Family Album

My grandfather, boy, there was a character. Other men came home from the war sullen, quick to startle or anger; my grandfather, he came back a ray of sunshine. Always had a smile plastered across his face, always tipped his cap to the ladies and the children and even the stray dogs, always laughed and danced his way down the sidewalk like some blue-collar Fred Astaire.

Grandmother always pretended to be annoyed by it all, but you just knew she loved it. "Oh, God, Euan, don't start that now," she'd say, watching the show with a twinkle in her eye.