Thread by @shellakeypookey

1. Here's my 90yo Da Tom, on the squeezebox of a Saturday evening - wondering when he'll get his #vaccine
I just got him peg paste and rosin to tune up his fiddles to keep him busy
And brought fish & chips
Then found 9 accordions in a press looking for biscuits
9
I know, right?

2. I was stunned
It also explains why he built the press in the first place
With random pieces of wood he has finagled from gatchin with lads on building sites & from a quiet #Leitrim man who is his son in law
"Christ he's gone with the new lengths - he sighs
"Fuck it anyway"

The wood, beams, laths & beading are stored in the downstairs Jacks. He demolished and rebuilt his kitchen at 89. And now he's raging. So he keeps re-building then dismantling the units. He has a white box with acres of light and a raised step. You built your own stage says I.

4. He denies this
You could lead him with a thread but you couldn't drive him with an iron bar
He built a workbench IN the kitchen & gave away his table and chairs to the man across the road
He took the TV down & re hung it in the kitchen
Over the workbench
And closed the door

5. He stopped lighting the fire
Or sitting in his armchair by the lamp, a table for the paper, the remote, a Jameson.
He sat in a deckchair @fischerscorner drove to him one hot day, in an effort to get him on the roof in sun in #lockdown1
He put cushions on it and refused to move

6. He moved the sofa down from his bedroom, shouting directions at his Grandson on the landing. Then moved the inside table from the front room to the kitchen. So far so good. There's too many chairs in these rooms anyway says he so me & the Grandson carry them up to my old room.

7. There's not room in it to turn a sweet in your mouth. It's filled with furniture, tools, musical instruments, speakers, amps, and walls of vinyl, cds, and tapes. And that's just his. The presses he built me as a child are crammed to the bollix with memories, & writing, mine.

8. I need to excavate it like someone seeking treasure. Because it's there.
Where I left it.
He'll lose his mind when I'm rooting.
We are twins.
Emotional, spontaneous, hoarders with a side of control freak, loving, needy, impossible.
And hilarious.
He makes me snort out loud.

9. And shout till I'm hoarse, endlessly repeating stuff, telling him the weather will change, his vaccine will come, and life will resume. Did I mention he's deaf?
"WHAT'S THE DEFINITION OF PERFECT PITCH?"
- Wha?
"WHAT'S THE DEFINITION OF PERFECT PITCH?"
- Wha?
Christ me nerves!

10. "IT'S HURLING AN #ACCORDIAN INTO A SKIP AT 50 FEET.
-
At least I laugh
Now he wants to sell 1 or 7 of them
A man bought me an electric guitar for my new show
I can't play guitar
My Da opened another press and gave me a brand new guitar amp and leads
#youcouldntmakeitup
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