Greetings my appliance-minded friends. I hope the summer has treated you well. Here in Ohio we are approaching what some call Fall. In Ohio, however, we call it Second Summer. We’ll have a few weeks of actual Fall here in October and then around November, we’ll slip into Practice Winter before actual Winter comes in and sets up camp until about April.

Speaking of Second Summers, one thing that hits the spot is a Frosty. If you don’t happen to have a Wendy’s Restaurant near you, you might not know what a Frosty is.

It’s not quite soft serve ice cream, and it’s not quite a milkshake. It’s something in between. And it’s delicious. Simply delicious. 

For me, it’s something else. It’s a connection to my grandfather. My Gramps is an amazing man. In his 90’s, he’s still going strong. Gramps has an apartment at the same independent living center that I worked at in high school (how’s that for synchronicity?). 

You see, Gramps loves Frostys. Once a week, I’ll hit Wendy’s and pick up a couple of Jr. Frostys and go visit Gramps. I leave my cell phone in the car, there’s no need for it. 

When I walk in, Gramps always has the TV on, but always with the sub-titles. On a good day, he still has his hearing aids in. When he doesn’t, I just have to be more deliberate with my words. 

The best visits, though, are the ones where I barely talk at all. These are the visits that Gramps tells me stories. I learn about his visits all over the world. I learn about relatives I’ll never meet. I learn about things that become more real in that little apartment than they ever could anywhere else. I could probably watch a video on YouTube about riding an elephant to the top of a mountain in Nepal. About how, from the top of the mountain, their tour bus looked no bigger than an ant. 

It’s a reminder that sometimes you don’t need to hit the interwebs for those wonderful and amazing stories. Sometimes all you need to do is find one of your relatives-a parent, a grand-parent, aunt or uncle, and talk to them. Or better yet, grab a treat, go visit them and just listen. 

-Todd Skaggs