Remembering Grandma's house

What good things do you remember about visiting your grandparents?

Granny always had food and lots of it! Peaches, pound cake, cornbread, biscuits, vegetables galore, homemade jellies, pickled peaches.

Paternal Grandmother always had oatmeal cookies that she kept in the freezer to give us when we visited.

My Mammaw on my Dad's side, is the main one that I stayed with.

She always made sugar cookies with us at Christmas. I wanted some of the cookie cutters we used, but, I haven't found them yet. Sister said , not sure.

The smell of the house. I can go in there, and it doesn't smell anything like it did when Mammaw was living, but, I can still remember that smell.

Falling out of her bed. LOL! I slept with her, when I stayed. Sister stayed in another room, in my Dad's old room. I would fall out of that bed, and she would come and pick me up.

Her praying, every night, when we went to bed.

I combed her hair for her. I asked Daddy for her metal set of comb and mirror. It still has her  hair in it.

She would always buy our Easter outfits. She bought me the cutest long dress when I was a teenager, to go to a church dinner. I wish I still had it. I gave it to my nieces.

Her dinners. She was a great cook. I loved her oven potatoes.

I just really miss her.

My Mom's Mom, she was different. A sweetheart, but, not a Grandmotherly type.

I do remember one time I stayed with Mom's Mom. We ate radishes. LOL! First time I ever, and last, I ate a radish. I don't thik she quite knew what to do with me.

I only had one grandma and grandpa.  You could always count on her having ginger snaps, mostly homemade, but sometimes she would buy these lovley boughten ones.  And she let me have them with my own cup of coffee!!

Grandpa always had a dish of nuts and mints sitting out on the coffee table.  He always watched the NHL hockey games all winter long.

I would say those are the two biggest memories that stick out in my mind.

I never knew or even met my maternal Grandparents but I loved my paternal Grandparents. My paternal Grandfather died when I was only 5 so I barely remember him.

One thing I remember most was my Grandma's cooking, she was always baking. When I would spend part of my summer in Sacramento (we lived in the S.F. Bay Area then) she would always make me Custard since she knew it was my favorite. She baked her own bread and every once in a while if I am baking bread or biscuits, it takes me back.

As she would be working around the house she would be singing gospel songs, there are certain songs I will hear and she will immediately come to mind.

The smell of jasmine and honeysuckle will take me back in time also, she had a lot of it in her back yard.

She passed away in 1977 .... I still miss her.

I didn't see my paternal grandparents that often, my mom didn't get along with her mother-in-law.  At all, lol.  Dad took me over there to visit once in a while and I just remember her giving me chocolate cookies while my grandfather sat in his chair working crossword puzzles.

My maternal grandfather died before I was born.  My maternal grandmother was very tiny.  She always kept her hair in a bun and the first time I spent the night at her house, I was surprised at how long it was when she took it out of the bun at night and combed it out.  She had never cut it in her life.  Her and my mother would speak in German so I couldn't understand what they were saying.

Catmint, our Dad's mother was like your mom's mother. She was not from the south and even after decades of living here she never did learn to cook southern vegetables. She didn't use much seasoning. Even her children didn't like to eat there much LOL. But she did make great oatmeal cookies. By the time I could remember her she was in her late 70's and "old". That family is not affection anyway.

Oh, Granny (mom's mother) always had neopolitan ice cream. If we spent the night we got to have some ice cream before bed but then she would jokingly threaten to whip us if we didn't go brush our teeth.

Some of the best memories of my life were at Granny's house.  She was my daddy's mother.  She lived on an old farm and no neighbors around for at least a mile.  By the time I was born she had started leasing the land to some local farmers since my grandfather died about 5 years before I was born.  She did have cows and goats until I was a teenager, but had to give them up since she couldn't take care of them all anymore.  She was the  strongest woman I know.  She lived out there by herself and took care of everything until she was about 70.  She continued to live there until she was about 80 when we had to put her in a home.

She was the best cook I've ever known.  Her pound cakes were out of this world!  Sometimes she would put a lemon glaze on them.  She always cooked breakfast for us and was up before everybody cooking.  She would make pancakes or cat-head biscuits which we would eat with cane syrup and big sausages.  She always had fresh grapefruit juice from my cousins in FL and usually fresh citrus fruit. She always had cookies in the cookie jar and candy in the candy jar.  Her roast was so good and she could fry some mean chicken!  She had her own garden where she grew corn, beans, tomatoes, etc. and canned stuff all the time.  I can still smell her kitchen to this day in my memory.

She had lots of woods around her house and we would go for walks together when she would teach me all kinds of things about plants and flowers and sometimes just talk about other things.  She was so funny and was always saying something crazy!  Back when Jordash jeans were popular she would say, "I like those! But I think I need some "Broadash" ones!  LOL!  She was never a skinny person! 

She had this bird she called "Tweety" and he would say "Don's a sweet boy!" (my daddy) and she would let him out of the cage and he would drink from her coffee cup! 

She always had a jigsaw puzzle going and loved crossword puzzles.  She had to have something to do since she only got 3 channels on the tv!  And she loved to play cards with us when we were there.  She and my daddy, sister and I would sit around the kitchen table and play rummy or concentration or go fish.

When we went to visit my mother always had to give her a perm and I remember us all sitting in the kitchen talking while she rolled Granny's hair.

She had these big washtubs that we would fill with water in the summer and play in.

She would sometimes have kittens around the yard for us to play with when her cat had them.

Gosh, the memories just keep coming!  I have tears in my eyes right now thinking about her and she's been gone now for 5 years.  Her house has been torn down and I don't ever want to go back there.

My mother's mother died when she was only 4 years old.

Peachy, my mother told me recently that both of my grandparents' houses had been empty for years and were falling down. She said she can't go back by them because it's so sad. Her parents only owned that one house in their whole life. They didn't get their own house until they were in their 50's and even then their children helped them get the land and build it. It was a small little house but it was theirs and they were proud of it.

Granny and Papa only got 2 channels on the TV until the 70's and they could usually get TBS out of Atlanta. Before they got TBS, Papa would listen to the Braves on the radio every night.

 My paternal Grandmother died when I was about 6 and since my Dad was in the army and we were living all over I don't remember much about her.

My Maternal Grandmother was one of my favorite people.  I spent several weeks with her every summer.  She was an excellent cook.  She had a crystal cup for me and fixed me hot chocolate every morning and she made it with evaporated milk.  I love it.  No one made biscuits like she did.  

 She was about 4' 10" and as someone else said she wore her hair in a bun, but when it was down she could sit on it.  

This is the house they bought in 1928 and she lived there until she died in 1970.  It was sold and restored.  It looked nothing like the pictures on the website, but I only have wonderful memories.

This mini-mansion, built for the unmarried daughter of Vicksburg's founder, Newit Vick, has been carefully restored and furnished as a "fine but comfortable" home. 

http://www.marthavickhouse.com/index.html 

TH,

  What a wonderful post.  My brother and I were very fortunate. Gramma lived right next door. My mom always worked and so we spent alot of time with Gramma.  Loved coming home from school and smelling something YUMMY she had made that day.

   All her cooking and baking was from scratch and alot of things she never even used a receipe.

       She passed away about 35 years ago and I still miss her terribly.  Her house is gone and was replaced with GRAPES !   I by the way was raised in the Napa Valley home now to over 200 Winery's.  Our old house still stands and is over 100 years old !

                                              Cassiebabe

My paternal grandma lived in Butler, Pa. on Muntz Ave. at the top of a very very very very  steep hill. She and Grandpa lived in a tidy red brick bungalow with a sun porch in front. She had an old fashioned glider that turned into a bed. My brother slept there when we visited. They had an upstairs(!!!), very exciting for kids who lived in a ranch style home. We girls slept up there. Grandpa did a lot of carpentry work around their house, and I especially remember their cozy breakfast nook in her kitchen, and eating toast with real butter. She was famous for her chocolate sauce and her potato soup served over hamburger. My 92 year old aunt still lives nearby.

My maternal grandmother died when Mom was only 16. I did have a step-grandmother who my mom wasn't very close to. We did visit them from time to time. I remember eating a Sunday breakfast of powdered sugar donuts and Hi-C orange drink, both unheard of in our household. What a treat! I also remember eating dinner and my grandpa asking us if we wanted to watch Bonanza in color! Boy did we! We were disappointed in their idea of color tv. Grandpa has put a yellow cellophane (sp) sheet over the tv screen and voila-color tv! It actually looked like black and white with a yellow tinge. LOL! 

I only had one living grandmother & she died when I was 8.  We'd see her about twice a year, either going to her big old house in the city or her summer house in the mountains.  (She had a house at the beach, but sold it when I was a baby.)  She only came to our house a few times.  So my memories are spotty.  

She was a very smart, very pretty woman who had a wicked sense of humor & played the piano beautifully, by ear.  She loved to play & sing the old songs from the early 1900's....."She's Only A Bird In A Gilded Cage," "After the Ball," "Meet Me In St. Louis," "In My Merry Oldsmobile," etc.  She'd play & sing & laugh til she was practically in tears!

I don't think she was interested in cooking.  In fact, there are none of her recipes in the family.  She got married when "convenience" foods were starting to show up on grocers' shelves, so I guess she grew dependent on them.  I remember her serving Post Toasties, Lorna Doones, and things like that.  Her end table always had a dish of those "peanut butter pillows" or whatever you call that hard tan candy with the peanut butter center.

She did like to walk to the deli & get the BEST breads, meats, etc.  If I went with her, the man would give me the end of a bologna or a hot dog as a treat. 

Her house had lovely things -- cut glass, sliver, and furniture that her father had made by hand with "old world" craftsmanship, from mahogany and walnut.    

I loved to explore the ciy house, as much as my parents would let me.  It was 3 stories, but the top floor was not used.  The basement was full of wonders but it was also full of coal dust from when the house had a coal furnace!  So I wasn't allowed down there much & even then, wasn't allowed to touch anything -- very hard for an inquisitive child to resist! 

The summer house was a white Victorian with a huge wrap-around porch.  It was near a lake, and there was a hidden spring on the property.  I had never seen water bubbling out of the ground like that before.

She died way too soon.  I've often thought about her over the years, and what I've missed by not having her around.  I think we would have been pretty close as I grew up since I took after her a lot, both in looks & humor & even some of her musical talent.

Oh, she had the most beautiful handwriting, too!  She had been an executive secretary before she got married, in the days when penmanship really counted.  My birthday cards always had a lovely hand-written sentiment & usually a joke to make me laugh! 

grandma and grandpa had TV....we did not...so sadly we were mostly glued to it....and way back then on saturdays there really wasn't much on....but they lived in San Bernardino so they got LOTS of channels from Los Angeles...

grandma was a great baker....apricot halfmoon pies, cookies, rhubarb cobblers....she grew her own rhubarb and had a wonderful apricot tree....they were square dancers and grandma sewed all their outfits....a skirt and blouse for her and a matching shirt for him....loved seeing her in her outfit with all the petty coats under and her petty pants too....ruffley panties that could be shown if twirled just right....and grandpa was a twirler...

holiday dinners were spent there....easter egg hunts in the backyard....which was larger than we had....these were my dad's folks....my mom's were both gone by 1968....so we didn't see them as much....her folks lived in East Highlands, CA...in the middle of orange groves....it was a place we could run wild...and she raised rabbits like many raise chickens....so if we went for a "chicken" dinner, we knew it really wasn't.... 

My country Grandma lived in a big old farm house, with a walk in bird cage in the kitchen. She had canerys, they sang every morning. to this day when I hear one sing it takes me back.

My city Grandma was english and very strick. Her house wasn't any fun at all, I had to sit on a little stool and mind my manners.