Our Little Family: Remembering Grandpa

Howard Lewis Reynolds
October 3, 1927 - June 17, 2010

Oh how I loved this man. He was the best papa. I loved his big grin, and the way that his ears were slightly bigger and more protruding than the average person. It gave him character, and spunk. He was a very charismatic and colorful guy.

Grandpa was a self-employed mechanic, salvage yard owner, and wrecker service for most of his working life. I've heard him tell stories of working at a gas station as a young man, I think he may have owned one as well. But mostly he worked on cars. I remember spending time at his salvage yard (they lived on it as well) in Guthrie as a child, I loved watching all the guys that worked there tinkering on the cars in the garage, I liked hanging out in the office, doodling on notepads. I would go exploring the salvage yard, checking out all the cars in various disarray, wondering what kind of "life" they had led. Grandma had a big garden, and I would spend time out back with her working in it, and picking veggies. She had grapevines that she would grow and dry out and make beautiful grapevine wreaths out of. I loved spending time at their house. My cousin Keisha said when she was little, she would love riding in his wrecker, and how she thought it was just wonderful that her papa was a hero and would go pick up people stranded, but not only that but he was nice enough to go ahead and pick up their broken down cars too! :) Time spent at my grandparents was lots of fun, times of catching grasshoppers in the yard, helping grandma fix lunch, watching wheel of fortune in the den in the evenings with them. I have lots of great memories.

Papa carried this same picture in his wallet the entire time they were married, his copy was bent and frayed in places, but he kept the same picture all those years, and he was buried with it on his chest.

Grandma & Grandpa were married for 59 years. Grandma always took such great care of papa, she was always cooking, cleaning and tending to his needs. They were the very picture of what marriage should be; dependable, faithful, loving. Papa used to call grandma 'my lil' maulki' (pronounced ma-ul-key)and my cousin Kiesha who spoke at the funeral said after he passed, she was so sad that she had never asked him where he got that nickname, or where it came from, my grandma said she didn't even know, he had just always called her that, but that in the end it was probably better as a fun little mystery anyways. You could see how much he loved grandma in the way that he would pat her hand, or call her little pet names, or just look at her. I know this loss is going to be so hard for her, and it breaks my heart. She has spent the last 59 years taking care of him, more so in the last several years as his body and health started to fail him. I'm sure she just doesn't even know what to do with herself now. :(

My grandpa was a good family man through and through. He had 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.

Grandpa, Sharon, my dad (top row)
Leslie, Vickie and grandma (bottom row)

My dad, Vickie, Leslie, Shirley (Grandpa's oldest child from a previous marriage) (top row)
Grandma, Sharon and Grandpa (bottom row)

Grandpa always had a giant, infectious, jubliant smile, and the best laugh I have heard in a long time. He loved telling jokes and stories, and I loved listening to him talk about being a young man and about his past. I've been talking about video recording his stories for about 2 years now, we got about half an hour of him talking about meeting grandma and when my dad was born at Christmas 08, but that's it. I never got coordinated enough to go and do it, and I'm kicking myself for it, I'm so mad that I didn't get it done. My grandma said she had him tell her stories and she wrote them down and will get me the notebook so I can type them up, but it's just not the same as watching him, all animated and livey, telling them. He was such a good entertainer. He also played harmonica and the guitar, I wish I could have gotten video of him playing.

I rarely saw grandpa mad, and probably only a handful of times at actual people, usually it was a tool or car or something like that, that he would be mad at, and then he would let those colorful curses fly, words that would make me giggle when I was a little girl, and just smile as an adult. Shit fire was a popular one, and dagnabit, and other funny, countrified versions of curses.

My grandpa loved hanging out with the kiddos. When we were little, he called us all lil' mousekers, and then of course when we had kids, they became the lil' mousekers. He was always telling me "I love those little mouskers of yours, those are some good kids. You did good."

My daddy is alot like my grandpa. They are both some of the most hardworking, dependable, honest and trustworthy good ol' boys that I know. Always in overalls and coveralls, always got a hat on their heads, always working and tinkering around on some new toy or project.