This is my grand dad, grand daddy as I called him most of the time. His name was Aaron Hays. His mother pronounced Aaron with a long a sound. I don't know why, but people who knew him well pronounced his name that way too. And I always knew his really close friends by how they pronounced his name. My mother loved the name Aaron (Erin) for a girl and named me after him. I love being named after my grand father.
This photo of him leading the rodeo parade hangs in my parents great room and I love it so much because this is exactly how I remember him. With a huge smile on his face and on a quarter horse. He loved, loved horses and people, and hot sauce, football, and this ranch my parents now live on. And I think he is one of the many people to whom I owe my love of bartering and trading. He was always trading horses and autos, even trading tomatoes from his garden for this or that.
In his day he broke horses by running them in the creek feeling it was much safer for them both. He was an excellent horseman and raised cutting horses for more than 30 years. *cutting horses are highly trained horses used for "cutting" a single cow or calf out of a herd for doctoring or branding* He also played football for the 1929 TCU Hornedfrogs when they won the 1926 Southwest Conference Championship. He always said there were many parallels between football and horses although now I wish I had asked what those they were.
One of my favorite stories about him is one my grandmother told many times. He was not much of a church going man before they married, although his family had ties to the Presbyterian Church. And she was a very devout Southern Baptist, her grandfather even being a minster at one time. She was not sure if she should marry him as her faith was very important to her. So she made him a deal. If he promised to attended the Presbyterian Church with her every Sunday, she would agreed to marry him. He agreed, they were married and he went to church with her every single Sunday except Super Bowl Sunday. He agreed and even learned to enjoy it he said.
He never called anyone by their real name and made up nicknames for most everyone he liked. He called my grandmother "Mother" or "Lady H" or Mrs. Hays, never by her first name. He called my brother "little buddy" or RT. And he called me "little lady" or "half pint". I love it when he called me "half pint" as I was a huge Laura Ingalls fan.
He has been gone for many years now, having died when I was probably 8 or so. But I remember him extremely well and so grateful for the memories and the lessons he taught me.
(side note for my Grammer who reads my blog posts) Hi Grammer! Todays post should have been about you as today is your official birthday. I hope you enjoyed your birthday lunch yesterday, the boys and I sure did. Hutches homemade fruit pies are so yummy that we had the two we brought home with us for breakfast this morning...shhhhh! Love you and hope you are having a good day. Your post is coming...I promise.