Inspired by CGN #1

This post is in response to CGN #1's post of Mar 16th - 13 Memories. In it she talks about her memories of her paternal grandmother. And it brought back memories of my Grammy. So here goes -
1.) Making Cookies - Mostly 'Wooden' (anise seed) cookies. It seemed like it would be out of the blue on a Saturday night, Grammy would ask if we would like to make cookies. We'd all go to the drawer in the breakfast nook and get hair nets and ask what we would get to do to 'help' mix the dough. Once the dough was ready it was time for serious work - deciding on which cookie cutters we would use. (It wasn't until a few years ago, making cookies with my own Grand's that I realized one of my favorite cutters was a fish.) And then waking up to the smell of fresh baked cookies. I usually gobbled a half dozen right out of the oven cause that was the only time they were soft enough to eat without total immersion in some kind of liquid - the warmer the better. But boy! were they good.
2.) I never, ever saw Grammy wear anything but a dress. I vaguely remember a few times in the winter when she put on a pair with her dress. I do, however, have a picture of her in overall's.
3.) Pinning her veil on over her bindilee at church. And feeding us SenSen to keep us quite during the sermon. Using her hankie to make a 'baby in the cradle' to keep our hands occupied.
4.) Grammy and Grampy on their bed, Grampy reading a letter from 'The Old Country' in German. I regret I didn't push to learn German to this day.
5.) Loading up the Rambler Wagon (which was a bit of a scandal when Grampy bought it as it wasn't the traditional dark color. It was CANARY yellow!)with bundles of newspapers and heading out the the weight station.
6.) Going to pick strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries. Picking apples and to make sure we'd return, having a old peanut butter jar full of hard candy close by. We'd take a piece of candy and wander off for awhile. When it was gone, we'd come back for another.
7.) When I was 5 I got chicken pox and was shipped off to Grammy's house so the younger siblings wouldn't catch it. It didn't work but I had 2 weeks of one on one with both of them. My most vivid memory was taking baths with baking soda to help stop the itching. However, Grammy wanted to save water, so she only drained the tub 1/2 way each time. Hot water and more baking soda would be added for the next bath. This worked out reasonable well until the cat decided that it wanted to eat. The cat was Aunty Linda's who was not living at home at the time. And it had reallllly looooog fur. Grammy forgot they feed the cat in the tub.... Aunty Linda happened to be home that night. All I have to say is A)Grammy was forgiven for trying to drown the cat and B)Thank goodness only the dining and living room had carpet.
8.)Christmas Pictures - we would be lined up on the stairs, in our matching nightgowns and be given candles. When it was time to snap the picture, Grammy would light the candles and Grampy would snap as many as he could in less than a minute so we didn't set ourselves on fire.
9.) How much she looked forward to meeting Oldest. Even before she was born, Grammy was calling Mom to ask about her.
10.) Harvesting the asparagus every year. It was planted next to the current's. Soon after the asparagus, the rhubarb would be in full growth and we'd have strawberry-rhubarb pie's for deserts.
11.) Making Uncle's favorite pie for his birthday. That would be an Onion Pie. Being a kid, I never asked to taste it but I wish I had cause I bet it would have been delicious.
12.) She had an electric stove and as a rule would set the burner on high 'for a quick start'. Sometimes she'd forget and we'd be cleaning up some interesting messes. Of course, there was the time she almost asphyxiated Mom while starting to make jam.
13.) How her lap was always available to snuggle in when I was tired or felt shy and needed to hide.
To this day, I miss her. I would have liked her to have met Youngest, The Boss and The Gift. I see so much of her in them. Her sense of wonder at the world and what it has to offer, her quiet ability to teach life's lessons and her ability to laugh along with other's when stories were told about her mishaps.

Thank you CGN #1 for inspiring me to write these few memories down.

Meet and Greet

Since I've got the new swanky computer and have uploaded a whole camera full of pic's, I thought I would show you a few.

This is the Oldest when she was about 4 months old.

This is the oldest 2 years ago. She is doing the Cotton Eye Joe, wearing her father's hat, in a strapless dress. What you can't see is the WHOLE skirt of the dress wrapped around her arm. I was impressed!

This is me with my girl's. Oldest is about 8 and Younger is 3. See, even back then I still had the braid.


This is Younger last year when she turned 23!


This is Brother on his wedding day almost 20 years ago with Husband.


This is Husband at the restaurant we took Oldest to for her birthday. He forgot his glasses and borrowed mine.


This is The Boss at 2. She was telling someone that she WAS opening her present and their's was next.


This is her at her mother's birthday dinner. Any questions?!


This is The Gift. She was 5 hours old in this picture


This is The Gift at my birthday dinner. Yes, she is mostly that happy.


And just so you know where I get my knitting from


This is my Mom's big sister.

HEROES

Today as I have listening to the radio 'they' keep remarking about the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. One show in particular made me want to write this. The show is 'Rabbi Shmuly' which I get on my satellite radio. Today his subject was Heroes. He made alot of good points about how this country worships the sports figure because of what they do when they perform in the sport or the Hollywood 'celebrity' because that's who the press focuses on which is probably the reason why our youngsters are so screwed up!
That got me thinking who my heroes are.

Well my heroes are my mom and daughters.

My parents divorced when I was less than 6 years old. She raised 4 daughters (my sisters are all younger than me) while working 2 jobs, one of them was third shift at Pratt & Whitney, paid off all the bills my father left AND still found a way to travel with us.
She bought a hard top camper and would load it & us into the car and take off on weekends. Picture a women with 4 girls pulling into a campground, getting the camper placed correctly and directing all those young kids. Now, picture doing this in the mid 60's! When she bought the camper, she didn't even know how to back it up! She asked AFTER she bought it and was TOLD how to.
We lived with my grandparents. The driveway had a steep entrance and was not that big. The trick was to pull the camper close to one side and angle the car the other way. Then we kids could unhook it, get the wheel on it and push it out of the way. She got so that she could do this maneuver in one shot even in the dark. Oh, and the car was a 3 speed on the floor stick with power steering and brakes. We had a few adventures with this car that I'll save for another blog.

Our first trip out with it, Mom met our first stepfather. He had rejected a campsite because he couldn't get his camper between 2 trees. He was recovering from back surgery and couldn't turn around to look over his shoulder. He even went so far as to tell the campground people that it was impossible to get a camper on that site. Along came my Mom and she looked at it and just pulled through the trees to get the camper set in the right spot!

When he died, Mom was now left with 5 girls, all teenagers and his mom to take care of. Money was always tight but we never went hungry, we had the basics for clothes and lots of love. She taught me the value of working for what you want and how to keep going when life throws you a curve ball or down on the ground.

After he died, she took a course on car maintenance so she wouldn't have to spend money on oil changes and tune ups. She took up square dance for exercise and sewed her dresses, which in my opinion, were much better than anything that could be gotten in a store. She did all the finish work on the new living room, which included taping and sanding the drywall, installing the carpet and installing the woodwork.

She always been there, leading by example. At no time in my life, no matter how bad my sisters and I acted or however we screwed up, did she not let us know how much she loved us.

My oldest is so much like me and yet so different. She repeated alot of my mistakes but she learned the lessons so much quicker than me. She is a phenomenal mother. I am constantly amazed at her ability to juggle 2 kids, work and school. Many's been the time that I wished I could win the lottery just so I could help her finish school faster, see her in a reliable car and a home of her own. I know someday she will achieve all of this on her own simply because she will find a way to do it.

My youngest has a genetic defect but she is one clever person. Her speech is very difficult to understand, yet she will find a way to make you understand her. She is passionate about country music, NASCAR and her favorite driver, 'Junior', the Pats and Red Sox, her nieces and other family members. She is always willing to try something once and will work hard at being able to do alot of things that we 'normal' people take for granted. I remember that it took 2 years for her to be able to use a pair of scissors. But she kept at it until she could cut along the lines. Oh, and she's left handed to boot!
So, if I'm ever asked who my heroes are these are the people that top my list. I admire alot of people. People like Abigail Adams, Rosa Parks, alot of NASCAR drivers, certain sports figures. But, my heroes will always be close to me.