The tablespoon hypothesis

Me Pops rarely complained about his dad, me Grandpa Joe. When he did it tended to be emphatic; remember the episode with the buzz boxes? If not, look it up. It's in here somewhere. Yet even that story Dad recalled with a certain fondness.

One of the few tales me Pops ever told with a shaking head involved a speech Grandpa gave him when Dad was 12 or 13. It involved the value of hard work. Hard work was good for a man, if it was productive and had a point. It built character, it made you a better man; you know, all the ancient platitudes which are, to be fair, true. Then he proceeded to have me Pops dig up all the weeds from the lawn with a tablespoon.

Pops never did get the point of that one. It must have been intended to illustrate the value of hard work. Perhaps it was to teach discipline: do as you're told. But digging up weeds with a tablespoon? Dad always contended that there were better ways to do that even in the early 1950s.

On the whole, me Pops and me Grandpa Joe got along well. This was one of the few stories the old man told with a certain upset, vaguely angry quality in his voice.