I didn't know Doril Tetrick well, but I do know he was my grandfather and we built something together...
Art by Pete Whitehead
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
thebrickwalkway.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. Visit our website 7minutestories.com. That's the number 7minutestories.com to see the awesome new merch available this season. Choose from stickers, koozies, t-shirts, tote bags, and more. I have to say the tote bag is my favorite. This episode, "The Brick Walkway".
On this podcast, I've told stories about my grandmother and my grandfather on my dad's side, who I was very close with, both of them, and my grandmother on my mother's side was very close with her. But I've never told a story about my mother's father, my grandpa. His name was Doryl, people called him Don.
And the reason why I'm bringing this up is that last night my mom sends me a text with a picture. I think she got it from her sister through a text chain. Next thing I know, I'm looking at this picture of my grandfather, her dad. And he's got to be 16 or 18 years old, and he's in a sporting picture with a team. It's got to be in high school or something like that.
And I'm zooming in on my phone on this picture. I mean, I'm looking at it right now, and it's incredible. This guy looks exactly like I did at that age. Not just a little bit. It's like I'm looking at my reflection in a 1930s film, and it really just hit me. I'm like, "holy shit."
And it's not breaking news. We clearly share DNA. I am of him. He's a part of my DNA. He's in my blood. But with this kind of close resemblance, it was just a little bit jarring to look at it, and it's like I'm looking at myself in the past.
But what makes this phenomenon even stranger is to look at a picture of someone that looks just like you, exactly like you, and you not know who they are, really. And it's not his fault or my fault. He passed away when I was seven. And I only have three memories of him. And as I'm looking at this picture, I'm trying to put these memories together and see if I can try to uncover something about him that connects me and both of us to this image.
Now, all three memories take place literally over the river and through the woods in this little house in the middle of nowhere in Ashtabula County in Ohio, and that border is Erie, Pennsylvania. And the number one feature in this area, especially in the wintertime, is the amount of freaking snow they get out there.
And it's probably in my memory because my mom would take my brother and I and drop us off for winter break at my grandmother and grandfather's little house. And I just remember all the snow and the trees, and we would be huddled inside this little house. It was cozy, but we were all just stuck in there for weeks. And sometimes, we get snowed in.
And my first memory is just sitting on the ground and my grandfather would be in his recliner watching daytime television. And I got to be five years old or something. And I would scoot up to him and put my feet up in the air bothering him. And I would say, "Put me in jail." And then he would grab my ankles and pretend to hold on like he was really trying, and then I would escape.
And I would come back and go, "Put me in jail," and that he would do the same thing. And I thought this was the best thing in the world in my kid brain. And I kept asking him to do it over and over and over again. And he was patient with me and he would. But I swear he had to be so annoyed by this. Because as a kid, you think this is fun. As an adult, you're like, "Look, I can only do this for so long, kid. And I just want to go back to watching Heraldo." But that's the first memory that's it.
Didn't really have any conversations with him. He wasn't a very open person. Didn't talk a lot, at least to me. He wasn't gregarious and forthcoming, but he was just quiet, and calm and present. That's really all I remember in that scenario.
At night, my brother and I would have to sleep in this fold-out bed that was right next to this furnace. I got to tell you, I don't know how old this furnace was or what power source it ran off of, but it would ignite every hour. And it would go this huge sound that would really trigger you out of sleep. You could never really fall asleep because it was so loud. And it kept the house very warm, but I always thought, "Man, this is bordering warm and possibly catching the house on fire."
So there was this low level of anxiety that would keep my brother and I up as we're sitting in this little house in the middle of nowhere, trapped in the snow. It was kind of scary. And the second memory which made things worse at night, was I remember the coughing. My grandfather had emphysema. My grandmother had breathing problems too, I think, because of secondhand smoke. But he had emphysema, I think, also because of when he worked in certain places that had stuff that compromised his lungs.
And I don't know exactly how it happened, but all I know is that we'd be laying there at night and it would start off as just a cough, a little cough. And then it would progress into a coughing fit. And really, it was the first time I ever felt scared for someone's health. I had never been in that position before where I was like, "Are they going to make it?"
I mean, it was so bad. You could hear him. My grandmother, too, but him particularly struggling to breathe. And this would happen every few hours. And how it would play out is that he would cough so badly that he would have to fumble his way to the bathroom. And I could hear him going through the medicine cabinet, and he would get an inhaler and take two puffs, and then it would settle it down, and he would go back to sleep, and then it would happen every few hours with the coughing fit.
So that with the furnace, we never slept. My brother and I, when we woke up the next morning, was like we just got back from Studio 54. But man, they would nourish us with an amazing breakfast the next morning. So that sustained us.
The third and final memory that I have of him is one of those winters, the snow was getting so bad, and people were having a hard time walking back and forth. Not just us, but people who would visit other family from their little house to the dirt driveway. And so he decided to build a brick walkway, at least, that he could shovel, and it could provide a path that connected people from the outside world to this house.
And so literally, he built the frame and I helped him. I had to be six, so I was probably more in the way, but he let me help him. And I felt so important helping my grandpa build this walkway to help people. And so we built the wooden frame. And literally, brick by brick by brick, we chiseled them, put them together, and made this long walkway to the house.
About a year later, my grandpa passed away, and that walkway stayed. In fact, it lasted decades. I remember walking back and forth on it to that house. And every time I did, I looked down and I thought about us building it. That's the strongest memory that I have.
But as I'm looking at this picture now, I realize that in itself and these other few memories don't really make a person. I didn't know who he was, his dreams, his hopes, his demons, any of those things. But I do know that we built something together, and that it helped people, and connected us with our family. I did visit his grave, which is not too many miles from that house. And I'm thinking, as I'm looking at this picture and talking to you, I should probably go back and see if the brick walkway is still there.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Went. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at media216. com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran, and Lenin Janovac is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcast.
And lastly, I'm Corey Burst. Make sure you tune in next week for another story.
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