Okay... I've gone through all of my favorite bloggers blogs and am now sitting here like a fool trying to remember what it was I was going to write about. :) This memory game is fun stuff! I think my brain is simply responding in a positive manner to being snowed in... it's resting. :)
Since we've put the house on the market, it seems as if we've been going non-stop. I've gotten the banister and a few doors painted, and have done quite a bit of touch-up painting. We've had repairmen out, inspections done on our new home, contract negotiations, etc, etc.
Today has been the most relaxing day in quite awhile. Thank you inclement weather, for rolling into town. Thank you for rolling in before we were able to buy boxes. If we had boxes, the wife would have us packing today. I say, we still have 27 days left... Let us take this snow day as it was meant to be, and REST!
I've been doing a bit of side writing and a lot of DVD watching. I'm watching The Honeymooners right now. I'm not sure I've mentioned before how much I love my classic TV shows. A friend of mine told me about a satellite radio station that plays all the classic radio/television shows. I listen to it often. A lot of these shows bring back memories of childhood... good ones even!
When I was little I floated between several people's homes... my mother's mother, my dad's parents, and my mother's brother and his wife's. My favorite place to be, though I never felt completely safe there, was my mother's mother. I guess somehow I knew my grandmother was vulnerable. She seemed very old for being 60 something. Now you may be thinking "Of course she seemed old to a young kid," but I look back at pictures and see it still now. She had had a hard life. Crazy husband, 6 kids, she was a cartoonist, a part-time writer for the newspaper, and a nurse. A hard life, but a full one too I suppose!
Anyway... I have very specific memories of my time with her. I remember sitting in her tiny kitchen on a shiny vinyl cushioned, aluminum chair, watching her make home-made grits ( I was very young). LOVE grits to this day! She had a sensitive stomach and would make herself saltine crackers and milk (bleh). She said it was doctor recommended. I loved playing on her front porch under the bushes. There were a few bricks missing in the wall that made the porch, and I pretended it was a house for my rock family (I drew faces and clothes on a bunch of rocks and pretended... I now I am still a dork!). I used to run around in her huge backyard (way bigger than her house), play with her dog Blackie, and make mud pies from the dirt that lined the back neighbors fence. She had a separate garage behind her house that was full to the brim of all kinds of things that I considered treasures. I would sneak in there often. She told me the garage was where DeeDaw would hang out. DeeDaw was what the grandkids once called her husband. I never knew him.
So, I have all of these memories and more, but my favorite memory is of the hot summer days/nights. She had a tiny, two bedroom house. One bedroom was hers and the other was my uncle Frank's (not sure how we were actually related). All I remember of Uncle Frank was that he was in a stretcher in that back bedroom, always in plaid pjs, and with oxygen attached to him. Now that I think about it, I guess I could have easily been blown up with the two of them smoking. That man always had a cigarette in his hand, but I loved him. I'll blog about him next. That one will be short... but a good/sad memory.
Anyway, with both bedrooms taken, my place to sleep (chosen by me) was the big yellow easy chair that sat directly under the a/c window unit. I was still young enough to take naps, and I would curl up in that easy chair, and watch my grandmother talk on her rotary dial wall phone with the curly cord (which wasn't so curly anymore because I loved playing with it) hanging low on the ground. The hum of the a/c was loud, but I could hear her, and I could hear the TV, which always had I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, or a similar show blaring. The sun would shine through the windows and I would watch the many particles of dust swirl in the air ( I loved slapping the cushion to watch more dust fly, gross I know, but I didn't know better). I would stare at the rainbows created by the glass doorknobs, that I was always so fond of. Soon enough, I was sleeping.
That feeling of peace, if only while I was there, is what comes back to me when I hear the radio classics or watch my TV shows. I sure do miss my grandmother.
Since we've put the house on the market, it seems as if we've been going non-stop. I've gotten the banister and a few doors painted, and have done quite a bit of touch-up painting. We've had repairmen out, inspections done on our new home, contract negotiations, etc, etc.
Today has been the most relaxing day in quite awhile. Thank you inclement weather, for rolling into town. Thank you for rolling in before we were able to buy boxes. If we had boxes, the wife would have us packing today. I say, we still have 27 days left... Let us take this snow day as it was meant to be, and REST!
I've been doing a bit of side writing and a lot of DVD watching. I'm watching The Honeymooners right now. I'm not sure I've mentioned before how much I love my classic TV shows. A friend of mine told me about a satellite radio station that plays all the classic radio/television shows. I listen to it often. A lot of these shows bring back memories of childhood... good ones even!
When I was little I floated between several people's homes... my mother's mother, my dad's parents, and my mother's brother and his wife's. My favorite place to be, though I never felt completely safe there, was my mother's mother. I guess somehow I knew my grandmother was vulnerable. She seemed very old for being 60 something. Now you may be thinking "Of course she seemed old to a young kid," but I look back at pictures and see it still now. She had had a hard life. Crazy husband, 6 kids, she was a cartoonist, a part-time writer for the newspaper, and a nurse. A hard life, but a full one too I suppose!
Anyway... I have very specific memories of my time with her. I remember sitting in her tiny kitchen on a shiny vinyl cushioned, aluminum chair, watching her make home-made grits ( I was very young). LOVE grits to this day! She had a sensitive stomach and would make herself saltine crackers and milk (bleh). She said it was doctor recommended. I loved playing on her front porch under the bushes. There were a few bricks missing in the wall that made the porch, and I pretended it was a house for my rock family (I drew faces and clothes on a bunch of rocks and pretended... I now I am still a dork!). I used to run around in her huge backyard (way bigger than her house), play with her dog Blackie, and make mud pies from the dirt that lined the back neighbors fence. She had a separate garage behind her house that was full to the brim of all kinds of things that I considered treasures. I would sneak in there often. She told me the garage was where DeeDaw would hang out. DeeDaw was what the grandkids once called her husband. I never knew him.
So, I have all of these memories and more, but my favorite memory is of the hot summer days/nights. She had a tiny, two bedroom house. One bedroom was hers and the other was my uncle Frank's (not sure how we were actually related). All I remember of Uncle Frank was that he was in a stretcher in that back bedroom, always in plaid pjs, and with oxygen attached to him. Now that I think about it, I guess I could have easily been blown up with the two of them smoking. That man always had a cigarette in his hand, but I loved him. I'll blog about him next. That one will be short... but a good/sad memory.
Anyway, with both bedrooms taken, my place to sleep (chosen by me) was the big yellow easy chair that sat directly under the a/c window unit. I was still young enough to take naps, and I would curl up in that easy chair, and watch my grandmother talk on her rotary dial wall phone with the curly cord (which wasn't so curly anymore because I loved playing with it) hanging low on the ground. The hum of the a/c was loud, but I could hear her, and I could hear the TV, which always had I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, or a similar show blaring. The sun would shine through the windows and I would watch the many particles of dust swirl in the air ( I loved slapping the cushion to watch more dust fly, gross I know, but I didn't know better). I would stare at the rainbows created by the glass doorknobs, that I was always so fond of. Soon enough, I was sleeping.
That feeling of peace, if only while I was there, is what comes back to me when I hear the radio classics or watch my TV shows. I sure do miss my grandmother.
2 comments:
You're creative and sentimental...a nice combination. :)
Maybe you'll print your blog. There are different people out there to do it for you nowadays. You have a nice book in the works.
You have no idea how much your opinion means... thank you!!! :)
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