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Memories of grandparents among the very best
Published February 4, 2009
There is nothing as sweet as remembering time spent with your grandparents. To all of you who have the opportunity to create memories with your grandchildren, I am so jealous.
When I was a child, my mom would take us four kids about once a week to visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Sometimes our cousins also would be there, which made it that much more special.
I always knew that each visit would mean eating lunch, and Grandma sure was a good cook. Her chicken and noodle soup was the very best. They raised their own chickens and killed one as they needed it, so you know it had to be fresh.
It was her homemade noodles that fascinated me the most. Sometimes when you walked into her dining room you would see big sheets of dough hanging over white cup towel covered ladder-back chairs. She was letting these dry and then she would cut them into strips to make the noodles. My Grandma was awesome.
The only thing that I didn’t understand as a child was their saltine crackers. Everything about our lunch was scrumptious, but when I would bite into a cracker it wasn’t crispy at all — not soft, but it didn’t have any crunch to it. I remember looking around the table thinking maybe Grandpa or Mom would say something about these “old” crackers, but no one seemed to notice but me so I just kept my mouth shut.
Only years later did I learn that “you made do with what you had and you didn’t throw anything away.” Maybe if we lived by this standard today, our country wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in, but that’s another story for later.
After lunch, Grandpa went to sit in his rocker on the back porch to smoke his pipe, Mom and Grandma would sit and visit, and the kids went back to playing. Part of our playing was smoking a pipe, too. Grandpa told us it was an Indian peace pipe, so we went to sit on the side porch.
Did I tell you their house had three porches? Well, we would sit in a circle with our legs crossed Indian-style, and we passed around the pipe as each of us took turns puffing and saying “Peace.” Come to think of it, we never even lit the pipe!
If we weren’t smoking our peace pipe then we were playing with all the toys Grandma and Grandpa had in boxes upstairs for us. Every day was special at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s and I know that each of you cherish the time you spend with your grandchildren.
Yes, I’m jealous but not for long. Hubby and I will be first-time grandparents in July!
Jean Paul is a former resource program director for Youth and Family Counseling Services. Contact her at Jmpaul2(at)gmail.com.
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