The Bickersons

At Grandma and Grandpa's Place.....

there was always a lot of bickering. Not because Grandma and Grandpa didn't love each other or get along but because Grandpa's favorite past time was aggravating Grandma. He loved nothing more than getting a rise out of her.

Grandma's classic response to to one of Grandpa's jibes was to say, "Now Bill Hayes.....then she would go on to explain all the reasons why he was wrong/unreasonable/ridiculous/etc. I don't know how many times I heard this exchange in my life. But one of the funniest was one that I only heard about later because I wasn't there at the time.

A family friend told us the story of one morning when he went over to buy some hay from Grandpa. After they had loaded his truck Grandpa invited him to come in to the house for a cool drink. As they stepped through the back door and into the kitchen Grandpa whispered conspiratorially, "Watch this."

Grandpa then proceed to go into a mock tirade. He commented loudly to his neighbor, "Look at this. Can you believe it? I had to get out my own bowl this morning. I had to poor my own cereal. Naomi wouldn't take care of me."

At that Grandma came flying out of the bedroom (in a genuine tirade) screeching, "Now, Bill Hayes!" Of course when she saw Ken standing there she was mortified. Ken reported that she immediately adopted the sweetest tone of voice and simply said, "Oh. Hello Ken."

Of course Grandpa thought it was hilarious. He probably chuckled about it all day long.


On this Day in 1979: My Mom, Dad and I were on the second day of our trip to California by car. My sister and my Grandma Kagy flew. Grandpa chased a cow around the pasture trying to remove a wire that was tangled around it's leg. (No word if he was successful or not). Grandma picked green beans and Great Grandma and Great Grandad snapped them. My aunt Amy taught at Bible School and my uncle Shannon hauled wheat to St. Louis.