Grandpa Paul

My father met Paul and Mary Schilling in 1979 while he was a freshmen at Henan University. Grandma Mary and Grandpa Paul were among the first foreign tourists to visit my home province of Henan, and definitely one of the first to visit the University. Not wishing to lose the opportunity to talk with flesh and blood Yankees, my Dad approached Paul and Mary to practice his English. That initial relationship developed into a pen-pal friendship lasting nearly a decade. And when my family came to Kansas in the late 80s, Paul and Mary would always make it a point to go out of their way to visit us along their twice-yearly St. Paul, MN (their summer home)- Scottsdale, AZ (their winter home) drive. For my first Christmas in the states, Grandpa Paul was my Santa Clause. I was glad to finally be able to start returning the gestures, even if I’m still falling four or five visits, numerous presents, and incalculable effort short.

When I was younger it wasn’t Grandpa’s many accomplishments in business (e.g. CEO of Plastics, Inc.), various personal relationships (e.g. friendships with every Republican President since Ford), or even his military honors (e.g. Purple Heart in WWII) that I appreciated. Those things are not lost on me now that I’m older. However, my favorite anecdote about Grandpa and still the one I’m most impressed with is that Grandpa invented the egg carton. To confirm this, because children tend to exaggerate memories their minds, I ask at the dinner table in front of Brian, “Grandpa, did you invent the egg carton?” “You mean the one you use today? Oh yeah sure. I got two bucks for it, too!” …The one we use today? As opposed to what?! Lots of measurements of diameters and circumferences clearly took place and Grandpa tells another story about how the carton came to be, and while I will butcher the joke if I attempt to recall it, the punchline that came out of Grandpa’s mouth in a sly whisper: “What’s the moral of the story boys? The moral of the story is that you can only stretch a chicken’s asshole so far.” Brian and I roll in hysterics.