Bonjour Barabas, Salut Tontine, Pis qu’est-ce qu’a fait d’bon la Josephine! These were just a few of the nicknames one would be called entering pépère and mémère’s house. For anybody who knew pépère even just a little, knew that he had a great sense of humour and loved teasing. Especially if he would tell you to give him your hand...that’s where anybody who knew him well (like his grandchildren) had the advantage, they knew that meant hide your hands behind your back immediately! If by some bad luck your hand landed in his you would get something like a mitiwi or a snake bite or some kind of hair pulling.
He also thought it was hilarious when babies tasted something sour. Much to every mother’s chagrin, he would give the babies in the family a lemon, a pickle or a small sip of pepsi just to see the look on the baby’s face. It happened to all the babies that have entered that house, it was practically a rite of passage in the Trudel family! Then he would look at them and say “Mais c’est ca, C’t’enfant la, ye pas du monde!” and everybody, including the baby (and the mother) would laugh.
No matter how much he loved tormenting them, every single one of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren meant the world to him. The proof was on the fridge. It was plastered with picture of us, some as far back as when Josee was taking her first steps.
Pépère also loved doing woodworking, watching us kids play hockey, play cards with us and telling us about old hunting stories. He always had room on his lap for anyone of us. Derek was the lucky one. He was the smallest therefore had the longest turn. Pépère loved starting off a visit with a nudge of his head signaling towards a fresh bag of homade beef jerky and ending it off by sneaking off to his room to bring back a surprise piece of juicy fruit. The topic of conversation with pépère usually included him bragging about any recent visits or phone calls he had received from any one of us. And if for some reason our parents would walk in the house without the kids he would ask “Ou qu’sont les gamousses?” Wondering why on earth they wouldn’t have brought them to see him. No matter how often, how seldom or how short the visit was he never made a big deal about it. All he would say is “Bon d’la grand visite” or “Pis t’es tu perdu”. He always appreciated the time spent and made the best of the stay.
My best memory of both pépère and mémère was of them always sitting by the window ready to greet anybody passing by. For those of you, who know me, know that a favourite thing of mine was to scare mémère because she would startle so easily. One day I snuck passed the window about 3 times to scare her and every time she would yell out “On!” On the 4th time I’m the one who was in for a shock. Waiting there for me coming to mémère’s rescue when I went to the window, was pépère...with a tall glass of cold water. When I was about to say “boo!” pépère tossed the glass of water at me right through the screen. Let’s just say lesson learned.
Anyway, this is right about the time where pépère would turn to me, point the remote and press the mute button because my story is getting to long, so I’ll try to wrap it up.
My family was very fortunate to have lived beside pépère and mémère all these years. Not only did we get we see them all the time, but we also got to see all the family and the joy it brought mémère and pépère when they would come down.
Salut Pépère! Mud in your eye!
