My Grandpa LeGrand Anderson's Strong Hands

LeGrand and Vera Anderson 

My maternal grandfather, LeGrand McKay Anderson always seemed big and strong. He was a stout man with muscles and big hands. My mother always admired her father's muscles. She said, "He seemed to appreciate that about himself as well."

LeGrand Anderson

Pauline remembered his farming days, "Dad could carry two big bags of feed on his shoulders at one time--then dumped them into the feed barrels."

His daughter Rolaine said that all of the time she was growing up the boys in town were scared of her dad because of his size and strength. She said, "Dad was a strong man and did a lot of Indian arm wrestling with the kids. He was known for that."

During his truck driving years he told Rolaine, "All of the while I am driving down the freeway in my truck, I exercise my hands and my arms. I practice keeping strong."

A neighbor, Oma remembered seeing LeGrand for the first time, "I watched this good-looking, well-built man with hands to match throw tires on the load of a truck."

My sister Diana and I saw a gentleness in his hands. We loved to play on my grandparents back property in some old trailer houses. We swept, cleaned and played house inside of them for hours. One day while we were doing our cleaning, we noticed a cobweb in a corner with what looked like a cotton ball stuck in the middle. We left it alone. When Grandpa came home from work that day, he came to see what we were doing. We stood back and pointed to the cotton ball. With his large hands, he retrieved the ball, pulled out his pocket knife and cut the ball in two. He told us that it was the egg sack of a black widow spider and showed us that all of the hundreds of white specks inside would have hatched into spiders.

His hands really were big and strong but that day they were gentle as he taught us about nature.