callen

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

Suz

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.

sak658

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..

misskitty5

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".

madamekelly

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!

SewingSew

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

FAYE

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.

SewingSew

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.

madamekelly

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

tlpa

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.