It's time again for Ms. Jenny's Alphabe Thursday Rainbow Summer School. This week we are studying the color BLUE. For a list of my classmates and links to their posts head over to Ms. Jenny's blog - Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."
BLUE is my favorite color, so you'd think this would be an easy one for me. Nope. I was really stumped. Then a friend E-mailed this picture to me. I believe it's been making the rounds of the Internet, but I felt it was quite appropriate for Rainbow Summer School and the color BLUE. After all, the sky is quite BLUE and it's very unusual to find a pot of BLUE gold at the end of the rainbow.
Then I thought of my Grandpa (John P. Morris) and his love of blue. I have many fond memories of Grandpa and how he used to literally paint the town blue (slight exaggeration) with Sunoco blue paint. You see Grandpa proudly owned a Sun Oil Company gas station in Westwood, NJ. That's Grandpa pumping gas in front of the little cinder block station that he built himself. This was a Christmas card for his customers sent sometime in the late 40's or early 50s.
Sun Oil Company's colors were (and I think still are) blue and yellow.
I guess back then Grandpa had no trouble getting all the paint he needed and as a result he painted our garbage cans Sunoco BLUE, our bikes, and anything else he could think of that needed a fresh coat of paint. I'm assuming he could have gotten yellow paint too, but he must have favored Sunoco BLUE.
I remember he had a Sunoco BLUE jeep that he kept at the station and sometimes he would give my sister and me rides. That was always a lot of fun, but the jeep only had a driver's seat and a passenger's seat. Grandpa kept his toolbox between the two seats and my seat was always the toolbox. It was a little scary because there was no back like a real seat would have and I had to hang on for dear life so I wouldn't fall backwards when he started up. Of course, this was the 1950's and there were no seat belts, high back seats, or any of the other many safety features that we have today. Somehow I survived to tell the story.
Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog so you can visit all the other BLUE posts.
What a beautiful tribute to you Grandfather....so sweet and sentimental....blessings...bkm
ReplyDeleteThat picture is a scream. And I loved your Sunoco Blue story. Especially the jeep rides. Your description made me laugh out loud. I remember riding in the back of our Vista Cruiser station wagon, basically rolling around on the floor LOL. And yep, we did survive.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great picture! Ha. Who knew.
ReplyDeleteDear Betty,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting and commenting on my Rainbow Blue - post. Glad you like the colour blue. It was interesting to read about your Grandpas's Sunoco gas station in the 40's and 50's. My parents always used to buy Sunoco gas; but that was at a later time. I don't know if Sunoco still has a yellow and blue sign; but I remember seeing it just a your photo shows it. I think it appealed to my mother because blue and yellow are the colours of the Swedish flag. She was sometimes homesick for Sweden.
Best wishes,
Anna
Anna's Rainbow Blue Jewellery
One more thing, Betty...
ReplyDeleteThanks for mentioning the cat, Lovisa, sitting by the pansies. She is shy and I don't see her very much. I ususally see this grey-striped tom, Sigge, more often because he likes to lie on the hoods of parked cars!
(You would think that I would have ebough of cats having two cats at home and about to bring two new kittens home in a couple of weeks, but I just can't pass a kitty by.
Hugs,
Anna
Interesting about your jeep rides!!! You are still here, thankfully, to tell the tale!
ReplyDeleteI just love the stories about your grandfather and his Sunoco blue! It's amazing anyone lived through those years without safety laws and features.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great thing it must have been to fly along the road in blue jeep.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful memory of your Grandfather...I have fond memories myself )Mine worked at a city dump and use to take me on the machines. Great pics!
ReplyDeletelol ... so glad you lived to tell the tale ... it's amazing that we ever managed to get through the 50's alive! wonderful story and memories!
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet story about your grandpa.
ReplyDeleteI love to read about your memories. And my favorite color is blue, too.
ReplyDelete=)
Ohhh I did enjoy this!
ReplyDeleteThat rainbow photo is hilarious! I've never seen what the end of a rainbow looked like...now I know :)
ReplyDeleteI love the memories you shared about your grandfather :)
I like Grandpa John's style. Do you suppose he painted some of the blue hues of heaven when he got there??
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tribute to your Grandfather!
ReplyDeleteHappy Rainbow Blue,
LOLA:)
btw My Rainbow Blue link is here for you!
LOL on the rainbow port-a-pot!!! And nice tribute to your grandpa.
ReplyDeleteYour grandpa sounds a very interesting man.
ReplyDeleteI love these stories from your childhood.
ReplyDeleteI'm kinda bummin that no one has sent that photo to me yet.
Funny photo!
ReplyDeletei love the information about your grandfather. We love to go and take photos of old gas stations, but I have never seen a Sunco.
What a wonderful story. It would be so neat if you still had some of those signs!
ReplyDeleteYour Grandpa sounds like an interesting man. I bet he had lots of stories to share.
Thanks for the smile and this fun trip down memory lane.
This was a great stop for Rainbow Summer School.
A+
Betty, you're so funny. Grandfather also had a gas station; he kept an antique Star auto w/rumble seat that he gave us rides in. Wish I had a picture like that that you have.
ReplyDelete