Grandfather gives valuable lessons

My grandfather, Johnny Raney was born April 13, 1951. He has always had an interest in knowing what is going on in the world and a great skill for cooking.

Born in Clovis, N.M. my grandpa was raised in Muleshoe, Texas. He attended Muleshoe high school and there he participated in DECA and his town’s newspaper called the Muleshoe Journal.

In DECA John created a marketing ad for clothes and won grand prize.

Every afternoon after school my grandpa would go to the Muleshoe Journal where he created and placed ads. Muleshoe Journal did not have their own printing system, so John drove to Hereford, Texas to have the papers printed, drove back to town and then delivered the papers all over town.

He worked for the Muleshoe Journal all throughout high school.

John enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1970. He completed basic training for cooking and accounting in Fort Knox, Ky. Because of his outstanding test scores in the Army he was given the option to go to Vietnam or be a cook for the soldiers.

My grandpa did not want to go to Vietnam so he decided to be a cook. “They said that was the best job to have, the easiest job was to be a cook and I thought yeah I’ll take that,” John said.

My grandpa cooked for the Army Reserves for five years on the weekends. He said it was the greatest decision ever.

John finds an interest in cooking because he likes to please the people he cooks for.

While cooking for the Army my grandpa got to discover food developing companies. One company he worked for bought a food plant in Omaha that made corned beef. He did a lot of accounting for the company he worked for and marketing for many other food developing companies.

While accounting and marketing for these food companies John discovered he wanted to be a R&D, a researcher and developer, for food companies.

Without any training my grandpa was able to become an R&D because of his skills in cooking and accounting.

He decided to stay in Omaha because he saw a lot of opportunity being an R&D. “I loved to travel and the exposure, it was pretty exciting,” John said.

He moved to Omaha in 1975.

When he moved to Omaha he met my grandmother, Denise. Though she was dating one of his coworkers from the corn beef company they hung out every other week when my grandma’s boyfriend at the time drove back and forth from Florida.

“It was a more free world back then, you didn’t worry about too much,” John said.

Eventually they ended up falling in love and married in 1978. In 1980 they had their first child, which is my mother, Mandy, and then their second child, my aunt Becky.

Becoming a father changed my grandpa severely. “Back in that day we were pretty organized,” John said. Growing a family and having kids brought back memories of growing up for my grandpa.

My grandpa was happy with both of his girls and continued to raise his family in Omaha.

Sadly, my grandpa started smoking cigarettes when he moved to Omaha and continued to smoke for the next 39 years.

He was diagnosed with emphysema in 2011 and completely quit smoking in 2013.

Today, my grandpa continues to keep up with everything in the media and news. “I like to know what’s going on,” he said.

John became political when Barack Obama ran for president in 2009. He connected with Obama on a personal level. “I finally found somebody that was my kind of person,” he said. Obama’s speech in Berlin was a big moment for my grandpa.

I found my grandpa’s interest in journalism fascinating. I was baffled when he had told me he was involved in the Muleshoe Journal. I love how he still continues to keep up with the media and news today.

He continues to tell me something important almost everyday that I never knew was happening in today’s world.