“100 years is not nearly long enough”
Sometimes I encounter things that are just too touching not to share with the world, so here goes.
There is a man in my hometown who turned 100 years old last month. The thing is, he isn’t just any man. He’s “Shorty” Martin, and he is literally loved by an entire city. Everybody knows Shorty, and Shorty knows everybody.
When I was a kid, I used to get a million-dollar smile and a “What a pretty girl” comment from Shorty, who worked at the gas station back when the attendants pumped your gas and gave your windows a squeaky shine. His wink and grin always made me feel special.
Shorty’s still smiling and enjoying dozens and dozens and dozens of grandchildren. {He even has great-great-great grandbabies}. One of Shorty’s great-granddaughters, an old high school friend of mine, wrote this little list and read it at his birthday celebration.
I know him as a sweet and happy man, but she knows him as someone who helped shape her life and the lives of her own children.
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10 Things I learned from my Grandpa Martin
by Lori Sisk Anderson
- God only made a few perfect heads — the rest have hair.
- 5 acres with a little white house, a garden plot, and a pond is just the right amount of space for 11 great-grandchildren to develop some of the greatest memories of their lifetimes.
- You can bribe those same great-grandchildren into gathering eggs from the chicken coop with nothing more than an RC Cola and a Whatchamacallit bar out of the fridge in the garage.
- Under a rowboat is the proper place to store potatoes….
- You’d best get up when Granny calls you to breakfast or risk Grandpa getting you out of bed with a glass of ice water.
- Brown beans and chocolate cake DO go together.
- Do not pick your nose. There are things up there that will bite your finger off. Just ask Grandpa.
- You can love one person your entire life, through the good times and the bad, for richer and for poorer, through sickness and health, until death do you part.
- You do not have to see Shorty Martin enter a room to know he is there. His laughter is announcement enough.
- 100 years is not nearly long enough, not when you have a grandpa like mine.
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Can you imagine all the things someone could witness in 100 years? In just my 32 years, I know this: I am thankful I ran across Shorty Martin in my childhood… his smile and kindness are something one doesn’t quickly forget.
It’s rare that one man would be loved by thousands of townspeople who span nearly six generations. But it’s not surprising that a man of his character would be blessed with a century of the good life.
That’s no coincidence, folks.
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. — Winston Churchill
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Tags: friendship, i {heart} oklahoma, inspiration, life, love, oklahomans
