ManiacQuilter2

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.

SSStitches

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.

quiltingcandy

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.

tessagin

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.

SewingSew

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.

grannie cheechee

My DH's grandma raised 5 boys on a farm, Her husband died when the twins were 3 yrs old. No tractors just horses. The oldest boy was 16, and he helped her. After the boys were married she worked in town helping women when they had babies and other children. She cooked at a college until she was 87. She moved in with her oldest son who was a widower. She made their bread, cooked, and did the garden work. She fell holding on to her son's arm in an ice storm, and him and her set it together. They had to buy store bread and neither were happy. That was at 90. At 91 she had her gall bladder out, 92 she fell on rain water on the porch, and broke the same arm. Dr. asked who had set the arm from before, and when they said she did he said he hoped he could do as good a job. At 94 she broke her hip, and the family was told she wouldn't probably be able to get around very good. She fooled them. She threw away the cane after 3 mos. because it was slowing her down. She lived to be 98 I/2. She thought because I was not a farm girl I didn't know anything about the farms. I gathered eggs and milked a cow while my DH and I were there, and when I told her that we had a neighbor that had been annexed into the city limits taught all the kids to milk, gather eggs, and feed the hogs, I was good enough for her grandson.

jbj137

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LavenderBlue

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.

Fizzle

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

Wanabee Quiltin

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.