Wheel Special Old Birthday

I'm going to stray a little bit more from the car theme here to talk about someone who once had a birthday today. My grandmother. Grandma would've been 94 years old today. She is on the left in the picture with Goldie and Theodore, Grandpa's aunt and uncle. The car behind them is a Model A Ford, dating between 1928 and 1930 (I can't see enough of it to tell). Grandma passed away in 1994...just thinking about it, it seems almost impossible that she has been gone for 14 years already. She was quite an individual and I wanted to make this post some random memories and thoughts about her. Grandma was a tough one, not like so many people today who don't know and aren't willing to learn how to do anything on their own. She grew up in a small farming community and was very accustomed to butchering animals, working outside, and providing whatever work needed to be done to survive. Of course, that's not to say that she didn't have fun. That's where us grandkids would come in. As a young boy, I was fortunate enough to have a grandmother who would willingly participate in the things that were most appealing to me! She loved to fish, hunt, and be outside doing just about anything. To this day, her next door neighbor still talks about how she misses Grandma and Grandpa being out in the yard ALL of the time. It's true, if they were at home, they were usually working outside trimming trees, cutting grass, or working on the garden. Of course, Grandma also loved painting, crocheting, and cooking. She excelled at all of it and I only wish that my daughter had gotten the opportunity to grow up with her around as an influence in these ways. We were a fortunate bunch to have grown up with her and probably learned more than we will ever realize from her. Not too many of my friends ever had someone bake them a cake from scratch for their birthday and even fewer of them had a Grandma that would show them how to bait a hook while fishing and then compete with them to see who could catch the best fish! She is the person from whom I got my favorite fishing quote, "We caught twice as many as last time but unfortunately 2 x 0 still equals 0"! Another side of Grandma that she passed on is that she was a worrier and she liked to pester the tar out of Grandpa worrying about things. Of course, Grandpa was a pro at getting her riled up and keeping her on her toes. To this day, every time my daughter and I go to the lake, I drive fast down the big hill going to the boat ramp, just like Grandpa did. Yes, Grandma used to holler and fuss at him every single time but he still did it every single time. It was a big roller coaster to Grandpa and to the rest of us in the car! I can still close my eyes when I drive down that hill today and hear Grandma's voice hollering to SLOW DOWN! They made a great pair, counter balancing each other in this way. Grandma was a sports fan and a soap opera lover too. A funny thing about getting sick when I was a little kid, Grandma and Grandpa would come over and pick me up when I couldn't go to school. They would take me home and I would usually sleep on the couch for most of my time there. However, the funny part is that even though I was sick, it was kind of a treat because some days Grandma would take me down to church to her painting class or take me to the nursing home to visit her mother. She would always make chicken noodle soup and while I'd eat my soup, she'd update me on everything that was happening on the soaps that were on at the time. Occasionally, if I was feeling better, I would get to go out in the garage and help Grandpa with projects he was working on! They were always doing something!

Here's the car tie-in....for some reason, Grandma and Grandpa would always title their cars in Grandma's name. Don't think that she would let Grandpa forget it either. This was something that she was always teasing us with, saying that Grandpa has to be good or she wouldn't let him use her cars! Those were the days and I sure do miss them. Life was different then; much more simple without all of the stress that comes when we grow up...it was just fun and family...what more could there be?


Some random memories of Grandma:

Hummingbird cake
Planters cheese balls and honey buns on the boat
cranberry salad at Thanksgiving
tying strings to june bugs & locusts & flying them
catching tarantulas on the porch
the smell of oil painting
deer sausage
Dallas Cowboys (back when they were a team to be proud of)
watching squirrels play in the trees
going to see the movies Xanadu and Snow White
knee high stockings
yard work
big glass jars of homemade cookies!

I have said it before and I'll say it again, they were storybook grandparents and above all else, my brother, my cousins, and I knew that they loved us and they loved spending time with us. The two of them were at every school and church function that we were involved in and were there to celebrate all of the holidays and birthdays too! I could never write down everything that Grandma meant to me nor how many ways knowing her still impacts my life today. I find in writing this post that it isn't possible to write or think of just one of them (Grandma or Grandpa) because they were always together; I suppose that is one of the secrets to making a marriage last for 60 years. The morals and values that they passed on to us keeps them both very alive in all of us. I think that Grandma is celebrating in Heaven today, and probably fussing at Grandpa for something too! Most of all, for me, she was my "Grandma" and she set in my mind what a Grandma is and should be. Those of us who called her that were sure lucky to have had her in our lives.