My Gram's house was always warm and comfortable and a fun place to be. Warm....that's putting it midly....She very often kept the thermostat at 90 degrees so heat is quite a vivid memory of my Gram's house.
When my brother, sister and I were growing up we spent quite a bit of time at our Gram's. My grandma (who in her youth was dedicated, loving school teacher) had a spare room downstairs with a desk and chalkboard and numerous worldy books. We would play "school" down there. My sister was the teacher, and me and my brother were the unruly students. I don't remember our classes (I'm sure my sister tried to whip us into shape) but I do remember recess. We would run upstairs to the warmth of my Grandma's kitchen (often smelling yummy baking) and she would fix us a snack (and we no doubt would of complained about our "schoolwork") Gee I wonder what my sister did down there while we were at "recess"?? Best part of the schoolday!
My brother and I had quite a few sleepovers at our Grammies. We had a lot of fun playing with her "ancient" toys. She had a indoor lawn bowling set that we quite enjoyed playing with. Cards were a big thing in our family. There were many, many afternoons our Gram would sit patiently and play our "childish" card games; hours on end of Go Fish and Kings in the Corner and once we were older Crib. Yahtzee was a big one too and tons of ......???? that game with the eight colours and you rolled the dice trying to get them all safely home (kinda like an old fashioned version of sorry) One activity though that was so much fun at the end of the day was "babershop". My Gram had her favorite chair that she always sat on and it was big enough for my brother and me to sit on the back or side as to have good access to her hair. We got out clips and combs and rollers and pins. We were quite the hairdressers and ofcourse my Grandma always had to check out her new doo in the mirror. I'll never know how she kept a straight face and told us so nicely how pretty it was. One word: Love.
I had quite the stubborn streak as a child and one evening I got a bee in my bonnet about something my grandma did and I was going to run away. Well I only got to the corner of the block before I turned around again. Ofcourse my Gram welcomed me back with open arms.
Each year at Christmas my Dad would take us kids over to put up and deorate Grandma's Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun putting up her ornaments and old fashioned lights.
So many other wonerful memories that include much Lawrence Welk watching, news paper reading and swapping, gardening in her huge, beautiful back yard, pie crust eating, peanut butter ball eating, going to Swiss Chalet, eating over cooked brocolli (hmmm eating is kinda a theme here) and lots and lots of Crib!!
My Gram was a wonderful woman and I loved her very much. It's always bittersweet when an elderly loved one passes because often the sadness is accompanied with knowing it was a blessing in many ways. We had so many wonderful times together Gram that I will always treasure. I love you Gram. God be with you till we meet again!
