroy Unsicker, but he has been lovingly known as grandpa D-word ever since an unsuspecting ride home from Chi Chi's Mexican restaurant in 1983. My brother and I were sitting in the back seat he was almost four, which would have made me five. It is one of those stories when you aren't sure anymore which details you actually remember and which ones you know because you have heard the story so many times. In any case... The grown ups were talking up front and my brothers little voice pipes up and asks, "Dad, why does everyone call grandpa the D-Word?" I admit I had wondered the same thing at times but had never voiced my concern. Dick is a common short name for Richard and I can't really say that I understand why that is, even now. As a four year old it upset Phil that people were calling his grandpa a word for which he only knew the negative connotation. He was a sweet little boy who often took things very much to heart. For example, around the same age, when asked what he learned from the Book of Mormon he responded "Be good, or you will be destroyed." Yeah, he was kind of intense. I don't remember the explanation my mother gave us once they stopped laughing, but we must have bought it. My father still calls him grandpa D-word, or just D-word, come to think of it so does my brother. And my grandpa still chuckles a bit every time they do.

Grandpa Unsicker's family is from Germany, and for this reason only, he is pretty sure he can speak German. So on occasion, or a little more often than that, he will start in on what he considers true German dialect and sounds like, "oh schalden schpitzen schleisterator" and so forth. It normally comes out when he has stubbed his toe, or hit his head on a cupboard. He has also integrated it into his terms of endearment, as well as using it when he can't remember the name of something, or just feels like using a made up word instead of what it's really called. We have actually written a book of translation for this pseudo-German of his. It comes in handy when you first meet him. This is an example of a typical greeting when I walk in their house; "Why Emily [he comes in for a big squeeze] my little schmooglerator, sweet little {smooshy kiss on the cheek} schklabopple! [one more kiss on the cheek]How are you? Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat? We've got some nuts, or some pop out in the crotch(word he now uses for garage)! [before we can respond] Cheeks (his nick-name for my grandma)!! We gotta get something for them to eat they're hungry!"


The world is a better place with him in it. I love you gramps!