Share your memories and advice from your grandparents here!

[savingdogs]

Pat we must be closer to the same age because my mom was born in 1925. She has certainly been a self sufficient influence on me as well, but not in a "country" way. More that she has always lived frugally and wisely even amidst plenty, and it has served her well.

But she did not ever want to live off the land like her mother....that was her mom's way.

I was not lucky enough to know any great grandparents. But I do feel blessed to have known Grandma.

The man who was her first husband I also knew, but he died when I was young. He worked a city job and didn't really do much self sufficient except make his own beer!

 

[kcsunshine]

She also had a hearing aid and would turn it off all the time but you could bet that if you were talking about her in the next room in a whisper she darn well knew about it.

My grandfather was the same way - hard of hearing unless you were talking about him.

My Dad's father was a contrary old coot who believed women should wait on him. Luckily, my dad was not that way. His Mother never sat down and ate unless all her men were finished - they had 10 sons and 3 daughters. My dad was the only one who would get up from the table and get what he wanted.

My Mom's dad would fill his plate at the table then proceed to eat one thing at a time. He didn't care for tom-foolery at the table and we were such a fun loving group when we all got together, it was so hard to keep a straight face. One time Mamaw forgot to put out the cherry pie she had baked and when one of my uncles asked about it, she got it out of the refrigerator and cut it - it wasn't cherry, it was grape. Whoever went to the cellar to get the quart jar brought the wrong thing and she didn't even notice. It was pretty good anyway.

 

[kcsunshine]

My Uncle Harold who lived in Virginia loved to rabbit hunt when he would come home. On one such hunt, when they came back to the house, Mamaw was in the backyard cleaning a chicken. They had jumped a rabbit and it ran through the yard startling Mamaw. It scared her so badly she threw the chicken at the rabbit - hit it - and killed it. She just looked at the hunters and told them she bet she killed more rabbits than they did and didn't even fire a shot.

I'm so lucky to have stories like these - when I asked my aunts and uncles for favorite recipes to put in my book, they also told me funny stories of their childhood that I included.

I'm just sorry I didn't set down with her and get more information.

 

[savingdogs]

She killed a rabbit throwing a chicken at it?

 

[kcsunshine]

Probably scared the rabbit to death.

 

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[savingdogs]

Yea, Grandmothers can always spoil you a little where mom can't.....

 

[noobiechickenlady]

All of our gadgets and convenience items have not necessarily made us any wiser, that is for sure. But I don't think I'd want to give up my high efficiency washer and my indoor plumbing, or go back to the days of horse and buggy.

Exactly!!! I love technology. It's wonderful how much stuff we have access to. I just don't see why we cannot do it hand in hand with being healthy, having gardens, living more off the land. People really seem to view it either-or and I don't think it is a binary computation.

Ditto!!!

My granny was awesome. She & pawpaw met when she was 16 and he was 25. He was working for the railroad at the time and was not home for very long before he was back off again. A friend introduced them during one of his visits and he later wrote that friend asking about her. That letter now hangs with their first photo together on her wall.

Just before her 17th birthday, she hitchiked to Florida to get hitched up with him. When he got sick & couldn't work, she got her nursing license & went to work at the local hospital, eventually becoming head nurse or something like that. She was in charge of that floor of nurses. She retired not too long after I came along, so all I really, really remember of that time is riding in the HUGE boat of a car my pawpaw drove to pick her up. I got to sit up front, right in the middle. That always made me happy.

I learned to water bath jellies from my granny. She wouldn't can any meats because those noisy things (pressure canners) scared her, but she water bathed a lot of veggies. Her meats, she just stuck in the freezer. I have all of her canning jars now, and her foley food mill. She taught me how to make cornbread, how to take care of cast iron, how to wash a mess of turnip greens completely free of sand & bugs and how to braid hair. I got all teary eyed when I taught my daughter how to braid, remembering. It was one of those trips home from the hospital, and I had brought a doll with silky hair with me.

She giggled when I told her I had goats and now she uses her walker to get out on the porch & watch them when I take them out to graze. They like the weeds growing around my parents' house and she lives between me & the folks. Just about every time I go to see her, she tells me about the billy goat who would haul her & sister around in their wagon. "We'd just tug on his tail whenever he'd stop and ZOOM off he'd go again. We couldn't steer tho..."

She still talks about the easter chickens she had when she & pawpaw were setting up house. "There was one pink un, course it was a really light brown, but I called it pink. Looked pink to me. Then there was a blue un and a speckled brown un and two green uns. Those greens were my favorites." So now I save my green EE eggs for her.

Her mind is going now, she repeats herself and sometimes gets lost, but when she's there, she's just a hoot. Sometimes I can bring her back by starting one of her stories and telling it wrong. Gets her back up. "Naw, naw, naw, that ain't right. It was like this!"
Thanks for the trip down memory road...

 

[Beekissed]

My granny's first husband was always beating on her and bad-mouthing her....and she would fight back some of the time.

One of our fave stories was when the family was all seated at the dinner table and she had had about enough....she threw her fork at him and it stuck...and vibrated...in his forehead! Sproinnnnng!!!

 

[BarredBuff]

I know thats not supposed to be funny Bee but I thinks its hilarious!