Favorite Memories of Ralph Giehls (ridiculously abridged version)

Allow me indulge in some catharsis. Topic: Ralph Giehls. (aka Great Grandpa Ralph to my kids, Paps to my wife, Dad to my father-in-law.) Here are some of my favorite memories:

1. Betty

Ralph and Betty. You can’t have one without the other. Anyone that’s seen the way they posed together for pictures (usually sitting, facing each other, foreheads sometimes brushing each other’s) knows what I’m talking about. To see the way he stood by her (longer than anyone I’ve ever heard of & longer than anyone should have to) through her ongoing battle with Alzheimer’s is a testament to marriage. It makes anything this 31-year-old has to complain about seem petty.

I love that even long after she was relegated to the Alzheimer’s home, and he was stuck working his rock shows solo, he would still hand out his business cards that read “Fun With Rocks: Ralph & Betty Giehls”.

2. Arizona

I could’ve easily labeled this one “Rocks”. Before I was introduced to the Giehls family, “rock show” was something I associated with something else entirely. But I soon learned there was a whole world of Gem & Mineral Expos that I’d never been exposed to. And it was rocks (a 2nd career that lasted longer than his first one in the military) that lead him to Arizona.

I was fortunate to be able to spend 2 week-long vacations visiting Ralph & Betty at their Tucson homestead. Mindy & I always had a great time living the retiree lifestyle. In fact when we were there, we never got off Eastern time. Up practically at dawn, full day of Mexican food & Indian casinos, then home each evening by 5 p.m. Pacific…just in time to watch the East Coast baseball. Game over by 8 Pacific, then off to bed to rest up to do it all again.

3. Baseball

The 2nd of those Arizona trips occurred in October of 2003. If you’re a baseball fan, you should remember that month as the time of very entertaining League Championship Series. We got to see the Steve Bartman-induced Chicago Cubs meltdown against the Florida Marlins, and a couple days later, the Aaron Boone 11th inning walk-off home run that clinched the series for the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox. I’ll always remember his understated reaction after each dramatic play “hee hee hee…well…shoot”.

I was lucky enough to attend a Reds game with him whenever he came back to Ohio (pretty much every May for almost a decade). Like clockwork after the 8th inning, he would start checking his watch and wonder aloud if it was a good time to head out & beat the traffic. So we usually caught the end on 700 WLW. Only once, as the Reds clung to a 2-1 lead, were Mindy & I able to convince him to stay to the end to witness the win in person.

His interest in baseball remained to the very end. Just 2 months ago when he called Mindy from his hospital bed, he had Mindy put me on the phone to talk about the first place Reds and their incredible season. I’m happy he got to hold on long enough to see them make the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

4. Fishing

Not to be confused with the giant fish represented above by Florida’s baseball team…fishing and Ralph Giehls meant one thing: Blue Gill. And lots of them. He would need to collect like 50 or more of those little suckers to pull off one of his massive fish fries. To this day, it’s about the only fish that Mindy will eat.

One spring, when Mindy & I had been dating for an eternity but were still not engaged, he had requested to take me fishing during his trip back to Ohio. I agreed but was terrified that he was planning on drilling me as to what I was waiting for to pop the question. Much to my delight, we discussed just about everything else in life besides that. (BTW- I caught about 4-5 Blue Gill, while he snagged probably 10 times that.)

5. Something Sweet

Each night about 45 minutes after dinner, Mindy begins smacking her lips and muttering her need for “something sweet”. I always found this to be slightly odd.

Four years ago Ralph stayed with us for a couple days while he worked the Cincinnati Gem & Mineral Show downtown. Both nights after dinner, before Mindy could even say anything, he would smack his lips he say aloud “I need something sweet”. And both nights I had to run out to Graeter’s. Mindy’s after dinner craving became less odd as I realized this was simply a learned behavior from childhood.