Whistling Dixie

I come from a long line of whistlers.  One of my first memories of my grandpa was of him puttering around in the back yard and whistling!  He was always whistling.  I'm really not sure what tune it was, (and sometimes he would just make them up I'm sure) but he was always whistling something. He was a fireman for part of the week and a house painter for the other part.  I loved helping Grandma take dinner to the Fire Station when it was Grandpa's turn to cook.(usually elbow macaroni and tomato sauce)  He had this old truck that was painted white and had lots of painting supplies in the back.  On the days Grandpa painted, he would come in wearing his paint-speckled overalls and some plaid shirt, smelling of sweat and hard work, whistling and heading for the bathroom to wash up.  I loved that man!  This is a pic of him with my uncle and aunt.(Notice the paint specks on his glasses!)


My mother is a whistler as well.  I can usually tell, though, what she is whistling.  I remember her buying us an 8 track (remember those?) of some well known whistler, and how my brothers and I would put on those Gigantic headphones and listen to it on the same stereo that had a reel to reel player( even further back : )....).    I don't hear people whistling tunes much anymore. The times have changed, they move to fast, no one takes the time to hum or whistle much.  Too bad!  Maybe if we took more time to smell the roses, we could enjoy life a little more instead of being in such a hurry all the time! 

This morning, I heard someone in the house whistling.  I ran through my head all my kids names and came up with April who is 17.  I realized that she has inherited our love of whistling!  Grandpa would be smiling if he knew that!  John Culp died last summer but he is Definitely not forgotten!  He has lots of whistlers following in his foot steps!