Charpie

Carp had a real gift for telling a story. In true form, as his stories evolved, the facts were always enhanced a bit. I believe this was part of his master plan to keep our attention. One of our favorite stories was his description of his many trips through Yellowstone Park. Every summer he would perch another grandchild on his knee and teach a new generation.... "You can see bear.....AND you can see antelope....AND you can see elk....AND you can see deer.....AND you can see buffalo.....AS FARRRR as the eye can see. You can take the 1 hour tour or the 4 hour tour, but as long as you drove all that way.....ya should take the 4 hour tour." Carp, you will be missed, but we will do our best to keep your stories continuing for years to come. I can imagine a crowd gathering around you in heaven as I write this...."You can see bear........

I'll never forget that summer after 6th grade when it seemed like we lived at the lake. There we were, middle-schoolers, trying to sleep in like usual when up to the bunk house comes Carp: "Get up! You guys are wasting the day away." Charpie: "What time is it, grandpa?" Carp: "It's 7:30, I've been up for two hours already!" I always enjoyed being at the lake during the fourth when Carp's whole family was there, he raised some great children and grandchildren who took me and all of Matt's friends in like we were part of the family.

I always remember Grandpa in the cold basement. For the longest time, I figured he was just trying to keep the energy bill low as the temperature was around 55 degrees down there but I finally realized he probably kept it that cold to keep his can of Schmidt cold and his plate of cheese cool while he was cheering on Mark Martin in the NASCAR race on his tv. He had us all fooled. To get accepted into USMC Officer Candidate School, I had to list any relatives that had any military experience on my application. Anyways, I put a handful of relatives down including Grandpa figuring it was more of a formality than anything and that nobody would look at them too hard. I hadn't heard anything about those names until the day I was to leave training when the Officer of my platoon sent me off saying, "Candidate Forward, make sure to shake your grandfather's hand for me." People that didn't even know him personally wanted to shake his hand. He was a lot of things to a lot of people, but in the end for me, he'll always be a great Grandfather.

I never met your grandfather, Charpie, but he sounds like a great guy. Condolences.

I remember one time when Carp started the campfire up again to burn the trash. Smoke was billowing into the little bunkhouse where 4 boys were sleeping. The door pops open and out they come......Grandpa......what the heck are you doing with all the smoke? He just looked up and grinned, Mornin' boys. No sense in sleeping the day away.

I remember pretty much every time I saw him the first thing that came out of his mouth was, "Ah hell... You sure aren't getting any skinnier." I'm sure it was usually true, but I still loved it every time he said it.

I laugh every time I think about grandpa carp giving me his old clothes for a xmas present. I think I wore them for three halloweens in a row.

I remember when I was in the second grade or so I asked Dad what his job was. He told me that he made nickels. I was a little confused but I just went with it. I thought my Dad made nickels i guess. Well, long story short, a few days later at class the teacher asked us all what our fathers did for a living and proudly proclaimed, "He makes nickels!" I'll always miss you Dad.

Famous Carpisms: As far as the eye can see! Brock (when trying to say braut) Clift Eastman (Clint Eastwood) Peesa (pizza) There's a lotta ball game left! Them clowns! Ahhh hell! Doesn't matter at'tol There musta been a hunderd of em

Probably the most memorable moment before Carp's funeral: Grandson, Jake, is wondering what to wear for the funeral, and Grandma just asks him to borrow some of Carp's clothes. Jake, "You can't wear a dead guy's clothes to his own funeral! That's just awkward!"