Our wonderful grandmothers.

[Cleita]

I was cleaning out my photographs and found old photographs I havem't looked at in a long time of one of my grandmothers, the one I remember. I always remember being so happy in her care.

Here my grandmother shares her best feline friend with me and keeps a watchful eye on both of us.


Who couldn't love a grandmother who took you to the beach even though she was over seventy.

So in memory of great grandmothers all over the place here's my tribute to mine. Post your pictures of your grandparents too and tell us how they made your life happier.

[arwalden]

1. My Grandmother Is 96 And Can Barely Recall The Names Of..

... any of her 15 grandchildren. Except me. We're not exactly sure why or what causes that (and we don't tell the other grandkids) but in a selfish way, it makes me feel good to know that she remembers my name.

Sleep-overs at my grandmother's house were the BEST of the BEST events in my childhood. Cookies and snacks and ice cream. Card games and watching TV beyond my "normal" bedtime.

-- Allen

[gyopsy]

2. My grandmother...

is in her eighties now and is still very active. Plays golf every week. She taught me how to play golf and how to go bowling and although I'm not a big golfer, those were the moments I enjoyed most with her.

[Melsky]

3. My grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter

She made airplanes in San Diego. She worked on the wings because she was small and light.

[Cheswick2.0]

4. My Grandmother was a music teacher

she would play the piano for hours while we all sang Carols. She was a contralto who sang oratorio, but I don't remember her voice. My Aunt always said I sounded like her.

Once when I was in 4th grade she brought me a plaid skirt for Christmas and hemmed it for me so it would be a mini skirt.

She had a reputation for being a fussy person. She really was, but she used to tell a story about meeting me for the first time and how I was the only grandchild to greet her with a huge smile and went right to her. I think she always tried harder with me for that reason. I wish I had appreciated her more when she was alive.
That was my maternal Grandmother.

My father's mother I did not really know. She lived in Mo when I was growing up and we never went there since I was old enough to remember. What I know is that she was a lyric soprano. She was about 5 feet tall and a Baptist who once told my father he would go to hell because he had stopped playing the French Horn which had been his ticket out of Sedalia and allowed him to go to Eastman School of Music. Bossy as she apparently was, she once allowed my stepbrother to have pie for dinner when he was a baby because "if the boy wants pie, the boy can have pie"!

[cally]

5. Great pictures

I had five grandmothers who impacted my life. My Dad's mom just spoiled us. Made "penney cakes" with oogles of dimes and kept a toy drawer. Her Mom was 'doggy grandma' who basically raised my Dad and doted on him. Then there was my Great-Aunt who would do anything for us. My step-grandma who chose me as a favorite. I was always the least favorite among the extended family, so her love pulled me up. Finally, my Mom's mom who was assertive, opinionated, and frugal. Sometimes I didn't like being around her. But at 40 her husband left her and she pursued college and career as a nurse. She was my first experience with an independant woman. I named my daughter after her.

[populistmom]

6. Both of my grandmothers are still alive

I'm the oldest grandkid on both sides and my parents were both the oldest children in their families. My scanner's not working, so I can't post my pics, but I can describe them:

Paternal grandma, age 80- She grew up in poverty, one of 8 children. She lost her fiance in WW2 and was a WAC in WW2 herself before she met and married my grandfather. She raised two boys (my dad, an attorney and my uncle, a PhD in pyschology) as a working mom, a teacher, who managed to come just a few credits short of a PhD herself.

Maternal grandma, age 75- Lost her only brother when she was 17 while he was a mechanic for the army and the airplane he was working on exploded. She married at 20 and had 4 children, like me, a girl followed by three boys. Her own mother committed suicide when her youngest was still a baby. Dealt with mega b.s. from my grandfather (who drank a lot). My mom became a nurse and two of my uncles went to college, all ended up working on the family farm (my family's lucky enough to still have the large farm and land for over a hundred years). She eventually got a pilot's license herself (for the single engine variety) in the late 60's and has been, in the past, president of a women's flight organization. 21 years ago, she and my grandpa divorced and shortly after she married one of their close friends, her flight instructor. Lost her 2nd son 17 years ago because of an accident, is a cancer survivor, and an all around tough, often tender (but doesn't liek to admit it) dame.

The women in my family, while outnumbered by the men, are a tough, determined bunch.

[WWW]

7. My grammie was the first progressive democrat

She hated Nixon and love the Kennedys..God, I miss her so...She raised me and was the most influential person in my life. She was pro environment, pro-Democrats, just a kickass. She was friends with Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, http://www.rachelcarson.org/

[cally]

8. She was friends with Rachel Carson!!!

Wow. Rachel Carson is one of my heroines. Silent Spring lead to so much of what we know about the environment today. She led this movement. You are lucky to have a grandmother who was smart enough to have a friend like this.

[JohnKleeb]

9. Theres a Rachel Carson middle school near here

I didnt go to it though. Ok heres the gist on my grandmothers.
My one who is 76 has been influential in my politics although shes not as left as me, and she has done countless great things for me over the years. I feel bad for her though because she lost her only son and my mom is the only one she has left.
My other one is 91, she has always just been such a kind lady, I feel worse for her though because she doesnt remember much, and all the people she loved from her early years are gone, her brother and her sisters, her mom died when she was young, and of course my grandfather too. Gonna be 25 years next year that she was widowed, which is sad.

[latebloomer]

10. What evocative pictures!

Where was she from? She looks so loving, and so connected with you.

You were a beautiful child!

Is that Lake Michigan?

[Cleita]

11. She was such a warm, beautiful person.

She was from Illinois of something they called Scotch Irish descent. She was raised on a farm and was illiterate, but she kept chickens in her backyard even though you weren't supposed to have farm animals in the city. The neighbors so loved her that they looked the other way. Also, she gave thems eggs and during wartime that was something.

No that's not lake Michigan but Long Beach in Southern California.

[Bertha Venation]

13. Long Beach. Sigh.

:cry: I am so homesick. :cry:

(Grandma never took me to the beach, but that was okay. I grew up in Huntington Beach and went enough on my own.)

I love your grandma. Is that okay?

[Cleita]

15. Jeez, Bertha. How did you put up with all those freepers

In Huntington Beach? I like the beach itself. Great waves.

[Bertha Venation]

18. I WAS a Freeper, Cleita...

...but that's a story for another thread. If begged enough, one day I will tell all.

Huntington Beach, for all its faults (and given the "new" downtown :puke: its faults are now many) is my hometown, and I will always love it. My sisters live there, too. Even though I was born in Santa Monica, I answer "HB" when asked where I'm from.

[Bertha Venation]

12. What wonderful photos, Cleita! / my Grandma

Thanks for posting those photos.

I don't have any of my Grandma that I can post. She's almost 87 years old and has Alzheimer's, but under the very watchful eye of my sisters & nephew (note: NOT my father), she still lives in her own home. It's a struggle, but she fights so hard when any suggestions about assisted living are made. She's terrified of losing control.

My grandmother gave me a home when I needed to escape at age 16. She was a better parent than anyone who actually held that title in my life, if only for two years.

My best memory of my grandmother -- well, I have two of them.

The first is spending weekends or weeks at her house on Daisy Ave. in Long Beach. Always fun. I remember her husband, Kenny, driving home from work in his Valiant every day to eat lunch. She always peeled an apple for him to eat with his meal, and he always had coffee. I thought the coffee odd for the middle of the day.

She made the best fried chicken. The doorknobs throughout her house were always greasy. She grew her own tomatoes & other things. She scraped the burn off the toast into the sink with a butter knife. She always had a cat or two, with clever names like "Fluffy" and "Kitty." She sprayed bugs with a long tube with a pump handle, and did her laundry in an open tub out on the back patio -- it churned the clothes, and then you put them through the electric wringer (she just loved that) before hanging them on the line. Oh, progress!

She let me stay up "late" and watch TV while sitting too close, on the carpet, in the dark. I watched "Concentration" and "Beat the Clock," and if "Bowling for Dollars" was on, she watched it with me. For a snack she gave me Planter's Dry Roasted Peanuts and Dr. Pepper.

My other favorite memory of Grandma was when she warned me about "boys." It was shortly after I moved in with her. She said to "stay away from them! . . . because . . . (angry pause, with pursed lips) . . . because . . . it's just like a ssssssnake!!"

Don't worry, Grandma. I've stayed away from boys, just like you taught me. ;)

[Bertha Venation]

14. now I'm thinking so much about Grandma, I had to KICK it

Will call her later. She knows who I am when I call, and clearly enjoys our talks, even if she forgets the instant she hangs up the phone. Tells my POS dad that I never call when he asks her. I hate him for asking her such things.

I miss my grandma.

[curse10]

16. I love my oma and my grandma

both are still alive- but, alas, my grandma is battling alzheimers. Oma is still around giving Opa shit. :-)

[JohnKleeb]

17. oma and opa?

I know youre like 1st or 2nd generation German from talking to you, btw when I was little I called my one grandmother, baba, and I call my other, the Irish one to this day nana.

[Nikia]

19. My grandma's are wonderful people

My mom's mother celebrated her 80th birthday. My father's mother is 69 and celebrated her 50th anniversary with my grandfather. They are both very caring women. They both helped raise me throughout my early childhood and were better role models to me than both my parents. They were both politically active serving the county central committees of their respective parties (maternal-Democrat, paternal-Republican). They were both working mothers with my maternal grandmother as a nursing assistant and my paternal grandmother as an accounting clerk. They both took me places like the park and ice cream place and encouraged me to read books and develop my creativity. I am glad that I had these good female influences in my life.

[bloom]

20. My grandmother from San Diego

Here are a couple of pictures of her from the 30's. Look at those boots!

I never knew her - but I know she was a Democrat and an artist.

[CanuckAmok]

21. A proper British Lady...

I wish I had a photo of her. I don't think I do.

I didn't know my Maternal Grandmother, but Mrs. Amok wears her engagement ring, which was left to me (to give to my future wife) when she died. I was two when she died of Breast Cancer.

My paternal Granny was a proper British Lady. I remember going to her house in Kensington (London) which she shared with her friend, whom I knew as "Auntie Betty". They were both the Afternoon High Tea, ancient scotch mints in glass bowls throughout the house kinds of ladies. I distinctly remember my Grandmother being rather formal all the time, and having a fondness for Gloria Swanson-esque turban-styled hats with a jewel set in them. She never went out of the house without a hat, and I don't think she ever wore pants in her life. She was on a volunteer charity committee with Princess Margaret (or Princess Anne--can't remember), which made her a minor neighbourhood celebrity. She was so kind to me, and I rememeber playing Monopoly with her when I was 7, and I think of the patience she must have had to play Monopoly ad-nauseum with a 7 year old! She died when I was 10, when she was 98. She was born in 1879!

My parents were divorced, so I didn't see Granny very often. But I think she was a wonderful lady, despite bringing an absolute monster into the world.

Cheers, Granny. Thanks for the tea!