Happy birthday to my granddad

Today is my grandfather's 88 birthday.  His name is Jerry, but everyone in the family calls him Mi.  He's old enough to know exactly what he wants and ask for it.  My cousin Jeff and I constantly are searching the entire DFW metroplex for said item.  Jeff actually drives into Oklahoma once a month or so to buy Mi's snuff. Apparently snuff isn't a hot seller in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so Jeff contacted a friend in Oklahoma, who meets him halfway with a case whenever Mi is running low.
Currently my shopping list for Mi is to find Febreeze air freshener with Gain in it.  I bought him a substitute Febreeze last week, but it wasn't acceptable.  Mi admittedly can't smell it, but his visitors like the scent and he wants that particular one.
My grandfather is particular, and sometimes grouchy in his particularity.  But every bit of that has been earned and he deserves exactly what he wants.
He was born in Emhouse, Texas, a little town close to Corsicana.  His father died when he was a child, and my granddad was raised by his mother and grandfather in Corsicana.  He had 10 brothers and sisters, and he is the last one alive.
He contracted pneumonia when he was 18 months old, but lived through it.  He grew up picking cotton and working on the farm.  He still remembers the big snow of 1929 when Corsicana measured 19 inches on top of a hill.  His father would go squirrel hunting on Sundays and they had a delicious meal of squirrel gravy.
World War II started when he was a teenager, and my grandfather lied about his age so he could join the Navy.  He worked as a cook on a hospital ship through the end of the war.  Days after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, my grandfather walked the beach there.
He met my grandmother in 1946.  I still wear the locket he gave her that Valentine's Day.  They were married in December of the same year.  They raised a family in Irving where my grandfather worked as a lineman for TU Electric.  To this day, there are line insulators in Irving that he installed.  When I drive to visit him, I always look at the power lines and wonder which ones he helped hang.
When my father was graduating high school, my granddad went back to school to finish his high school diploma.  They both graduated the same year.
He and my grandmother paid the hospital bill when I was born because my parents didn't have insurance then.
Mi loves to tell jokes again and again and again, and laughs harder than the listener at the punch line.
Mi favors my son Paul because Paul wears a costume every time to his retirement home and picks up lots of girlfriends.  Many eligible ladies are knocking on Mi's apartment door now to see when that cute little boy will come visit again.
I've been documenting his life for some time and have many snippets and stories of his 88 years.  This little blog just isn't quite enough to communicate Jerry Baker's goodness, generosity, and sense of humor.  He is a giant and I love him.