Blog Challenge Day 28

Something that you miss.


I would have to say the thing I miss most...is my Grammy.


I know that those of you who know me would say "Really?!"  And it's true she drove me crazy half the time, but the other half was worth putting up with the constant nagging, yelling, and name calling.


Okay, that makes her sound really bad.


The thing was she was unique.  My grandmother grew up in Butte, Montana and that really molded her personality.  She was resourceful, direct, liked to have a good time but let you know when it was getting out of hand, generous, honest to a fault, and the spice to life.  She had only an 8th grade education but she was very well educated in life skills.  She could can and preserve and cook for dozens of people (and still did when it was only the three of us).  She could find a use for anything.  She was kind of a pack-rat, but had lived with so little for so long that it was hard to throw anything away.  She loved to chop wood and did so until her back wouldn't let her swing the axe anymore.  She enjoyed painting anything and everything gold...with gold glitter...and add some more gold.  She loved sending cards for any and all occasions.  She had a lovely singing voice.  She would rub her knuckles when she was worried.  She would gossip to you about people in church...who were sitting only an aisle away.  She was upset when anyone sat in OUR seats at church.  She loved babies and could help you calm most any baby down.  When she was younger one of her favorite things to do was to go to old dumps and pick through for "treasures," broken bottles and things.  She loved to make up decorated magnets for the people at work.  She thought that everything would be worth something someday, as in, "Keep that!  It'll be worth something someday!"  She liked to freak out her grandchildren by dropping her dentures out her mouth.  She really did love her family and was a true matriarch.


Some good stories of my Grammy....


One time, when she lived on the wheat ranch, her best friend Mary Neal and her started playing Yahtzee one evening.  Their husbands went to bed and it got later and later and they still were playing.  When the sun started coming up they decided they'd better cook breakfast and act like they got up early so they're husbands' wouldn't be upset.  I hear they acted like school girls when they got together.


Another is a time when they were up at the cabin.  They used to take sticks of dynamite for blowing rocks out of hills.  Seriously.  Well one of the guys decided it would be a real laugh if it blew (a safe distance away) without anyone knowing.  So he set it up to blow and was going to run back and act nonchalant until it blew.  Well she knew something was up so she watched for him to come back and sure enough here he was walking back.  Well he couldn't run while she was watching so he sort of stilted-walked back because he wanted to bolt so badly, but didn't want to give it away.  I'm sure she found it terribly amusing.


Again at the cabin there was a time when they were all eating and Mary yelled "O-RE-O!" real long and loud.  Uncle George stood up and sat down and stood up and sat down, unsure of what he should do.  And baby Fred took his bowl of peaches and dumped them on his head.


One of my favorite memories of my Grammy is the way she would walk the beach with us.  She'd have a backpack on and a grocery bag in her hand and pick up all, and I mean all, the broken and whole pieces of sand dollars on the beach.  She'd wear her shoes and walk out and in with the waves coming on shore.  Occasionally she'd have to high tail it if a really fast wave was coming in.


Another of my favorites is her and mom stealing oyster shells from the shelling plant.  They were all in a pile, but I'm not sure they were out there for free.  They climbed out of the van, with us four girls waiting, and got a garbage bag full of them.  Shoveling as fast as they could, they filled it and then threw it in the back and jumped in like Bonnie and Clyde.  I think that was the year a bunch of you got Nativity scenes on gold painted oyster shells...


After Grammy passed away our lives became less cluttered, less dramatic and ultimately less lively.  Who knew it was the 80 year-old that was keeping Mom and I so active?