Let your grandpa tell the story slowly. Someday you’ll wish you could hear it at any speed.

A story you have heard before is not really about the information. It is about the person telling it, the pace they tell it at, the parts they always linger on. The impatience is understandable and it is aimed at the wrong thing, because what you will want later is not the plot.

The next time it starts, let it run. Ask one question you have never asked, about a detail rather than the arc. Record it on your phone if that feels natural. You are collecting a voice, and that is the part that cannot be recovered later.