My maternal grandpa died in 1982 when I was 12 years old. His name was Matthew Nichols, and his passing was the first significant loss of my life because I loved him so much and he had such an impact on me.
He never graduated high school and was a self-taught electrician by trade, yet there were several invaluable life lessons that I learned from him.
One such lesson occurred when I was in the first grade at Hawthorne Elementary School in Wilingboro, New Jersey. My teacher was Ms. Ringenwald, and one day during recess I got in big trouble because my two best friends decided it would be funny to go behind the school and pee on the building.
I went along and did just as they did. We thought it was the funniest thing, until one of the recess aides found us and saw what we were doing.
