Community Chat

[nun ya]

My Grandma is 91. She still dresses up everyday. Usually in a pantsuit, makeup and hair always done.  My sister and I laugh because she stops by on occasion and we are wearing yogapants and sweatshirts...we say she's probably thinking we are fashion failures lol 

[Lucky Charm]

I felt my grandmother touch me on my back when I read this title!  Maternal grandmother, that is.

She was a beautiful woman, dated a pro baseball player before she met and fell in love with my grandfather.

She worked at the perfume counter at a department store in Boston.  Cannot think of the name of it at the moment.

She dressed to the nines, always had her nails painted and wore red lipstick and pancake face powder.  She never dyed her hair, but did the perms and pincurls. 

She started smoking a the age of 50! and unfortunately I think that was her demise.  I remember watching smoke pour out of her nostrils and thinking that she looked so elegant! 

She hosted weekly card games and the ladies came over dressed up like they were going to church.  In the summer months they played on the porch--still dressed for church.

She wore pretty dresses, usually with flowers on them, or wool skirts and rather fancy blouses.  Never wore pants, but lived in a *nun's* bathing suit all summer.

She was very much a lady, never cursed, never a mean word about anyone. 

She loved to be dressed up--very much unlike my mother!

[LilacTree]

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@Imadickens wrote:

@LilacTree. I'm sorry for you and you mom! I would believe it and shudder to think about what your mom endured! How wonderful that you've taken the bad in live and used it to make you a great grandmother! Your grand's are surely lucky!

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@Imadickens

Thank you jewelwisher.  My poor little mom endured such a horrible childhood, only to get sick and die at the age of 49. Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I think of her and I stop.  Hopefully, we kids (four of us) brought a little brightness to her life while she was here.

[CAMOGIRL]

Just reading all these and thinking how much grandmas have changed. Most of our grandmas were very hard physically working women and had a very strong will. Now, it seems grammas are more likely to take their grandkids to a movie and out for a burger. To my grandkids I am the "cool" Gramma. I never would even consider my Gramma as cool - she was just a sweet quiet woman that had the patience of 50 women, something which I seem to be totally lacking...

[beckyb1012]

My Grandmother worked with my Grandfather in their clothing retail store Mon. until noon on Sat. (Papa stayed until closing) picked up my brother and I took us to their home.  We walked in front of her single file helping her push the lawn mower every week.  Then she did all the other weekly cleaning, fixed Sat. night dinner, we spent the night with her and Papa.  We all four went to church the next morning meeting up with my parents, my Aunt and Uncle and spent all day with them enjoying the huge lunch prepared my Mam-Ma.  We spent the whole afternoon all together and she got back up Monday morning with Papa and back to the store she went all the while looking stylish and beautiful and so loved beyond belief.

[Lipstickdiva]

I didn't know either of my grandmothers.  My dad's mom died before I was born and my mom's mom died when I was 2 so I have no recollection of her at all.

I've seen plenty of photos of my mom's mom.  She was from Croatia.  She did learn to speak English I am told but still had a heavy accent.  She always wore a dress but often knee high stockings with it and like @lulu2, in every picture she had an apron on.  She also had long hair that she wore pulled up.  She always, always had a scrowl on her face in photos.  In fact it's a huge joke in our family when we make a face that we have the "Grandma" face. 

My grandmother came here from Croatia when she was very young because she had her first child as a teenager but she and my grandfather were already married, in an arranged marriage.  She went on to have 13 kids total.     

[kdgn]

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@Noel7 wrote:

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@151949

I'm thinking your grandmother was still pretty young if she dressed like that.  There had to have been a lot of grandmothers around in 1950 who were born in the late 1800s and who probably weren't wearing shirtwaist dresses.

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Both of my grandmothers were born in the late 1800s and wore shirtwaist dresses all the time. One grandmother finally went with housedresses (what I would call a fancy short sleeved, short robe today) when she was in her mid to late 80s. I can remember the other grandmother wearing nylons and laced heels- I always referred to them as "grandma shoes". 

[viva923]

i only knew 1 grandma. My mom's mom passed long before i was born.

the grandma i knew: oh my gosh, that lady was a ball of nerves. She would sit in her chair and wring her hands and lament about how this went wrong and that went wrong and wonder what would happen next . She would lose her way back home if less than 1 block from home,she had NO sense of direction at all. She never learned how to drive. She dressed in simple grandma dresses, that polyester type dresses. She kept a clean house but my unmarried uncle lived with my grandparents in that same house till they passed and he passed. I think my uncle did the cleaning for my grandparents.  My grandpa had a severe stroke when i was in lower half of grade school so he lost his ability to walk,talk,drive all he could do was sit there and watch t.v. And grunt if he wanted anything.

i know they lived during the depression but never ever talked about that time in thier life. How we found out a few things, my dad would tell us that was all which was far and few between.

[Imadickens]

@LilacTree. I'm sure you did more for your mother than you can even imagine! We're mothers, right? Just seeing our children's faces is a big gift, so you gave her more happiness than you can measure! You made me feel a bit ashamed of myself! I should think of what my mother and grandmother suffered when I whine ( to myself, but that's still bad!) about not having this or getting that! My mother lived through The Depression, and later met with terrible difficulties and sadness! Yet, she was one of the most well-thought of women in our town! She was kind, generous, and made life better for everyone with whom she came in contact! My grandmother had to leave her home before she was 16 and worked in a factory making garments to support herself. She saw to it that her family ate during The Dep. and her son was shot in WWII. Yet, she also became a woman of which I can be proud! I must remember these things when I find myself feeling down for some reason! Thanks!

[LilacTree]

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@Imadickens wrote:

@LilacTree. I'm sure you did more for your mother than you can even imagine! We're mothers, right? Just seeing our children's faces is a big gift, so you gave her more happiness than you can measure! You made me feel a bit ashamed of myself! I should think of what my mother and grandmother suffered when I whine ( to myself, but that's still bad!) about not having this or getting that! My mother lived through The Depression, and later met with terrible difficulties and sadness! Yet, she was one of the most well-thought of women in our town! She was kind, generous, and made life better for everyone with whom she came in contact! My grandmother had to leave her home before she was 16 and worked in a factory making garments to support herself. She saw to it that her family ate during The Dep. and her son was shot in WWII. Yet, she also became a woman of which I can be proud! I must remember these things when I find myself feeling down for some reason! Thanks!

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@Imadickens

At age 24 with one child, my ex moved us down to VA (Wash DC suburbs) supposedly at the company's discretion.  I only found out several years ago that it was my ex who requested the transfer to get me away from my family, especially my beloved mom, whom he hated.

I then had three more babies in VA over eight years.  I saw my mom maybe four or five times during those years.  When she was in the final stages of cancer, I took my youngest two babies (two months and sixteen months) and went back to NJ.  I told him I was going if I had to take a train.  I took care of her for four months, having left after Christmas and she died on April 29, 1967.  She was pretty bad then but the first month or so we managed to have some conversations and it was obvious she had some things to tell me. 

After that, I read to her, mostly "Jane Eyre," which she loved.  I took care of her, my babies, cooked, cleaned, did everything just to be with her.  My father and brother both worked and they didn't know how to deal with it anyway. 

My older two children who were still babies also (three and four and a half) broke my heart because they really couldn't understand why I was not with them, they hardly knew my mom, they never had a "grandma."

However, I have never regretted having that time with her one on one.  She was so sick and wasn't eating anymore.  I had to let her go to the hospital near the end of April and she died a few days later.

So my children never really had grandparents either.   My father went to the shore with us every year . . . that was about it.