My memories of Gran

About holidays and happenings:

* The boys watching football in the library
* The smells of Gran's house
* Jenga
* Friends/neighbors just walking in the front door any time
* Climbing onto the shed roof
* Aunt Irene's purple dessert
* The little fort against the side fence with the table and chairs
* The sandbox
* The branch on the tree out front
* The fort under the front closet
* The piano
* The typewriter
* Watching movies/tv in the library
* Sitting at the kitchen counter eating egg salad/tuna fish and tomato soup
* Elise and other fancy dolls
* The attic...looking at all our parents' old stuff
* Place cards
* Candle snuffing
* Pictures on the fridge
* Pictures on the kitchen island (specifically one of Ruth I remember...and the 4 sisters in the pool)
* Electric blankets
* Goat farm
* Picking up sticks around the yard and putting them in the pile next to the big tree in front
* Playing Barbies on the upstairs twin beds and in the front stairway/landing
* Cranberry juice/ginger ale in the kitchen pantry
* The small space between the dining room table and the breakfront
* Drawing pictures at the kitchen table
* Dad's funny stories at the table
* Sunken gray couch in the kitchen
* Pool down the street with the stone patio
* Library to sort books for the book fair
* Sitting in lawn hairs on the side of the house with Gran and everyone walking by and talking to us
* Riding bikes on the sidewalks along Fair/Broad Street and the one part of the sidewalk with the roots that you'd have jump over
* Lucy Ferrar's dogs
* Gran's scalloped potatoes
* Aunt Con's chocolate cream pie
* Sitting around the fire, talking
* The coffee table in the living room with the wings
* Trivial Pursuit
* The metal toy with the ball you had to get from one end to the other without it falling through
* Holding hands, grace, "ah people" instead of "amen" and kissing around the table
* Walking on the green - specifically the big statue(s)
* Fonicellos
* Casual clothing until dinner, then change into fancy
* "Repairing" old bikes in the garage (scraping off rust)
* Jungle green Subaru station wagon
* Stony Creek market
* Small grocery store on the green
* Yoga mats and ironing boards in upstairs landing
* Strange orange and black painting with man riding horse? something like that
* BLTs
* Frayed oriental rugs in living room, worn out from the footsteps of so many people I love!
* Referencing a dictionary at least once per meal
* Putting electric candles in every window at holiday time
* Driving around looking at Christmas lights
* Wondering who the people were who lived in the big fancy house on other side of fence
* Big tree out from with walnuts all over ground
* White picket fence
* Worrying about falling backwards on the steep stairway
* Falling asleep listening to the cars going by on Fair/Broad Street and the lights from them on the walls
* The doll house
* Old fashioned Barbies
* Opera music

More specifically about Gran herself:

* How her feet arched so far upward in the middle
* How she always scolded me whenever she suspected I wasn't being 100% respectful to my mother
* How she was SO strong and independent
* How, at 83 years old, she would stand on a chair and replace lightbulbs in the kitchen by prying open the light covers with a KNIFE...and would insist on this until someone practically yelled at her to get down
* How she volunteered to help with so many things around town from church sales to book sales to other library things to repairing and cleaning up an ancient red house (all into the last couple of years of her life
* Memories of going to the library to help her volunteer with calling people whose books were in
* Sam
* So many dinners with both her and my dad's parents at my parents' house
* Our trip out west and "Vortex"
* "Dran"
* Going to the Taste Bud (is that the name of it?)
* Going to the thrift/consignment shop next to Taste Bud (or whatever the name is)
* Buying mini brussel sprouts for me after I told her how much I loved them
* Buying me a strawberry rhubarb pie after I told her how much I loved it
* How she took me to a farm that happened to have chickens and eggs, and I subtly implied that I'd love to take home an egg - little did she know, I wanted the egg so I could try and hatch it (I really thought I could), and I went into Aunt Sarah's bedroom and held it under the lamp and rubbed it to keep it warm and she was supportive of this clueless attempt but also warned me it might not happen
* Letting me read through and even keep some of the things I found in the drawers I organized for her - from newspaper clippings from her school days to love letters, etc.
* Her writing! Especially one particular play about a woman whose husband was away at war
* Bathing cap she wore while swimming
* How everyone in Guilford knew her so well and raved about how wonderful she was
* Her voice, I still remember it
* Her love for pets, no matter how crazy they were (like Toby, she always wanted my mom to bring Toby over, even though he's nuts)
* How she got scammed by those chimney cleaners because she's so kind
* "Arsom Grissom"
* Song paradies and endless poems
* Red snowflake candle holders I got for her that she thought were truly amazing (or so she said) but were truly very tacky :)

Last but not least... how much my mom is just like her, and how I am more and more like them both every day...

(I will most likely continually update this list)