Grandpa Scrooge
My Grandfather was always regarded as being incredibly tight-fisted; he would not put his hand in his pocket for anyone. The grandchildren never noticed or cared, but it was a point of contention amongst the parents. If just once he had bought a few of us a handful of penny sweets on any visit, the parents would have been happy, but he would not have stretched to even a few coppers.

One weekend, when I was a mere nine years old, I went to visit him with my Mum and Sister. As usual, my Mum handed him a Tupperware box of some food she had prepared, myself and my sister dug out whatever toys we had managed to sneak out of the house to play with and so on.

My grandfather called me over, and within earshot of my Mum, said:
"Here Steve, I have a present for you!"

He handed me over a small, blue-coloured paperback book of magic tricks (which I still have to this day). This naturally made my Mum quite happy, but as she turned away from that heart-warming scene, good old Granddad stopped me and quietly, but very seriously said
"now that will be 50p, please!"

He held out his hand. Of course I stumped up the coins out of what little pocket money I had, and not another word on the subject was uttered. I didn't mention it to my Mum until just after his death in late nineties. She just laughed and laughed, and it still comes up in conversation when anyone in the family is reminiscing.

If I get to his age and am lucky enough to have grandchildren of my own, I honestly hope I can be as stingy and as awesome as he was!
( theoriginalsteve <this space intentionally left blank>, Fri 3 Jun 2011, 12:44, Reply)