On May 5, 1930 a wonderful baby boy was born. His name was Jay Jewel Stockton. He was born in Erwin, Tennessee in a hospital. His mother’s name was Nola M. Stockton. And his father’s name was Carl A. Stockton. I now know him as Pop Pop, and everyone I know, calls him JayBird. He is my mother’s father and loves his children and grandchildren very much.
        Pop-pop's early years were very good years. When he began school he went to Clear Breanks Elementary School. Throughout his years of school he went to all the Clear Breanks Schools, the Elementary, Junior and High although he quit school in 9th grade to start working.   His favorite year of school was in junior high, in seventh grade. There were four kids in his family, three girls and one boy.  Their names are Ruby, Adel, and Betty.  My Pop-pop had a twin brother but he died shortly after he was born. He was the third child born. He looked up to his parents throughout his childhood. When he wanted to have fun he would go biking. When he was younger he did a lot of things to keep his life busy.
        Pop-pop had some strange teenage years. Jay had many jobs to do like chores. He had to milk the cows because he lived on a farm throughout his whole life, so as he grew and as he was younger he just had to do all the work he could do on a farm. He owned  all of your various farm animals, but his favorite was the horse. His first job was at a service station, pumping gas. He got his license on his sixteenth birthday. He left home when he was seventeen. During World War II when Pop-pop was fourteen, he needed a job so he got a job at the Saw Mill, but they only let sixteen year olds work there and he was fourteen so he told them he was sixteen and then got the job. His next job was at the Magnavox because he needed a job he told them he was eighteen but he really was seventeen. After that he got a job working on trains. He was told about good jobs up  north in Maryland so he hopped on a grey hound bus and there found a job at  Eastern Stainless Steel. He  worked there for thirty-five years, two months, and fourteen days. My Pop-pop had tried to join the armed service but was denied because he was the last surviving Stockton boy.  He had a lot of jobs and funny times during his jobs.
         As he got older he still had many good friends. One good friend he still has now is Smitty, they worked together at Eastern Stainless Steel and became good friends and he still knows him as a very good friend. Pop-pop met him in Maryland. He had many other friends that he gets together with still, when he comes up to Maryland. Pop-pop loves every animal in the world and when he moved to Florida he had a lot of animal friends. Pop-pop's favorite kind of  animal's are horses and Laborador Retriever's. Everyone calls my grandfather Dr. Dolittle too, because he has had many strange ways of making friends with animals. One time a baby alligator had gotten out of a pond and my grandfather caught it and took pictures. He played with it for a while then let it go. He also used to have a squirrel that came to his home everyday and he fed him. Pop-pop would hold the food up and the squirrel would crawl up his leg and grab the food. Another time he was inside his house in Florida and out of the blue there were about six raccoons on his porch and some were hanging on his screens. My B-mom said, "they must have heard about him".  He had a lot of wild animals that were good friends of his. We call him the 2nd Dr. Dolittle.
         Pop-pop was married when he was 20 to a woman named Norma Moiles. They had three children together, my Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Laurie, and Aunt Diane.  His first wife left him and the three children when they had been married for about 4 years.    Friends introduced him to a woman named Mary Helen Phipps, my B-mom, and they were married shortly after. She grew up in Grassy Creek, N.C..  She had moved to Baltimore and was a nurse.  She had two children by her first marriage.  They were my Uncle Kenny and my Aunt Sonja.  After they got married my Pop-pop and B-mom had my Uncle Tony, Aunt Jill and my mom, Dawn. Altogether they had eight children.  They all lived in a house that my Pop-pop built for them in the White Marsh area.  Growing up with Pop-pop, my mom remembers him as the fun one. When my mom was 14, my Pop-pop had thirteen weeks vacation and he drove them across the country to California.  They rented a Winnebago and drove the whole way.  They stopped at a lot of sights along the way.  They saw the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest and the Pacific ocean.  They went to Disney Land in California.  He used to say that if you listened to the windshield wipers they said "dumb Dawn".   My B-mom was very serious but Pop was always playing and very compassionate, generous and hardworking.  He  owned his own business for 35 years, while also working at Eastern Stainless Steel.  It was a company called Supreme Gas & Oil.  My mom and aunts remember him leaving on Christmas to fix the furnace of a woman with small children and no husband.  He also built his parents a house in Tennessee, not far from where he grew up.  They lived there the rest of their lives.
     When he retired he sold his house in White Marsh and built his dream house in Florida.  He had 63 acres and raised cows and horses there, just like when he grew up. In 1994 my B-mom found out she had cancer and my Pop-pop took care of her.  He even sold everything he had in Florida and moved to North Carolina to find her better doctors and so she could be near my Uncle Tony and Aunt Jill.  On May 4,1995 my B-mom passed away and his birthday was the next day.  They had been married 35 years.  Now my Pop-pop lives in Beauliville, N.C. with his two dogs, Blackie and Brownie.  He has made so many friends and travels a lot.  He took a train trip to California to visit with my Uncle Tony who is a Naval Officer and is stationed there now.  He visits with his sisters in Tennessee often.  He usually comes up here and visits with us once or twice a year and also visits my Uncle Jimmy in Florida a couple of times a year.  He has never remarried and seems to take good care of himself.  He is always looking up old friends and recently got back in touch with friends  he grew up with in Tennessee.  He has friends everywhere he goes.
         I have many things I will always remember about Pop-pop. Some are good and some are bad. I will always remember how everyone makes me sleep with him when we don't have enough beds, because he snores so loud.  He makes you wake up in the night because of his loud snoring, but I could sleep through it most of the time.  Also, I will never forget how he eats bread with every meal and always has it stocked in his house to eat. My favorite thing that I really, really love is his sweet tooth.  You always know when Pop is around there will be a lot of goodies.  He is like a kid when it comes to sweet treats. He always says "you better have some sweets there for me and my baby dolls".  Most of all I never forget how he loved every animal and helped them all the time except for SNAKES. When he sees a snake he  makes a funny face and says " YIKES, I hate snakes, hurry let's kill it".  He hates snakes and every time he found one he chopped it up with a shovel.  I will always remember my grandfather's love for animals and hate for snakes.