Community Chat

[Preds]

On 3/11/2015 NoelSeven said:

On 3/11/2015 Preds said:

I learned that I didn't want to be like my grandmothers. I loved them, but they were very selfish, cold, spiteful women.

Guess what?

You're nothing like that

Thank you! But there's always tomorrow.

[sfnative]

On 3/12/2015 qualitygal said:

My maternal grandmother told me about Dandelion Tea. It's been many years, but she told me about it while she was in a nursing home. She was great in mind, right up to the end of her life. She had some great stories.

Her house was really neat, you had to climb the steepest stairs to go up into her attic. It had the old attic smell (like old books). Window to look down onto the sidewalk, was up in the trees and probably the closest thing to being in a tree house for me. Loved that old house.

The grandmother that lived close to me? Well, you could eat off her floor! Her house was neat, tidy and clean. In her later years, when she was no longer up to the big family and holiday occasions, they fell to me, so she would come over to our house. I very quickly found out that she was eyeing (checking out) my baseboards to see if they had been dusted and cleaned. LOL! Thereafter, I'd always sit with her for a bit right after she arrived to check out what she was staring at (to see if it was clean). This was all done in great fun by my DD and me. We loved her so much! Everyone did. And everyone knew what a stickler she was for cleanliness. Can't tell you the hours DD and I spent cleaning every nook and crany the day prior to Easter, for example, and still had the baking going on and all the cooking and roasting to do. A reality show candidate for sure. Really miss her.

p.s. You would not have found a speck of dust in that house nor any surface that hadn't been scrubbed or cleaned according to its needs. All done with a great deal of love.

[Jerzgirl]

My grandmother on my mother's side taught me how to cook & the love of cooking & baking at a very young age(from scratch). She helped mold me into the wife & mother I am today. She instilled in me family and the importance of family. As ell as, how to care for a family... how to take care of your husband, the proper way... how to clean, and I mean clean thoroughly...how make a home, a home, an inviting home...a place your kids & husband want to be! She also helped instill in me how to be a lady, a lady in every sense of the word. My father's mother was a catholic school teacher. Not only was she extremely intelligent and kind, she was a woman of great faith. She helped create my love for God and my strong faith. Loved her stories, very smart woman. Jerz

[morning glory]

My grandmother's kitchen was at the back of the house and right outside the back door she had a beautiful flower garden. She would wash the dishes in a dish pan in the sink and when she was done she would throw the dishwater on her flowers. She said the soap killed the bugs on the flowers and the food that was in the water was good fertilizer and the garden needed water so that is how she watered her flowers each time she did dishes, three times a day.

She buried banana peels and coffee grounds around her roses.

She was a business woman when in her day it was a man's job. She said if a woman is smart enough to earn money she is smart enough to spend it. Which meant don't let your husband take care of the finances of what you earn yourself. I never forgot that.

She said if you own a farm keep it. You will always have the land but the money will get away from you.

She was a wise woman. She said buy the best and you only have to buy it once. She only bought quality.

She died when I was 12 but she taught me well. She is my roll model.

[glb613]

On 3/11/2015 Autumn in NY said:

My grandmother had a mystery illness. Back in the day, doctors had no idea what it was and she was bedridden most of the time. She was told by her family and doctors that it was all in her head (psychosomatic). It turns out all of her symptoms were exactly like the ones Fibromyalgia sufferers experience. I've learned that when someone says they don't feel well, believe them.

Bedridden with Fibromyalgia?

[GCR18]

Both grandmothers were strong role models. My father's mother taught me the lesson of giving. I remember one thanksgiving when I was about 12, my father drove her to the grocery store and she bought 5 or 6 pies. We went to a nursing home, where she volunteered. I put the pies on the doorstep, rang the bell and jumped back in the car. She did many acts of random kindness.

[blackhole99]

My Gram was German and she made strudel that I would consider an art form. When I was a kid I would watch her roll out the dough on a round table covered with a table cloth that had cherries printed on it. My Gram would roll out the dough and then pull and stretch the dough so thin that you could see the design clearly on the table cloth. Gram would then put whatever fruit she was using on the dough and proceed to flip this very thin dough with the fruit on it until all the dough was rolled up. The strudel looked like a work of art and taste delicious. As hard as we all tried to make the strudel like Gram, not one of us could master the stretching of the dough and flipping the dough with the fruit in it. We all make the strudel she tried so hard to teach us to make, it's just not as good as hers. As Gram would say," you kids didn't inherit the knack".

[Tinkrbl44]

My grandmother had a dressing table with a big mirror, where she sat to brush her hair and "fix her face" .... not an elaborate routine, to be sure, but I was just fascinated with her grown up items .... a brush, comb and mirror with long handles, a jewelry box, a box of dusting powder, and those unmistakable cobalt blue bottles of Evening In Paris!