Grandparents - What makes you smile??

[liverpool annie]

I didn't know any of my Grandparents ......... and I used to be as jealous as sin of the kids in the street that used to say .....
"I can't play .... I've got to go to me Grandmas !! " and then they'd pull a face .....   I'd get so mad at them ......... !!

So you can imagine my joy when last year I tracked down a 93 year old lady who used to know my Granddad ......
I was so excited ........ I finally got to talk to her on the phone ..... I was practically screaming at the top of my lungs ( she kept saying "A .... what d'you say ?? " ) ....
I finally got her to understand what I wanted to know  and she said
" Oh yes ! ........ I remember 'im .... 'e drank like a fish !! "

and she hung up !!  

[goggy]

Annie.
I know how you must feel!I've found a Cuz:in Miami,last saw her about 1937.She knew my Dad+Mam,and some Uncle's+Aunt's etc.
Can you imagine how much self restraint it take's to communicate in a normal manner while the head want's to know all available info;NOW!!!
As my 'lug's' are ok for hanging my spec's on but u/s for hearing,and my Server wont accept from Miami,all is 'Snail Mail'!!
At least,now youv'e found a 'source'+maybe next time,a younger person can 'go between 'for you?
 My  sympathy,
                        Goggy.

[kerryb]

Talking of beds, I remember when I was about 5 and my sister was about 3 we stayed with my grandparents and in the spare room they had a double bed and a cot.  We were both put in the huge double bed, but my sister was so naughty, tickling my feet all night, she got put in the cot.

It took years to get over, we still tease her about it now.

She was a very naughty little child, probably would be called hyperactive nowadays, but she was just always on the go!

I of course, was as good as gold, probably why my grandparents had me on holiday a lot on my own.   

Kerry

[Raels]

Reading all these wonderfull threads, just made me sit and think.
my nan ( dads mum) was separated from my pop but that never stopped her visiting us.
She used to catch the late train from Melbourne to Geelong, but she would never let us know she was coming.
 You would wake in the morning to the smell of breakfast cooking no easy feat 8 kids 3 adults including her self you would hear a shout nans here.
 I remember when I broke my arm and had to go to RCH in melb and stayed with nan in melb. I felt so lucky as i didnt have to share her with all the other kids. She was warm loving but spoke her mind....Now pop he was living in Geelong and I used to stay with him often he'd come and get me for the day (mum and dad didnt have a car ) so when i didnt return in a week they'd get someone to take them down to his place to pick me up, I only had the clothes i was wearing but that didnt bother pop
he'd wash my clothes at night and hang them infront of the open fire to dry over night while i was parading around in his pajama top.
I remember the smell of the open fire, pine cones burning, cuddles on his knee at night being tucked into bed by him.
We had a special bond and he always made me feel special to the day he died..

                                                                                           Raels
 

[Ed the Cat]

I've been sitting here this morning reading some of these wonderul memories. I've been lucky enough to remeber both my gt grandmothers and 1 gt grandfather (just and he was Nan's second husband) I'm now left with one grandmother who is 87 years old. Her mother was 93 (and lives in Austrialia) when she died and my other grandmother was a week off her 102 birthday (her daughter died 4 years ago a couple of months off her 90th)

The Gt Nan who went to Oz used to keep her false teeth in the pocket of her apron! She also had 6 kids by 4 different men (no such thing as *** in her day though)

The other Gt Nan was first married to a solider who went to India at the turn of the last century and that's where her daughter was born. Nan(daughter) used to say that she had got so used to servants she expected to be waited on when they returned to the UK. For years as a kid I heard that Nan only drank Free'uns (thought the grown us said Freemans) and so I thought that Freemans was a bewery !!

Granddad (mums dad) became very ill in his last years and the thing that we all remember about him (apart from the smell of Old Holborn tobacco) is him waking up in his chair on Christmas Day and seeing that Top of the Pops was ending - though he thought it was just being and saying "We're not having that rubish on"

Ed

[dawnwas]

Dawn

My gran had an old biscuit tin with a picture of the Queen on the front full of buttons. My sister and I used to be allowed to get it out and play with it occasionally and the buttons inside.

Oh happy memories

Kerry

Just to let you know that I have got my own button tin.I saw Mom who is 83 , and she had found out an old toffee tin with roses on the lid." Do you want this as I am throwing it out," she said ;DNow all I need are some buttons

[kerryb]

I really must start a button tin of my own, the shop that I buy my clothes from supplies 2 spare buttons with every item!!!!!!

Kerry

[Tephra]

Along with button tins/jars, what else do you remember your Grandmother having??     

Barbara               

[kerryb]

The house where my grandparents lived had a very steep narrow set of stairs and towards the end of her life granny used to breathe quite heavily when going up the stairs.  When we were staying with them my sister and I would lay in bed and we could hear her coming up the stairs, her breathing and her hand on the bannister every step.

Do you know if I close my eyes now I can still hear that sound.  A very comforting sound! 

Kerry