Ya Know What A Man Is?

Cuz I'll tell ya...

That's a man.

There's only my Dad, my great uncle Vernon, and my Grandpa Lowell that I can really credit with teaching me what it takes to be a man. Sadly, Grandpa left us on Friday, ~9 of the clock, Sy-addle time. Here's some reflection:

• Know what it means to be a reasonable person, but not take any shit, without looking like a prat yourself? Yup: I had two generations of Sells power to help teach me about that.
• Know what it takes to live off the land? Syke - you probably don't - at least not in any useful way - unless you took woodsman courses from Lowell. He's the only guy that I know who shot more 3 points (before it was damn near manditory in WA - and I'm speakin' Western count when I say 3 point). The guys I hunt with that are older than me used to fear my Grandpa's legs in the woods - ever covered 10 miles in day? Uphill? Wiener... Mountain Goat slash human is a fair assesment, I would say. Hippy dippys - cattail roots and acorn mast won't cut it. A man needs meat to survive.
• Know how to build a camper/cargo trailer/who the hell cares from the ground up, with only the power of your mind to guide you? No? Lowell hacked that. Rumor had it, he used to put the challenge out, wallet on the table, to fellow Boeing engineers who had "great ideas" that weren't gonna work - because he could see it in his head. You got that sack? I didn't think so...
• Ever eat a raw potatoe sandwich? Try it...Lowell did...The Great Depression is something many of us learned about in school...but real men lived through.

Okay. May God's love smile on you Grandpa. I'll miss you. Living 3,000 miles away, I never got a real good chance to say goodbye. But I learned a lot from you. The other men I learned a lot from is my dad, who was pretty much Lowell's 1st Lieutenant of Manhood; and my Uncle Vern, who would be Colonel of tough - I won't explain.

Colonel of Tough. Period.

James says: You forgot to mention that time he shot that deer and had to slit it's throat with his buck-knife because he was out of bullets.
But most of all, he was proud of the men that we've become. We'll see you in the clearing at the end of the path Grampa...