What Grandma Did
 

My father's mother. 100% English. Still, she had a sense of humor. Each of my brothers had a copy of this picture with them in Viet Nam. When friends would ask them if she really rode a motorcycle, they would say "Well, it was either that or sky diving". She was in her late 80's when the picture was taken, and when she left us, she was 92.

Anyone in your family do something different?

(oh, by the way, she did not really ride that thing.)

What an amazing woman! You must be so proud to be descended from her.

What a cool grandma! No out of the ordinary people in my family tree. One of my grandmas loved to dance, but that's about it.

My Grandma was in her 80's and drove the tractor to help my uncle bring in hay. That was when the tractor pulled the baler and the wagon with someone on board to catch and stack the bales. Wish I had a picture! Way to go, Grandma!

My family was pretty bland. My husband and I are the ones that are different! lol

My Irish grandma made bathtub gin during Prohibition, and also homemade beer. My dad had the job of siphoning it into bottles, that is where he got his taste for beer.

My Italian grandparents made homemade wine. When my mom was cleaning out the house after they had both passed, there were barrels of wine in the cellar. She did not want the neighbors to see them, so under cover of night, they emptied them in the back yard. Not realizing that next day, the whole area would smell like wine!!

My paternal grandmother's father was an Austrian fur trapper and her mother was the grandaughter of a Catawba indian chief. She was raised in the Great Smokey Mountains. She could hunt, trap, and fish as good as any man. ptquilts, Your grandma sounds cool.

I had a remarkable grandmother (paternal) who lived to be 92. When she was 86, the family took away her rubber boots so she wouldn't go to the barnyard anymore. She had gone out on a rainy day and slipped in the mud -- broke a hip. She quickly recovered. And was not a happy camper because of having no boots. She moved in with her daughter (which she didn't like one bit). She sewed (on a treadle machine) all of her dresses, pillowcases, and sunbonnets (wore those bonnets all of her waking hours). When her eyesight failed, her daughter made her a few new bonnets which she refused to wear because the topstitching on the front yoke was not stitched straight enough. I have one of those bonnets. By the way, to "press" her laundry, she would fold each piece very precisely and sit on them in her rocking chair while she watch the afternoon traffic go by. She was a piece of work. My dad was so much like her. But that's another story.

Lynnie, My husband's grandparents both left Poland about the same time your grandpa did. My father-in-law was first generation American and fought in WWII. His plane was shot down and he was a POW for 18 months.

She sounds like a very great interesting woman. My father taught me how to fly and I leaned to race large sailboats. My 20s were definitely not boring.

My great-grandma was from France. She gardened, was how they ate and made a living. She wore a dress everyday and was always barefoot. She died at 83, in her garden.

My great grandmother was a milliner, when she was 18 she and her younger brother left Burlington KS to claim territory in the Oklahoma land rush. (She didn't want the property, she did it for her brother because he wasn't old enough.) She was a whole 4'9" and he wasn't any taller, they went down by horse and wagon. When he was old enough to own the property she left him there and went by herself to Colorado where she married my great grandfather. They returned to Burlington KS, decided to have a family. Her daughter (my grandmother) decided to move to Kansas City to work. When she finally decided to settle down, they still waited 6 years to have a child because she wanted more out of life than to have babies and keep house. My sisters and I come from a long line of independent women.

We were always encouraged to go for our dreams, they don't happen by reading about them or hoping someone else will make them happen.

My grandmother made moonshine and sold it for extra money. I happened to find it. I also was older when Ifound it. I just looked at her and asked who else knew. She said only my uncle her brother-in-law. I told her it was our secret. Then I found out my dad knew and no one else. I never said a word because others called my dad a liar. I looked at him and winked. He nearly fell off his chair. We talked later and there were only the 4 of us who knew. After I had my son, I took him over to my grandmothers and the 4 of us had a toast to my beautiful and only red headed baby in the family. I'm sure it's gone now. New Year's day we got together and toasted just the 4 of us. It was some kick butt good stuff.

Tessagin, When I was a child, we would go to the mountains (Great Smokies) frequently because that is where our family hailed from. Once I walked up on my daddy and pawpaw and a bunch of the men all sitting around a still getting drunk.

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*** Cute pic.
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My maternal grandmother was the cook for a large logging crew in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My grandfather was head of the logging camp with the title of a "boomer" - one who directed logs down a boom into the water.
My paternal grandfather owned a family restaurant in Tennessee. My grandmother worked in the restaurant and, very sadly, went blind from unknowingly handling a diseased rabbit. She had eight children of school age. I have a very intricate crochet-edged handkerchief she made. Amazing what the human spirit can accomplish.

My gramma would never have done anything like that but my hubbys Granny used to skateboard with them!

My grandfather, who came over from Austria Hungary right before WWI had a still during Prohibition. He got caught and had to pay a $1000 fine and spent one year in prison. His daughters went to work at a bag factory in St. Louis at ages 13 and 14, bringing home the money to their mother. My grandfather built a 3 story brick home by himself. My aunts were very independent and I have many pictures of them traveling by train all over the US in the 1920's and 30's. My maternal grandmother tried to supplement the household by having sleeping rooms in her home as well as care for a sick father and 6 children. When Grandpa came over from the old country, he brought a brother and a sister with him. The sister was married (they all left their spouses there) and when she was here a few years, she remarried another man without divorcing her husband, grandpa never spoke to his sister again. His brother killed a man and was sent to prison and later his son became a lawyer and got his dad out of prison. All of these people were on my dad's side of the family.

No one very exciting in our families but we hope to raise a few eyebrows as we age & we're getting there faster than
I would like !! LOL

My maternal grandmother had chickens and for some reason, the flock was dieing. She got out the whiskey bottle and gave each a sip. Said she could easily tell which had or had not gotten their sip. Not another one died of natural causes. She had been raised by her grandmother who smoked a corncob pipe. (Her mother had died in childbirth.)

My fraternal grandmother was the quilter who introduced me to quilting when I was about 9. She and several ladies surrounded the quilt frame that was over the bed in the front bedroom. Gram was the piecer (I remember all of the turkey reds) and the ladies were helping by quilting. They offered me a needle and thread and I took a few stitches. --- I am sure they pulled my stitches out, but this is when I determined to one day I would learn to quilt. I took my first quilting class when I was 50. Haven't looked back.

I didn't know too much about my grandmothers, but my mother was a go getter...worked on her dad's farm, plowing with mules or horses, one day when she was 15, a plow handle came around and hit her in one of her breasts, had to have it lanced, I'm sure with no meds....lost use of that breast, but breast fed all five of us kids...After my Dad left us, when I was nine, we worked in the fields with her, hoeing peanuts, and chopping cotton for other farmers that would pay us $3 a day...I can remember getting to the end of the rows, drinking water that had sat under a shade tree and throw up...it would be so hot.... she always had her bonnet on and long sleeve shirts to protect from the sun...She married my step father in '57 and things got a lot better for us...She quilted for other people, $25 a quilt, so we grew up under the swinging quilt frames hanging from the ceiling...I always wanted to piece quilts with her, and we did that a lot, my stepfather died in '76 and she was by herself for 5 years, never learned to drive anything but a tractor..so after that we moved her to town and she would walk to pay her bills and take care of a lady that was younger than her...All this, she lived to be 93...we lost her Valentine's day, 2004...I have 30 to 40 of her quilts, but have been giving them to my 2 daughters, so I can have room for mine that I make...Thanks to my Mother, I love to piece quilts and give them away to family or friends...and remembering her with each stitch I make...I'm 74 now and not quite the go getter as my mom, but I'm doing well..

Apparently I have led a very sheltered life lol. I certainly have enjoyed reading about all your adventurous relatives. It sounds like you all came from good "stock".

My family is split between the honorable, and dishonorable. One great, great great grandfather came here as an indentured servant, worked his seven years, and went on to settle in Texas, and was the head of a well to do dynasty. My uncle on the same side was notorious in California in the fifties as " the airplane bandit". He would charter a plane, fly into small airports, rob the local bank and fly back out. None of the pilots knew what he was doing. He told them he was looking for investment property.
The other side, same generation as th first one, also came here as an indentured servant, but ended up with a cruel master who liked to speak to him with his bullwhip. (My sister has an old tintype photo showing the whip scars on his back). Eventually he killed the master and just walked away. He settled in Kentucky and started the hillbilly side of my family. His decendents were moonshine runners and early NASCAR inventors and drivers.
My great grandfather on the same side, also as someone else mentioned, had his boots taken from him so he couldn't go up in the hills to build another still. This was after prohibition, but the first one he built in Vancouver, Washington (he and his brother moved out west) blew up, and the family was afraid it would happen again.
My step grandmother found herself with four kids to raise alone at the age of thirty five, so the first job she could find was in a sawmill, "pulling green chain". She was only five foot tall, so this was an amazing feat for her to do. Her boss did not want to hire "no damned woman", so he gave her the hardest job so she would get discouraged and go away. He was so impressed that she could do it, he gave her the job. We lost her recently at 89, and she was still working because she felt the Social Security was "taking charity". Lord how I miss her, she taught me to love sewing and quilting. When she was teaching me, I fell in love with her pretty little "bird scissors", and she left them to me! Happy feet dance!

I've really enjoyed this thread. You girls are descended from some amazing women. Madamekelly, Your relatives are super interesting.

My grandparents went by train from Michigan to California...he worked as a logger..had 4 kids..lived in a tent with a wood porch...that was her outdoor kitchen...while cooking a squirrel ran over her feet...she screamed,fell over backwards,woodstove(thankfully) tipped over away from her...pretty primitive living.

I can remember my grandmother canning wild blackberries over an open fire in a cast iron cauldron. On frosty winter mornings, she would make us slingshot gravy, sugar biscuits, and warm blackberries. My mom left me when I was a baby, and my grandmother was basically my mom until she got sick. She gave me my best start in the world. She was wonderful and she lives on inside of me.

Isn't is wonderful that so many different paths and folks all ended up with decendents that all share the same love. ❤️

I love reading everyone's story. My grandparents weren't too exciting (that I know of), Remember the old cap guns? You would put a roll with pockets of powder in a gun, and when you pulled the trigger it would make a loud "pop" and advance the roll to the next little pocket. My maternal grandmother used to work in a cap gun factory, and somehow we got a huge roll of the red paper that they made the rolls of powder with. My mother used this paper to wrap our gifts (for us 5 kids) every year, has to be for 15 years. When I found out what the wrapping paper was, I thought of my grandma every time we received gifts.

I guess this is different, though if you think about it, 'doing your best no matter what the world throws at ya' was probably not that different in that day:
My husband's grandmother, his Dad's mom, got married in 1935, had his Dad, and then her husband died. They had a coal company that she took over and ran for at least 20 years that I know of. My husband's Dad was 8 when his Dad died.

Through all that, she seems to have done quite well.
She died 6 mos after I married her grandson, and oh, we would have been such friends, we had so much in common. We were lucky, she was a 'saver.'
She remarried in 50's and she had momentos from each marriage in separate chests in her basement. Just FULL of family stuff.
Upstairs there was a closet with pristine quilts, that since my husband said he never saw her quilting, we assume her mother made. We came to this conclusion because she had 4 laminated photos of her mom sitting in front of a quilting frame.
Just oodles and oodles of family stuff, very neatly organized, I hope I can do her the honor of leaving it all, very neatly organized, to be passed ion when I am gone.

What a wonderful grandmother you had! My grandmother was a very strong willed woman. She didn't wait for anyone to give her permission or help in doing something she wanted done. One day she decided she wanted to panel the den. My grandfather said it was too much work and money. She took me with her to a junk type yard, bought a truck load of shiplap and a box of nails. She stared nailing them to the wall that very day. In a few days she had a nice wood paneled den. I remember the saw horses set up and her using a hand saw to cut the boards in the kitchen. The list goes on what she accomplished when she wanted it to happen.

She raised me from third grade until I married. She cussed like a sailor, sang in the church choir, started a florist business out of her spare bedroom and sewed all my clothes. Her brother lived about 1/8 mile down the road. She had a line run from his house to ours with a buzzer. If he needed anything he rang the buzzer. First intercom ever in that community. LOL When a second phone line cost was high luxury and unheard of (like two televisions!) she talked the phone guy into putting a cord long enough on our one phone so that it could be carried to every room in the house. First house to have a phone in every room and when I was a teenager I kept the phone in my room. She was always thinking outside the box and taught me to think why not, it's not rocket science.

My birthmom used to putt-putt around Las Vegas on a motor scooter wearing a leather jacket that said "Foxy Lady" on the back of it. This was when she was in her late 60's. I've only seen pictures of her as she died before I got to meet her. I've been told she was a hot ticket.

I loved reading all of these stories.

I had a relative who sold Benedict Arnold green wood for some of his ships. Not sure if it was to sabotage him or if it was just a sneaky thing to do.

Such an interesting group of kind, helpful humans.

What is it about grand and great grand parents and stills during prohibition? My grandmother did not have a still that we know of, but she could make wine out of just about anything. Turnips, elder berries, and more.

Mar-mar, was given a ticket on the beach in Toronto in the late 1920's. Her swim suit did not have a skirt on it and was considered to be scandalous. Before she came to Canada, she swam with the men's swim team in New Zealand, as there was no competition for her on the ladies team. Her husband died before I was born. A year after she died, we learned that my grandfather (who had been dead about 20 years) was a bigamist. He had at least two families in the UK and there are no records of any divorces. Dad who was raised as an only child, by immigrant parents, discovered he had two sisters and a brother, when he was 54.

My other grandmother raised 4 kids in the depression. She lived near vegetable farms and would steal veggies to feed her family. She did not have room for a garden where they lived.

My great grandmother married a man 22 years her senior when she was 18. She had five kids and was widowed before they all finished school. She raised rabbits for meat and Silver Foxes for fur. The foxes ate the rabbits too. She was an early ham radio operator and taught many people to use the radios. Her husband, while he lived was the secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of BC. The LG is the Queens (or back them Kings) representative to the Province. My granny grew up on the grounds of Government House.

My great grandmother's twin sister moved to South Africa, she wanted to be a doctor and it was easier at the time for a woman to become a doctor there than in Canada. Some of the South African family came to Canada when my Mum was a girl. It was quite the cultural shock, the SA family had servants back home, and did not know how to do the most basic chores.

My 3X Great Grandfather was the first Attorney General of BC.

What will my grand and great grand kids say about me? I have gone back to university at 50, so I hope that leads to good things in the future.

Just have to add a link.

This topic sent me looking to see if there was any information online about my great granny. I found a link to her petition to receive a pension after her husband died. I was incorrect above, her kids had grown up before she was widowed. I guess the rabbits and foxes were to supplement her meager income.

http://bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/o..._oic/0116_1948