Bups. (Clint's tribute)

I think the challenge facing everyone who speaks here today is doing justice to the absolutely larger than life person that Pete klassen was. 

Or should I say bups. Some of you here might know him by that name. That's b-u-p-s and allegedly that name is entirely my handiwork. At the tender age of 1, that combination of consonants and vowels was exclaimed by me at seeing Pete, and the name kind of stuck. 

It seemed to fit him more than well. It become a sort of title or persona; look at some of the pictures in the slideshow and the ones that might show Pete with a blowtorch in his hand, a smile on his face and just a little glimmer of madness in his eyes is Bups. Us grandchildren all our friends, and All the kids at Cultus lake knew him as bups. It was a title he held with pride.

Bups was, for a kid growing up, the ultimate grandfather. And I admit that I am biased here but let's just go through a checklist of some of the things that bups was all to eager to share with his grandchildren: 

- a farm, with cows, and a forest

- a shop filled to the brim with power tools

- a complete disregard for the suggested operating ages on quad ATVs

-  ditto for pellet guns

- houses, and cabins that legitimately featured secret rooms, and one that featured an entire secret floor.

- aforementioned secret rooms and floors that often included hidden bars of gold and other valuables

- a completely out of control case of pyromania and enough propane, sawdust and flammable liquids to burn down most of surrey.

Bups was a constant throughout my entire life. His influence has left a lasting mark upon me. 

Bups taught me how to hammer a nail into a 2x4 at 3 years old. In kindergarten I shocked teachers at sportsday by being the only kid my age able to do this.

Bups was there when I first mowed a lawn with a push mower. Bups had already taught me how to operate a ride on lawnmower. 

When it became obvious that carpentry and woodworking weren't the career paths that I'd be taking, bups encouraged me in my adoption of computers and technology. "You are gonna be bill gates right hand man" he would tell me time and time again. 

When I was too much of a hassle for my mom at home, I lived with bups for a week, where he gave endless amounts of time to help me build skimboards. 

This is probably one of the greatest things about bups: he gave his time generously to everyone. He always made time for you, no matter who you were or how busy he was. And he made you feel like whatever you were saying, whatever your opinion was: it mattered, and he valued it. Thats lesson one I learned from bups: give your time and attention generously.

Lesson two was work hard. Bups was a busy man. He was always working on a new house, in his shop, in the yard or on some pet project. Like a new dock for Cultus lake, manufacturing potatoe guns, or endless tree forts. Bups was the richest illiterate man I've ever known and his success can be attributed 100% to hard work. His story is truly that of rags to riches, and he never stopped working hard. 

And the final lesson I learned from bups was to love deeply. All the memories I have of bups are colored by big smiles, big hugs, and big demonstrations of love. Bups was a man who did everything in his power to provide for, and make his family happy. When he wasn't buying you things, he was trying to build something for you in his shop.

I don't really have an elegant finish to this ... 


(So he winged the ending and it was perfect.)