We recently went to visit my grandparents, Aidan’s Great-Grandma Avis and Great-Grandpa Ken. Aidan is the first Great-Grandson on the Schenk side, with an older sister and three girl cousins. There was something stirring about watching my Grandpa hold Aidan–the oldest Schenk holding the Schenk who would ensure the family’s name lived on another generation. Maybe it was the way Aidan looked at him with complete intrigue but also complete comfort, or perhaps it was seeing the pronounced difference of the nearly 80 years that separated them, Grandpa with his age spots, wrinkled neck and thick glasses, and Aidan with his big, bright blue eyes, and smooth, soft baby skin, rolled up in folds at his wrists, ankles, and knees.
We sat and talked in the living room for several hours, Aidan alternating between Grandpa, Grandma, Great Aunt Beth, mom, dad, and just sprawling on the floor. We watched the Yankees play the Red Sox on the television, talked about the family, about Aidan, about work, school, life, about Aidan, about Grandma’s cooking, about Grandma’s diagnosis of Grandpa’s “O.C.D.”, about Aidan, about paying $20 to have the lawn mowed because Grandpa can’t manage anymore, about health care reform. My oldest brother smokes, so we talked about the price of cigarettes and how expensive they’ve become. Grandpa shared a story from his time in the service. Grandpa served in the army during the Korean War, and said they used to get as many free cigarettes as they wanted. Grandpa had tins full of them, hundreds and hundreds of cigarettes, most he would just give away. Just after getting out of the service, once the free cigarette supply ran out, he began paying a quarter a pack for his habit. Driving to work one day, he lit up a cigarette to smoke on the way. A few minutes later the news on the radio reported that the price of cigarettes was jumping up to 40-cents a pack. Grandpa took the cigarette out of his mouth, tossed it out the window, then crumpled the rest of the pack and that was the last of his smoking habit.
And of course, we took some pictures 
