Granny (Emma Elizabeth) was always a lot of fun. She let us girls do whatever in her house. She had a 4 poster double bed covered with a big fluffy feather mattress. She didn't seem to mind that we got on that bed and rolled around, jumped up and down, and had wrestling matches. I remember having a jar of peanut butter and a spoon on the dresser next to the bed. When the "bell" rang to end a round of wrestling I'd go back to the jar and lick off a spoonful of peanut butter before the "bell" rang again. No telling if some peanut butter didn't end up on the covers. Granny also let us play beauty shop with her as the victim, er, client. We were allowed to brush her long hair and twist it up on top of her head or braid it or whatever. We could put powder and rouge and lipstick on her, usually in copious amounts. She didn't mind looking like a demented clown as long as we were kept busy happily dolling her up.
Mom told me that Granny wasn't much of a housekeeper. When she was young she much preferred to be outside with the chickens or in the garden to being inside doing cleaning and cooking, so her mother and big sister just let her. After she was grown and had her own family she didn't change much, although she did learn to make great pies. However, being organized and neat wasn't in her nature. She told my mother that she wished she could just have a bunch of pegs on the wall all around her bedroom where she could hang her clothes instead of having to put them on hangers in the closet or folded in drawers. As the mother of 4 rowdy boys, it's probably just as well she wasn't a neatnik.
She and Tompa liked to play dominos and card games, but were notorious cheats. Better not leave the room or you'd come back to find that "someone" had moved the dominoes or peeked at your card hand. And Granny had zero patience or self-control when it came to gift wrap. She wanted to know what was in a present NOW, not wait till Christmas morning. You could always count on the gift wrap on a present to be partly torn open because she had been snooping trying to see what was inside. She wasn't very good at repairing the damage once she'd snooped. We could always tell.
Granny liked to sleep with her head covered up. In fact sometimes she'd be sitting on the back porch watching tv with a blanket over her head but her face peeking out. And she loved to self-medicate. A trip to the drugstore for over-the-counter remedies was among her favorite things. Weldon inherited this love of OTC shopping and had drawers and bathroom cabinets full of all kinds of cures for his various ailments, real and imagined.
Sometime in the 1960s Granny suffered a stroke that slowed down her speech and ability to get around very well. Not long after she had another stroke that paralyzed her totally. All she could move were her eyes. Tompa took care of her at home for years with the help of a couple of nurses who were there part of the time. We really didn't know if Granny had any idea who we were or what we were saying when we visited, and it was hard to see her lying there totally inert. What a sad ending for such a fun-loving lady. She was 84 when she passed away.
Nancy
adding to the card playing story.........Carol and I would spend entire afternoons playing canasta with them. Tompa and I were always partners and he insisted that we face north and south because that was his lucky direction. I took that explanation without question, but later I wondered if there were other advantages, like being able to see Granny 's or Carol's hands better......When we didn't win, Tompa would have a hard time containing his anger. He just KNEW that they cheated somehow, because WE were the superior players..........Carol and Granny just giggled with delight....which irritated Tompa more.......
this is where we need Carol's version of this story.....
I do remember us spending the night with Granny and sleeping in the feather bed. Remember the little red, metal suitcases she gave us one xmas? They were alike except for the teddybear on the front. We packed these cases and brought them to spend the night.
Do you remember the next morning? The bedroom was next to the kitchen and there was much noise with the making of breadfast.I recall homemade biscuits with butter and syrup combined. tompa would say that the biscuit to syrup ratio didn't come out even as an excuse to get another serving. Also recall thick bacon and sometimes cream gravy . Any leftover biscuits and bacon sat on the stove covered with a dishcloth. One could snitch a biscuit any time of the day.....great snack
Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment