Surprise Grandson's Phone Call

Merritt and Grandpa clowning around.  Top photo is of Bobby and Artelle, his wife, when they were first married.


I was elated a couple of days ago when I received a phone call from my Grandson Merritt.  He was waiting for the bus he takes to work.  I was shocked to hear his voice as it has been a while since I have seen him and it is unusual for him to call.  We talked a few minutes just the usual stuff, and then he started to tell me some of the things that have happened to him lately.  He works at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas as a life guard and has to ride the bus to and from work.  One day while on the bus, someone shot at the bus, now that wasn't funny and could have been serious, but it just made me realize that Vegas is not a very safe place to be.  There are so many crimes like this that they aren't even reported in the news.  Sometimes I wonder if it is because they don't want to scare the tourists away.  Merritt will be moving to a better part of town next month and that will be a good thing.

We went from the serious gun shot to the bus, to a funny episode that happened to him just lately.  One of his friends that he rooms with was going to take him to work one morning.  Merritt's alarm clock didn't go off and when he woke up and realized what had happened, he jumped out of bed got dressed and he and his friend headed to work and he was able to make it just in the nick of time.  He wasn't late.  He worked his shift and was getting ready to head to the bus stop to catch the bus home, when he realized he had forgotten his wallet due to the rush to get to work that morning. In the wallet was his bus pass. He called a friend, but his friend's phone wasn't working.  So he thought of something that I would have never thought of.  He made a poster that said "Compliments $.25 per compliment."  Something like that.  He stood on a bridge over the strip and held up the sign.  He ended up with one lady giving him $4.00 and she told him that was a bargain.  I would have loved to have heard some of the compliments he gave out.  I am sure the people that gave him money for the compliments saw he was a clean cut kid and just wanted to have fun with him.  He ended up with the bus fare and was able to get home.

Now most of us would have asked a co-worker for a loan that would be paid back the next day, but my ingenious grand son came up with a different way of getting the money and the best part is that it worked.  I told Merritt that he reminded me of my brother Bobby who would have done something like that.  My brother Bobby was always doing something funny, and was a real character.  Unfortunately Bobby, committed suicide several years ago and I miss him a lot.  I can't help but wonder if Bobby passed along some of his funny genes to Merritt.