Granny danced... (Full Version)

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JstAnotherSub -> Granny danced... (11/10/2011 6:52:19 PM)

I was sittin on the porch, in my rocking chair, porchin.  I got to thinking about stuff from when I was a kid, some that wasn't so wonderful, but much that was.

The thing that made me smile and just lay my head back and rock (which is fun, even if ya aint an old biddie), was a memory of my grandmother.

I was maybe 8ish, who knows.  The seventies kinda blurred some memories.  She and I were sleeping on a pallet, at my great aunts house, in the part of the house that was her florist business.

Some time during the night, I woke up, and granny was dancing a jig!  I thought it was so cool, and I jumped up and started dancing with her, cracking up the whole time.

Me dancing seemed to make her want to dance even more.  I thought I had the coolest granny in the world, as we danced in our nightgowns.

Then, she slapped her leg and screamed, and a mouse ran down her leg and took off.  Little bitty field mouse.  She had woke up to a strange sensation, probably gone to swat it off, and found Jerry the mouse all up in her business.

We laughed about that so many times over the years.  Good shit.

So, no matter how much your childhood sucked, got any memories that just make you feel good?

eta we called her grandmother.  I suddenly had a vision of that look she gave me when I called her granny, and hell she could be reading this, so I had to clarify-lol.. 






LafayetteLady -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 8:46:11 PM)

That is a really funny story.

I don't know about memories that make me feel good, but they are good memories. I remember when I was young (under 12, maybe under 10), on a Sunday morning trying to cook my dad breakfast. He was trying to fix his recliner (God, how he loved that thing, lol). For some reason, my mom was sleeping in, which was unusual. She may have had a headache, she suffered from migraines. Had never really cooked before that and had the pan for the eggs (with the oil) on high. Went to the living room to talk to my dad for a minute, came back and the stove was on fire. I didn't scream, just called loudy, "Dad? There's a fire." My father came to the kitchen and I think threw water on it. Great idea with a grease fire. I thought the whole house would burn down. My mom must have heard the commotion, my dad was hysterically useless and a bit spastic. She came in the kitchen saw what was going on, picked up the lid to the pan, put it on the pan, took the pan off the burner and walked out.

We laughed about that for so many years. My dad was frantic, and mom just calmly walked in, took care of it and walked back out. Neither yelled at me, although my mother later mentioned that cooking on high all the time wasn't necessarily a good idea.

First time I got a brand new car, went to take my nana for a ride. I was so excited and we were talking, I completely went through a red light. She didn't freak or anything, just said, "oh, you don't stop for red lights?" This from the woman who worked in resorts up and down the east coast and truckers usually signaled her to slow down.

I had the greatest dad ever. Mom was cool, too. And Nana? Funny, stubborn and made awesome shortbread cookies.




Termyn8or -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 8:58:04 PM)

You really do have a way. the way you started this leaves alot of room, and I think that a good thing. Grandparents are important sometimes. Sometimes. Your Grandma wanted to dance - WITH YOU. Grandparents really dig their grandkids, no shit. And when you get to a certain age you will also, whether you have them or not. It's like you almost don't care whose kids they are, now that you have a good piece of life figured out you want to tell the youngins. Been there done that. They did well, quite well in fact.

It's not giving, just allowing them to take. It costs you nothing and can gain them the world. This is why the family is so important, and how we integrate alternative lifestyles into that is a LEGITIMATE concern of the fuddy duddies who advocate the strictly Puritanicalist views, because the fact is they are right in this much - it is the simplest way to provide for the progengy most effectively. So what.

Well the simplest way to get from CA to NY is to walk. We don't need the simplest waay. As such we must find a way to provide for the real education which by the way folks - does not happen in school. I got more education from my Grampa than anyone else with the possible exception of my Mother.

I am from a broken home since about age ten. Shit happened, but even before then I went to Granpa's most weekends. He showed me grinders and all that cool shit in his basement (I was a boy), cutting tools like drills and saws. He was a machinist and earned the title of engineer. He worked for a knitting mill, something in the cloth industry. He was not a line worker at that point but a maintenence worker or mechanic of some sort.

The machines they used were faulty and all failed all over the country, but where my Grandfather worked they were still producing product because he had figured out a proper modification to the machine(s). The company that built the machines was deluged by complaints, and eventually stumbled across the fact that one customer in Cleveland, Ohio was not complaining. Back before 1960 they paid him $500 per day plus all expenses to do a couple of these modifications in front of their engineers and give them some instruction on how to do it. He not only saved that company, but the rest of the life cycle of the textile industry in this country. Sure it eventually went down, but it happened later. By the way, he didn't go to college.

Later, when I was done born and shit he figured he would just have to deal with me. He had CDs maturing every month, plenty of money, a paid off house, yet he still went scrapping. He drove an old Pinto in fifth gear at five miles an hour down the streets of Brookpark, Ohio. Those old lawn chairs made with an aluminum frame with the green straps - he had them ALL. He would fill that Pinto with that shit and come back with a couple of hundred bucks.

After that he started picking up TVs on the street. I was already getting into it and though I wasn't really worth shit yet, I had studied it. My Uncle (his son) gave me some books from the Airforce electronics training program, and I remember most of it to this day. And it is true, ther are only three electronic circuits in existence. But later with Grampa's collection of junk, we managed to fix some of these TVs. I thought nothing of it until one day when Grampa handed me a bunch of money. I was puzzled "What, it ain't my birthday....", and he said "You know those set we fixed last weekend, I sold one of them, here's your cut".

I think I was about 12 or 13. Grampa also financed my first business much later, but until that one day I was a kid, I had never equated this ability with money. After that the world was my oyster.

I had alot of good years. He was my Paternal Grandfather, my Pateranal Grandmother was a very stout German Woman who developed bad varicose veins in later life. She was the pottymouth of the family which we all follow. Oh yes. even my Catholic Mother has been completely converted - you should hear her drive ! Now my Maternal Grandmother was so demure, submissive, moreso than she should. Her Husband abused the shit out of her and eventually got put out. The whole family says if that mufug was on fire they would not piss on him. He beat her ass if she broke an egg yolk while making him breakfast. She was about five foot four.

Anyone in here should talk about Grandparents if they can. Alot of people do not even know their Grandparents and if you do YOU ARE LUCKY. And if they are extra smart or something, you are even more lucky.

T^T




defiantbadgirl -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 9:48:31 PM)

My parents divorced when I was 4. I was raised by my father and my paternal grandmother. My grandmother was a wonderful woman who almost always put others first. I've never met anyone as unselfish as she was. She had a teaching degree and taught me how to read before I started kindergarten. She was better at explaining things than most of the teachers at school. My father did cool stuff on holidays. He always knocked ashes out of the fireplace and stood in them so it looked like Santa Claus came down the chimney. When I left a carrot out for the Easter Bunny, he left part of the carrot and made it look like a rabbit bit into it.




HeatherMcLeather -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 9:59:06 PM)

I never knew my Grandmother on my father's side, she died when I was very young and barely knew my Grammy on my mother's side, they had moved to Florida when I was little, so I rarely saw them. However, I did know my Great Aunt. She was too old for dancing when I knew her <born in 1919>, but I do remember so much about her, she and I were very close.

One funny story about her happened when I was around 10 or 11. I was at my uncle's place where she lived when we heard a loud bang followed by a thud on her pantry cupboard. We looked at each other a little startled, when it happened again, then again. Then it started happening in rapid succession and the doors to the cupboard flew open and we were pelted with bottle caps and sprayed with brown liquid. We both scurried under the table and took cover.

What had happened is her latest batch of home made root beer had gone wrong somehow and they had started exploding. So there we were, crouching under her table while the kitchen was being sprayed with root beer, glass was flying around and bottle caps were shooting across the room like machine gun bullets.

I was scared, but she looked at me and grinned, and started singing some soldier's song she learned when she was little. "Bombed last night, and bombed the night before...." I don't remember the rest of it off the top of my head, it went on with various verses. Anyway, she and I were there under the table, drenched in root beer with her whole kitchen a complete shambles laughing and singing this silly song as loud as we could. When the bottle stopped exploding we just kept on singing. When my Aunt came home about 40 minutes later she found us there still under the table laughing and singing these really old songs <some rather bawdy> all soaked and sticky in the middle of this disaster of a kitchen.

I've always been a little leery of root beer after that, that stuff is dangerous!!




gungadin09 -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:23:03 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: JstAnotherSub
So, no matter how much your childhood sucked, got any memories that just make you feel good?


At Grandma's house for Thanksgiving.

pam

[image]local://upfiles/972018/0B9F97F1A50E4175B91DA95B41150C72.gif[/image]




gungadin09 -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:27:40 PM)

nm




Termyn8or -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:31:34 PM)

"I've always been a little leery of root beer after that, that stuff is dangerous!! "

Funny how most of the time it is in bottles, being explodable like that. Real safe.

I think, Grandparent or not, it is important when young to have contact with old people. You don't connect right away but eventually you get it. In so many things it seems the same, so OUT WITH IT PEOPLE !

Getcha bad on with some olpeople stories ! Let's hearum !

T^T




Termyn8or -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:35:08 PM)

They might bounce those pics Pam.

T^T




gungadin09 -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:40:48 PM)

Christmas morning at grandma's.

pam

[image]local://upfiles/972018/B64B9E53E00540D58E007E0C01360B86.gif[/image]




gungadin09 -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:41:53 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or
They might bounce those pics Pam.


Why? They're all of me.

pam




gungadin09 -> RE: Granny danced... (11/10/2011 10:50:00 PM)

Grandma lived out of town. When we visited, we would play in the park by her house. But to get there we had to navigate past all these sidewalks and houses that all looked the same. To make sure we didn't get lost, gramma would draw arrows in chalk to show the right path.

pam




JstAnotherSub -> RE: Granny danced... (11/11/2011 1:21:32 PM)

quote:

Anyway, she and I were there under the table, drenched in root beer with her whole kitchen a complete shambles laughing and singing this silly song as loud as we could. When the bottle stopped exploding we just kept on singing. When my Aunt came home about 40 minutes later she found us there still under the table laughing and singing these really old songs <some rather bawdy> all soaked and sticky in the middle of this disaster of a kitchen.
That cracked me up!
quote:

To make sure we didn't get lost, gramma would draw arrows in chalk to show the right path.
That made me grin big time.  Grannys are tha best!




ShaharThorne -> RE: Granny danced... (11/11/2011 3:36:02 PM)

I loved my grandma the best.  She was my dad's ma and about 5 foot tall.  She could stand up to my dad who was 6 foot tall and made her opinion known.  She came to bat for me when I was a teenager.

One year, she was living with my folks after Grandpa died.  I came up to visit them and somehow I got extra bras.  I did not know it until I got back to Austin.  She called me and asked what size did I wear.  Told her 44DD.  She wore the same size and I took her bras by accident.  She had to buy new ones...LOL!!!




Iamsemisweet -> RE: Granny danced... (11/11/2011 3:38:28 PM)

My grandmother, on my mom's side, was a crazy cow girl.  She could ride and rope and shoot with the best of them.  I really admired her and thought she was a lot of fun.




Lucylastic -> RE: Granny danced... (11/11/2011 3:42:56 PM)

i remember my mums mum teaching me the charleston on new years eve...drunk as a skunk. I think I was six almost
she was a proud flapper, very "proper" english lady but oh my great gran was a suffragette too so they both had with a wicked sense of humour and sense of empowerment back then, even tho they were "good wives" with loving families n hubbies.




tiggerspoohbear -> RE: Granny danced... (11/11/2011 7:00:28 PM)

The only grandparent I ever knew was my mom's mum.  My grand-maman.  I used to love to go spend weekends with her in the small town where she grew up and her and my grandfather had had their house built in 1919.  She lived there from the day she got married until the day she passed away.

She was a strict small town French Catholic woman, but let me get away with a lot more than my mom did.  I remember coming back at 2am, she'd come down and unlock the door and we'd play "romain 500" one of my favorite card games, ever.  She always made sure there was pecan pie and pink peppermints for me.  I went there on weekends until I moved out of my parents' house at the age of 17.

Her Sunday chicken was the best.  Done in an electric fry pan, and just using shake n bake.  My friends always wanted to come to Sunday dinners there because her chicken was sooooooo good.  She passed on and no one's ever been able to duplicate the recipe.  I miss that.  I was the first born and she was also my Godmother.  If it was my b'day or my sister's, the other would also get a small gift.  She never forgot and I loved her to pieces.  I was closest to her of all the grandkids and treasured every moment I had with her.

Family gatherings were held there until she couldn't do it anymore.  I remember a house full of relatives, from the youngsters, the the great-aunts and uncles who also gathered.  Sunday nights, once the dishes were done, they'd all sit down and play cards.  My uncle (and Godfather), was the cheater in the family, but it was always in good fun.

My aunt still lives in the same house.  The banister leading upstairs from the kitchen is still there, and we spent hours as kids sliding down it.  And after being sent to bed, sneaking to the top of the stairs and watching them play cards. Suppertime, she and my great-aunts still wore aprons that tied at the back.  She'd spend her time chasing my dad with a wooden spoon because he'd always be untying those apron strings.  She was funny, she was strong, and she was my best friend for many years.

I didn't see her as much when she started to deteriorate.  And I wasn't there when she passed.  The saddest moment in my life.  She was the first death for me as a close relative.  Tore my heart to shreds, and to this day,  23 yrs later, I still think of her as my guardian angel.  There's times when I'm sure she closes her eyes [;)], but she'll always be there to protect me.  Gawd how I loved that woman, and always will.

Her Christmas tree was a broom stick painted light blue with silver tips to stick out of the holes that had been drilled.  As sad and silly as that tree looked, it was always my favorite.  When they came out with small silver tipped Christmas trees about 6 yrs ago, I had to have one.  It reminded me of her and all the good memories I have stored in my mind.  I keep the tree decorated year round and in a place where I can always look at it.  I see her shining happy face in it.  She was and is my world.  J'taimerai toujours Grand-maman.  Mon coeur, mon amour, ma meilleure amie.




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