Tractors are better than underwear

My 6-year-old grandson from Garnett was here for Christmas and spent a lot of time playing with a toy John Deere tractor at the house. His family was getting ready to leave and he said to me, "Grandpa, if that tractor was at my house, I would play with it all the time." I replied, "Well I guess you're going to have to keep coming down here because I'm going to keep it." His 7th birthday came in the middle of February and the more I thought about it, he is the only one that plays with the tractor. With three granddaughters in Bolivar and a sister and a 15-year-old brother at his home, the tractor's not going to get much use a few times each year.

Later at a basketball game with his family I said to him, "I hear you want some new underwear for your birthday". Immediately his head started shaking, "no, no, no" and I said, "Well that will be nice. It will be something that you can use." When it came time for his birthday, the tractor was in the bottom of a sack and I had stapled the top shut and headed to Garnett to celebrate the birthday. I made sure it didn't look heavy when I carried it in and set it in the middle of the floor. I said, "Well, I hope I got the right kind of underwear for you." Once again he made it clear that was not what he really wanted. When he opened the sack, I heard a squeal of excitement. The next thing we knew he was making a circle through the house playing with his newly acquired John Deere tractor.

The rest of us all agreed that the underwear can wait.