Originally broadcast on CHED Radio - Wednesday, June 3, 1964

Something wonderful happens to people when they become grandparents. I don't know exactly what it is, but along with a slight hardening of the arteries, comes a softening of the heart. All of you listening who visit granny with your kiddies know what I mean. Remember when you didn't like turnips, your mother stood there and stuck them down your throat till you gagged. But… with the grandchildren she says… "now, now… if he doesn't like them he doesn't have to eat them, here… we’ll give him a sucker”. And do you remember when you were six, your dad said, "you need money, go out and earn it". So you got a paper route and carried 900 papers through sleet and fog and hail and rain and ended up with a permanent twist in your spine. Now every time your child gets within shouting distance of grandpa, the old gents starts tossing folding money. And do you remember how your mother used to meet you at the door on a wet day and say “take off your shoes and your stockings… you're not coming in here with those filthy feet”… and you stand in the rain taking things off so you could make it to the basement. But not with the grand children. They've got 20 pounds of mud per foot and granny says… "come in, come in, you'll catch your death of cold… sit right here on the broadloom and take off those muddy shoes". And do you remember when you tried to get a word in edgewise when the parents were around. You'd say, "Daddy, I gotta go to the…”, and he say… "will you be quiet!! Children should be seen and not heard". But with the grandchildren… Ha!… It's "let them express themselves". So they barge right into the middle of a discussion on atomic fallout with… "Betsy White has a kitten with six toes on one foot”. And do you remember how your dad used to whale the daylights out of you for doing something wrong… like breathing… and he’d make you go out and cut the willow stick he was going to use to thump you. Now raise your hand to your own kid and grandpa yells… "don't hit him… you'll give him a complex. He'll feel rejected”.

And do you remember when you used to reach out for the white meat when you had a turkey at Christmas and your dad would say… "you'll eat what’s put on your plate". But now… grandpa eats the extreme north end of a south going turkey and never bats an eye, and the grandchildren don't even know that there is dark meat on the bird. Or, yes, there's something wonderful that happens to grandparents. But what we have it otherwise? No, I don't think so. I just hope when my children bring their kitties home to me, I get as soft headed and soft hearted as my parents were with my offspring.