Remember these? Romper Stompers?! When I was little, I saw them on my favorite TV show, Romper Room, and I just had to have a set. Our local toy store didn’t sell them, but my beloved grandfather agreed that I had to have them, and he went from store to store until he finally tracked them down. I remember how excited he was to give them to me. Even today, in my mind, he is beaming as he watches four-year-old me stomp around the kitchen on those plastic yellow cups.
Papa died in 2000. Had he lived, today would have been his 100th birthday. Even 10 years later, I still miss him terribly. I miss staying at my grandparents’ house and jumping into bed with him in the morning. I miss seeing him waiting for me on the porch when we visited on Sunday afternoons. I miss going with him and my grandmother to the mall and visiting with their friends who all hung out there. I miss seeing him drive his great big Cadillac. I miss how he couldn’t leave a message on my answering machine but wondered how I always knew that he had called (because I could hear him yelling to my grandmother, on the machine, “She’s not home.”).
I wish I still had those Romper Stompers, but I have so many wonderful memories.
