OK, lets start with Grandma. Here are just afew other things I remember. Besides helping grandma with her tea in the morning I also helped her make her bed. especially when we were not in school. Her bed had to be just so, and the bedspread was always just right. One of the things I really remember about Grandma was how she would wash my hands. First she would run the water and get it just right, not too hot not cold. She had a way of using the washcloth and then drying your hands. I think she would have been real good working at a spa. I remember Mom talking about the whole back yard being a garden, that includes the grassy area we grew up with. Mom said her front yard was perfect with lots of flowers. I recall Dad wondering how she could ever get anything to grow where the back lawn was, but Mom said she had one of the best gardens in town. Of course we have all heard about how much Dr. Stock the dentist thought of Grandma. When she had to get false teeth she paid him off by washing the bibs he used for 1 cent a piece (for you young ones yes there was a time they used cloth and they were washed and reused). Even if she was only charged $50 in those days that amounts to 5000 bibs. And she washed them all by hand with a washboard and tub. None of us really know how hard they had it. When all they could pay for was basics like food and the light bill. No telephone (they didn't get a phone until Mom started working at the phone company), no car, none of the things we take for granted like magazines and newspapers. No going out to eat, no new clothes just because we want new clothes. Grandma's cane was even given to her by a friend.
We are spoiled to death and we should all sit back and think of how easy we have it.
Terence