“This is The Boss.”

That is how my Grandpa Leroy would introduce me when I was a little tyke. From the time I was walking until I started first grade, Grandpa would work midnights at the police department. He’d pick me up around 8 AM and we’d have breakfast at our house, around the corner with Grandma Donna, or head to the East Star Inn or Frenchies.

After breakfast, we would run errands in Elwood, or in nearby Alexandria or Anderson. When we’d enter a business, Grandpa would be eagerly greeted, followed by the question, “Who ya got with ya, Red?”

“This is The Boss!” he would proudly announce.

By 11 AM, Mother or Grandma Donna had lunch ready and after eating, Mother would walk me two blocks to Washington Elementary School for Afternoon Kindergarten.

And that’s how it went most weekday mornings. I spent many mornings as my grandmother’s sou chef, helping her with baking in the kitchen. It was in that kitchen on the Southwest corner of 8^th and South A streets where I became the repository of our family’s history and countless stories. Grandma Donna’s parents, Garrett and Belle (Jones) Clary, and Grandpa Leroy’s father, Virgil Barmes, were still living and I got to know them and hear their stories, as well.