Growing up in the McDonald family meant growing up with girls. I’m sure the men in our lives felt like they couldn’t turn around without stepping on one of us. After all, girl cousins are known to travel in a herd.
But our McDonald men did an excellent job of handling it.
Cousin Rusty was always ready to carry one (or two) of us from place to place on his back. Uncle George brought us home books to read and Uncle Glenn taught us how to ride horses. My dad took us frog hunting on stormy nights… And Grandpa McDonald sang us the very best songs.
Whenever they visited Texas from Virginia, we would take Grandma and Grandpa on a trip to Lakewood Elementary for show-and-tell. With a single strum of his guitar (and a handful of baked goods from Grandma), an entire kindergarten class would go still. That big voice would sing through classics like “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and the “The Cat Came Back,” while his wife beamed proudly from his side.
Now matter how old we got, he always had room for his girls in his lap and in his heart.
And whenever he left a venue (be it one of our homes, or a packed elementary school class), Grandpa would always lead the group in singing our favorite songs “So Long…”
I’ve sung this song, but I’ll sing it again,
Of the place that I lived on the wild windy plains,
In the month called April, county called Gray,
And here’s what all of the people there say:
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
And I got to be driftin’ along.
Now. We are all grown up and we are getting ready to travel to Virginia to say goodbye to our Grandpa for the last time. But we will always be Grandpa’s Little Girls. And we will always remember his songs.
So Long, Grandpa McDonald. We love you.