Radiana

I was looking at the folded sheet topic and someone mentioned that their grandmother ironed sheets, it made me think about my grandmother. She ironed sheets also. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure she ironed everything.

I thought it might be nice to have a little tribute to our grandmothers, some of the sweet things we remember about them.

My grandmother never went to academic school in Italy, she couldn't read or write and she signed her name with an X. She did however go to a school for girls to learn the arts of sewing and knitting and crocheting. She went for four years and she could make anything. She did it all on her treadle machine.

Because she couldn't read or write I thought she didn't know how to count money because when I would ask for a dime to get an ice cream she would give me a quarter, I didn't realize that she was just being generous I thought she didn't know the difference.

She lived in an apartment in the North Beach section of San Francisco and when it came time to dry the laundry it was put out on the clothes line which was on a pulley right out the window. You could see the clothes hanging from the street. She was so cute when I once questioned her about all the bleach she used on laundry days, it was so strong. The whites she washed twice. Anyway she told me that I didn't understand how important it was. She had me look out the window and she said look at my sheets and towels on the line, they're the whitest in the whole yard and all the cars in San Francisco can see them.

When I was pregnant with my first baby I didn't know then what sex the baby would be. She made about five kimonas (remember those)? Anyway she told me to pick out some binding to go around the kimonas and I wanted something other than yellow or pink or blue. So I picked up a soft green and a soft purple. She didn't approve at all....she said are you having a baby or a gypsy?

Would love to hear some stories about everyone's grandmothers.

ncsewer

My Gramma made the best cookies and always had some in a big Tupperware container in her cupboard. I loved to visit her and Grampa because she would let me have tea parties in front of the TV. We had lemonade in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter and always some kind of cookie. When I'm with my brothers and sisters we often talk about the giant molasses cookies! HMMM i have that recipe maybe there are cookies in my future.

frauhahn

My paternal grandmother was adopted at the age of 6. I've spent years trying to learn about her birth parents, and have made some headway. Grandma was a quiet lady-didn't tell me much about her past, even though I always figured so must have remembered something about her earlier years. I learned from a neighbor who had grown up near her, that she had gone to nursing school, way back around 1918 until she had to return home to care for her adopted mother, who had swine flu and terrible asthma problems. The neighbor lady remembered going to visit one evening and finding grandma and her mother sitting in the diningroom. Grandma was sewing a funeral shroud for her mother while her mother observed. Grandma was a farm wife. She got her first electric sewing machine from Montgomery Wards around 1936. My dad says that she taught almost every girl in the neighborhood how to sew on that machine as a 4-H leader. I remember grandma as always having a homemade gift for each of her 25 grandchildren for Christmas. When I went away to school, I had several brand new woolen skirts that grandma had sewn for me. Grandma also quilted, but I wasn't lucky enough to be the recipient of one. But-she did crochet an afghan for each of her grandchildren for their weddings. She also worked in ceramics, and I have a beautiful porcellan nativity scene that she made, among other things. She could do anything! She was also a fantastic cook and baker. As kids, no visit to grandma was complete without a big sour cream cookie with a raisin in the center!
I was lucky enough to live between her and my maternal grandmother. Though she didn't do any handcrafts, she was a great listener and she always took my side in all matters, much to my mother's dismay!!! I used to love to walk up to her house in the evenening when I was in high school and sit and drink coffee with her and just talk for hours. She also had a huge hill in the back where my friends and I used to sled in the winter. Gee-I miss them both so much, even though they've been gone for years!

Ramona Byrd

I was actually born at Grandma's house, and she raised me to my middle teens. She had a 3rd grade education, Mom went to the 5th grade, but both had photographic memories. Once they saw something or heard it, they could remember it for life.
Grandma taught me with her acceptance, that the quiet, lonely life on a farm was worth far more than the loud, fast life in towns.
She taught me that the wilderness can feed you and comfort you, which had a bad side effect when I went with my parents and siblings and we lived on the desert res beside Yuma, AZ. I hated the desert, it always felt like someone was reading over my shoulder!!
Grandma taught me the things a farm woman should know, from raising animals for food, to what was good to eat that grew in the hills. She taught me that cleanliness was really next to Godliness, even though some of the time it was pretty close to impossible during the cold, wet and snowy winters!! And she taught me that ladies always wore aprons, that a woman who did not have more than one was a woman who had no pride in her appearance. Just wonder what she'd think of the females who walk our streets today!!

earthwalker

My memories of my maternal Grandmother are bittersweet. We lived in an extended family situation for most of my early childhood. We were travellers, my Grandfather could never settle and never wanted to and often my Father worked away. My Mother and my Grandmother both took jobs, wherever we went, and for many years Nan was our primary carer. She was a tall, strong woman, who loved music and dance, she could never read music, but could pick up almost any instrument and play a tune (the ukelele was her speciality). Her cooking was amazing, as were some of the places I saw that woman put together a meal. Sometimes our possessions were not caught up with us, but we always had clean, neat clothes. I remember one time she handwashed our undies and draped them over a makeshift line in a bathroom. Next morning before we woke, she tucked them in her bra to make sure they didn't give us a chill, our clothes she had flattened out and put under the mattress, so they were pressed. We may have been peculiar, but we were always well turned out.

My Grandmother died very young (she was only 57).....as she had never had any opportunity to stick with any one doctor and she was busy taking care of everyone else, no one ever diagnosed what we now believe took her life. Every morning when I look in my bathroom mirror after my shower, I am reminded of my Nan....our faces are similar you see...we share the "mark of the wolf" or the "butterfly" depending which you prefer. Lupus must have caused her great pain and suffering, as untreated it destroys your body. Her legacy to me is strength and optimism and for that I will never forget her.

cctx.

The only grandmother that I have known all my life is still living today at the age of 99. She inspired me, loved me, educated me, dressed, clothed, fed, and raised me. Not only is she my grandmother, but also my Mother.
The respect, love, and gratitude I have for this lady will never cease because she made me what I am today.
She was not educated, sophisticated, or famous, but she was caring, dedicated, loving, firm, and respected and she could count her money.

QuiltingGrannie

My Granny was the reason I like to be called Granny by my grandkids. She was an RN, though I don't remember her ever working.
Every year she would start Christmas shopping in January and buy things on sale throughout the year that she new family members would like to get for Christmas.
At Christmas she made soft molasses cookies with a thumb print in the center that was filled with grape jelly. They were the best!

She lived in MA, but then moved to PA across the road from us. She loved to travel and visit family and friends.

When she got sick with cancer she had every details laid out for Gramps for when she would die. She had a list of who he was to call, who he was to write to. She died in May of 1978, but come Christmas we each received gifts from her because she had already bought them and wrapped them so Gramps wouldn't have to worry about doing it.

I think my love to travel, my organizational skills and my way of being one step ahead of things, and having things done early comes from her.

Tropical

I never really knew my grandmothers except through stories from my Mom. I would have loved to have known them better. Especially because of the love for them I can hear in my mother's voice when she speaks of them. Sad for me. Happy for Mom because she had them in her life. :) I enjoy the stories Mom shares with me. I never knew Mom's Dad either since he died of tuberculosis when she was 16. Funny how I miss him when I never met him.

jrharry

My maternal grandmother was born and raised in San Francisco on Telegraph Hill. German was only spoken in her home when she was a child. At the age of six she was in the 1906 earthquake and remembered their escape from the fires in the city by taking the ferry to Oakland. She married in the 1920's, two children, my mom and uncle (who died at 5 years during the depression from a fever). Being the oldest of six my grandmother and I had a very special bond. On Saturdays I would take the bus to her house to clean while she went to get her hair done and then we would go to the city.(SF on the bus) She was modern women for her time having been educated at Healds Business School and worked for a mass transit company until her early 70's. I have such fond memories of our many trips together starting at young age where she took me on a train from Oakland to LA for the opening of Disneyland. On Saturday evening my parents would go dancing and she was the babysitter. Off to bed the other five would go after we all danced to Lawrence Welk and then her and I would stay up and watch Perry Mason with a special treat from her suitcase. She loved unconditionally and if I could be half the grandma she was my granddaughters would be blessed.

cr12cats

beautiful memories ladies thanks for sharing them.

I lived with my grandmother till I was seven. We lived in a holler up in the hills of NC.I remember going to the well with her.she would have a couple of pails and she would have a little can with a handle for me so I was helping.What I remember the most was how good that cold sweet well water was. Never had any that taste that good since. Also I was allowed to churn the homemade butter. I don't know how I did it but I would just eat a mouth ful of it all by itself it was so good. Now i don't even like butter much on my foods. i even prefer dry toast.lol
I also remember watching her with the wringer washer out on the porch just so I could get wet cause it being hot in the summer. she was a cherokee so we would visit her family on the reservation I don't think they knew what to do with a little blond girl that was so out of place there.oh yeah I loved to feed the chickens and the pigs as matter of fact she had greatgrandmas husband give me a piglet for my birthday. I loved that little piglet so much and cried for weeks when I had to go to Ca. to live with my dad. I never got to talk to her or see her ever again. When I was 47 I got to meet my bio mom and family. the sister I missed for all those years (when my dad came he took me off the porch and left her crying there) we never understood why he only took me.) but anyway my sister loved grandma and she had good memories of her too to share,