Posted by harry b. on January 2, 2003, at 14:35:41
In reply to Please read if you're over 40...or under : ), posted by Phil on November 26, 2002, at 17:09:52
My best memories are of spending time at my bgrandmother's. My dad died when I was 5yo, then came an abusive stepfather. When he divorced my mother I was left pretty much to my own devices because mother was not around much.
I would ride my bike 20 miles to get to my grandmother's place. It was grand. There was no running water so I had to pump water & haul it to the house by the bucketful. With no plumbing, there was only the outhouse. Baths were taken in the kitchen.
Heat & meals were provided by a big old wood burning cook stove and my grandmother made the best pies in the world.
In the winter I slept upstairs beneath several homemade comforters. The only heat was from the wood stove below. Grandmother would get up around 4 or 5 am to get the fire going again so I would be warm when I came down for breakfast.
The milkman & the breadman both delivered to the house and grandmother would always have a nickle for me so that I could buy a treat from the back of the breadman's truck.
I walked the woods with my BB gun, shooting anything that caught my eye & when I turned 12yo I got a .22 rifle that I would take into the woods with me & shoot at targets (can you imagine THAT today??).
I'd go fishing & skinny dipping with the farm kids in the area and we'd ride ponys and tractors and jump from the hay loft into the hay wagon way below. We'd round up the cows and herd them back to the barn. Once we tried riding a large hog, but it did not work out too well.
My grandmother only watched one TV show, The Tonight Show. I remember Jack Parr as host.
We made homemade icecream, turning the handle, scraping off the blades, and we made and bottled rootbeer soda.
My grandmother was the best influence in my life. I still think of her often. Whenever I see rose bushes or smell the sweet scent of honeysuckle, tons of warm memories come rushing to my mind.
harry b.
poster:harry b.
thread:764
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/2000/20020724/msgs/894.html