NATCHEZ — For Roosevelt Owens, now is the time to treasure every moment.

A granddad and father, Owens spends every spare moment with the children. And when The Dart fell on Owens’ Temah Street house he was happy to talk about those children.

Owens has a 6-year-old grandson, Alfred Owens, and a 10-month-old granddaughter, Tamara Owens, both the children of his 22-year-old daughter, Roxanne Owens.

“I enjoy watching them do things. Every Wednesday and Sunday, which is when I’m off of work, I’ll take my grandson places,” Owens said.

“We go to the game room at the mall, and then to the bowling alley. After that, I’ll put him in a little red wagon and take him around town.”

And those aren’t the only things his grandson likes to do, Ownes said.

“We’ve been to the state fair up in Jackson, and he’ll always ride the biggest ride there. We’ll be at the top, and I’ll be shaking, and he’ll be laughing,” Owens said.

After raising a daughter, Owens said it’s not much different raising grandchildren than it is raising children.

“It’s definitely true that the grandparents spoil the grandkids,” he joked. “But I play with my grandchildren the same way I played with my daughter.”

Owens met his wife in 11th grade at North Natchez High School, and although he asked her to go on a date then, it wasn’t until a year later that she accepted his invitation.

“She turned me down the first time, but we really didn’t know each other well then,” he said. “In the 12th grade, we had a class together, and we exchanged phone numbers right before Christmas break in 1983.

“She’s a stay-at-home mom who helps take care of the grandkids. It’s a full-time job.”

Owens has been a bartender at the Monmouth Plantation for 21 years, a job he says he really enjoys.

“I like meeting a lot of the guests from out of town when they’re here touring,” Owens said. “I give them a lot of history about Natchez, and it’s just fun talking to people and getting to know them.”

Owens also said he has had an encounter with a ghost while working at Monmouth.

“It was about 15 years ago. I was working, and I heard someone call me by my nickname, Roro,” Owens said.

“I looked around and didn’t see anyone, then I went downstairs to see if anyone had called my nickname, and no one had.”

But the experience didn’t leave him frightened, Owens said.

“I knew it had to be something because it was an old house, but it didn’t scare me,” he said.

For now, Owens said he’s more occupied with watching his grandchildren get older.

“They grow up so fast,” he said.