The secret to the sauce!

Ok, I promised yesterday I'd tell you the long story of how I got the best bar-be-que sauce in the world! Well, it started with my grandpa....you've got to know, he was a bit of a character.  When he was 17, he lied to join the navy during world war II.  He saw a lot of action, got wounded a couple of times and nearly died.  He survived but wouldn't talk much about what happened until later in life.  He saw terrible things for a kid.....

When he returned, he became a plumber, pipefitter and welder.  He could fix just about anything.  He traveled around the country working on stuff like power plants.  When my mom was in the fifth grade or so, they settled down in my hometown and my grandpa traveled by himself.  By the time I came around, he was working around our town and doing well for himself.

Being a navy man, my grandpa could talk the talk.  He could also gamble and smoke.  So I've got to get back to the story......word is my grandpa did some work for the owner of the bar-be-que restaurant and when he asked how much he wanted for the job and grandpa told him he wanted the sauce recipe.  He was sworn to silence and he pretty much kept his silence on the recipe for years and years.  He would whip up a big batch sauce and pass it out to family and friends.  He only gave me the recipe when I got married and moved away.  I had to swear to keep the secret and I did.  As the years went by, he did loosen up and give it to a couple of other family members. 

We were sitting around at a family gathering after grandpa passed away and we began to talk about the sauce and grandpa.  I mentioned the story he told me about how he got it and my brother starting laughing at me!  'That's not what he told me!', he said.  My grandpa had told him that he won it in a poker game.....that sounds more like the real story to me.

Did I tell you that this was the same grandpa who used to shoot off a homemade cannon for fourth of july and noodle at the river......he was fun!