‘Grampo habla’ about ‘cuando’ he was a young man
Era un tardecita de otoño y Grampo Caralampio and Canutito just happened to be lying under the old árbol de manzanas that evening. They were watching las nubes as they changed shapes en el cielo. Mientras que las clouds floated by in the sky y cambiaban de hechura, Canutito would say cosas como “there goes un dragon” o “Está un toro charging por el cielo.”
Grampo Caralampio was watching las nubes en el cielo también and suddenly he pointed to a cloud y dijo: “Allí está una beautiful young lady.”
“I don’t see any mujer bonita, grampo,” Canutito said, sitting up en el zacate.
“I can see mujeres bonitas, m’hijo,” grampo replied, “even cuando las otras personas can’t. Tú grama, por ejemplo, had a pretty face pero what made me fall in love con ella es que tenía un good and gentle heart.”
Canutito smiled. Le gustaba cuando su grampo talked about Grama Cuca as a beautiful young lady. He asked, “Grampo, how did you propose to grama? Was it hard para hacerlo?
“I didn’t, m’hijo,” grampo said. “In those days men had to go al papá de la muchacha and ask for her hand in marriage. I remember que yo estaba todo nervioso porque el dad de tu grama era un gruff old man. I went pa’su casa and after hoing and humming por muchos minutos I finally said him: “Vine a preguntarle si le daba a mano de su hija en matrimonio.”
“I came to ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage,” Canutito translated. “¿Qué respondió él, grampo?”
“He said: ‘I’ll give you, not only su mano pero the rest of her también.”
“He gave her all to you pretty fast, grampo! Why did you think que it would be difficult?”
“Porque cuando tu grama y yo were novios, she had told me una vez en un date que when she was little, su papá y su mamá had eight children. Un vecino who didn’t have any, had come to see if maybe el papá de tu grama would give him one of their kids to raise. The story goes que el papá de tu grama was so gruff que he answered the neighbor, ‘of course I won’t give you uno de mis hijos; ¡si no son gatos!”
“He may have been a gruff old man pero de veras quería a sus ocho hijos,” Canutito remarked. “What made him think que parents might give away one of their kids, grampo?
“Algunas familias eran muy pobres más antes, and among so many poor families in the olden days, sometimes algunos parents no podían hacer afford de asistir a tanto hijo. Meanwhile there were algunos couples occasionally que no ponían tener hijos and since they were childless, they would ask those con familias grandes for one or two hijitos to raise.
“Let’s get back to cómo grama ended up marrying you, grampo,” Canutito said.
“Pues, she said que she married me porque yo era murre smart pero I really think que ella vio mis green eyes, mis bulging muscles ymi deep voice y no pudo hacer help herself; she fell hopelessly enamorada conmigo,” grampo concluded.
“Ay, grampo,” Canutito laughed, “you sound como que you looked como el Tarzan of the jungle y grama era como la Jane. By the way, do you think que you can still call out to grama como el Tarzan so that she’ll come to you de una vez?”
Grampo Caralampio stood up, se puso las manos on the side de la boca and he called out como el Tarzán: “A-aa-aaaaaa-aaaa-aa!”
De repente, la puerta de la casa flew open and Grama Cuca ran outside pero cuando vio que it was only grampo, she said to him, “¡O chite! It’s only you. I thought que someone had stepped on la cola del perro…