




This is when he was really young in the Air Force. He built and repaired planes & choppers. He knew most if not all of the makes, he used to tell Me them all the time and point them out to Me in movies.

Here he is much older shaking hands with his General and receiving a big award


Here is two classic pictures of him at the old house.

I have always loved this picture of him. He looks so neat & handsome here. I look at his face & eyes and I cannot begin to fathom why his family treated him so bad and why they hated him. He never ever did anything wrong in My sight and always treated Me well and was always there for Me especially when was I sick in 94, I always wanted him to rub My head to calm Me down







Here he is a few years before everything changed for him and My Family. We always told him that he looked like Robert Mitchum. He was such a character. If you like comedy boy he knew some jokes and his own type of sense of humor, he was so talented at so much



Speaking of talent, he was a great oil painter. He loved Bob Ross in the 80s and wanted to paint like him. He was a natural at it right away. He painted dozens upon dozens paintings. He always signed his initials on the corners of his paintings. This marvelous one is in My room as I speak


I was going to show this last year but I skipped it but know I'm not. He painted this huge, 4 foot wide painting for Me...look at how wonderful he made it


He dated it 5/27/87, it just had it's 35th anniversary last year...look at that as he signed it to Me





He also made this Dinosaur Painting for Me as it was an inspiration from one of My Dinosaur Books he liked. I believe he made this in between 86 - 89 which I never could be certain about that period of time


So I have talked about My Grandpa's bike shop before. I just say it's his, he worked for an owner named Caesar. I met him a few times and his was ok. He had his sons work there with My Grandpa and hired some other guys but they all came and went but My Grandpa stayed. He was great at this job and the boss knew it however he usually never did anything special for him. Like the aircraft he knew when he was part of the Air Force, My Grandpa knew just about every make & model of bicycle made and he knew how to build'em & fix'em. He was basically self-trained, it was the same thing for motorcycles which I'll get to that in minute. Like I said before he was a living book of knowledge. So at Our old house when I was a youngster I'd used to go outside and look down the sidewalk for him cause the bike shop was just around the corner really. I'd get really excited when I'd see him there and I'd say PoPo is coming home



So at the corner here is the old 7-Eleven that I talked about before in My Odds & Ends' Glory Days of Movie Rentals, that location is still there. Further down the street was where Movie Mogul was and around the corner on the right is where Tru-Buy, Rainbow Video & The Ringmaker was which I have showcased them in that said topic as well.

So now turning left, this is the direction where the bike shop is.

These two buildings here housed two little toy shops that was novelty based like rubbery finger puppets, plastic coins and stuff like that. I always wanted to go there before and after Me & My Grandma saw Po. They closed sometime later around 90/91 and then it became a costume rental place. I remember they had a big clown costume in their window. They closed in the mid 90s


The big wooded area you see is Tower Grove Park, I talked about that when I showcased Paramount Drugs that Po and I would walk there all the time and he'd carry Me on his shoulders. So the building on the right is the bike shop...

It's called A&M Cyclery and it's been in business for over 90s years. It changed ownership many times over the decades with some that had no passion of bicycles like Caesar for instance, just the the business to make dough.





Caesar wasn't appreciating him








Here is My Grandpa's Suzuki and here he is holding a trophy that he & MiMi won on the bike race


Here is MiMi on his bike while he took the picture of her



Here they are together on his Yamaha getting ready to go on another trip down to Georgia oh and look, he had a mustache which was quite rare for him cause he was always clean shavin' and I loved his little barn in that great back yard of the old house


And last but certainly not least here is Po with a prized bike with his USA Today Shirt that he wore all the time till it was so worn out



So there was a My Birthday tribute to My Grandpa PoPo. I have said much more about him in My Grandma's tribute and many other topics too. I know his family forgot him and whomever is left on My Grandma's side has too so I'm posting him here hoping that he won't be here. Like stores, locations, times and everything else, if you don't talk about that and people it's all gonna fall in limbo and be in the grasp of oblivion, it might sound far out to you but believe it isn't, it's very imperative that you do so. Who knows, I might add more here if I deem it necessary as there is plenty more to talk about. Happy Birthday Po, I hope your celebrating with MiMi somewhere



