Bill Cosgriff's temper

Me Pops had a reputation for not losing his temper. That wasn't quite accurate; as a son who many  times (and quite deservedly) felt it, he had a temper. But what he did was control it. That's the important thing. It's not only good manners, it gives your temper greater impact when you do let it loose.

One day as we were visiting my parents my oldest son, he was maybe seven at the time, came up to me clearly stunned. He looked up and said, as incredulously as a seven year old might, "Paw Paw yelled at me."

"Well, you shouldn't have done what you did," I responded simply. To this day I don't know what it was that brought it on, but it made an indelible impression on my son.

Pops himself insisted that he had a bad temper. One day I asked him, given that his dad, me Grandpa Joe, had a very bad temper, how the two of them got along so well, how Dad was able to check his anger when dealing with him. "I figured he was here first. I was the one who had to stand down," Dad explained. Now, Dad would still get mad at his Dad. I worked with and around both and saw it a time or two. The interesting thing was Joe would back off when he saw Pops was that upset.

Seeing as Joe, who did not take care of himself at all, made it to 86 I always assumed Dad would make it farther. But so it goes.

Happy 84th birthday Pops.