Community Chat

[CAMOGIRL]

My dad's mother lived with us when I was very young. I do not really remember her at all. His father died before I was even born.

My mom's mother and father lived on a dairy farm less than hour from us. We visited them a couple of times a month, spending the day out there. My gramma was a quiet woman. My grandpa a serious man. Both hard working. They would take time away from the farm and come for a visit and dinner to each of their children's homes once in a while, not very often.

My dad's parents were both Polish and my mom's were both German. They really did live their lives kinda from the old ways.  Hard work,  nothing in excess, and just about everything had a purpose.

My Gramma was an excellent cook - loved eating at her house! She  could turn the most boring dinner into something wonderful and tasty! ❤️ Love You Gramma ❤️ I got my love of cooking from her!!

[RedTop]

The older I get, the more I cherish and appreciate my grandparents and the many, many things I learned from them.   

I have lived my entire 62 years on earth on part of my paternal grandparents 200 acre West Virginia farm.   From the time I could walk, pick up, or carry, I was "helping" on the farm.   I learned more life skills and lessons on the farm than I could ever list.   My dad was the baby of his family, so my brothers and I were the last grandchildren to grow up here.   

My maternal grandparents lived in the same neighborhood, about 3 miles away from us, and we spent most of our weekends with them.   Mamaw was a Sunday School teacher and was teaching me Bible verses very early in life.   Papaw worked on the railroad and retired at 62, when I was 7; every Sunday he gave me 5 dimes to buy an ice cream at school.   Mamaw and Papaw had deep roots in the neighborhood, and tried to be very helpful to others in the community. There were only 5 grandchildren, and we were loved deeply and spoiled much.   I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and to this day if I'm having trouble falling asleep, I just think back to hot summer nights in their upstairs bedroom and how I'd lie on the foot of my little iron bed looking out the window, waiting for the cool night air to cool me off enough to reach for the lightweight cotton quilt.   

In my 9th grade Civics class I learned that my entire family was poor!   What?   We always had food, store bought clothes and shoes, a house to live in that was nice and warm in winter, and my daddy had a job, so how could we be poor?   Yes, by the worlds standards we were poor, but I NEVER felt poor.   I look back on my life and feel deeply blessed to have been born in WV, and been loved by two special families.  I am proud of who I am, and where I am, and wouldn't change a single thing about my life story.     

[tuscaloosa]

@RedTop  Lucky You

[Kalli]

My mom's mom was from Austria.  She was raised Jewish but converted to marry my Irish Catholic grandfather.  Mom's dad fought in WW I and was gassed(mustard). He survived that but it changed the color of his eyes.

My paternal grandfather wasn't a great father to my dad and his siblings.  Dad's mom was a nurse and had to work hard to support her family since Grandpa was not always earning enough.  My dad always had a great deal of respect for his mom.  His experience with his dad not being dependable made him determined to not be that kind of man.  My parents have been married 67 years.  Mom has dementia now so they are together in a nursing home.