Happy Anniversary to my Grandma and Grandpa! They were such supporters of us. They loved us to no avail. We could make them laugh, and what a pleasure it truly was. Rachel and I would get so silly in front of them... AND in front of the camera too. I can remember that Grandpa would ALWAYS bring his camera with him to family functions and then Rach and I would do something silly and he would say, "Oh, wait, let me get my camera. I wish I would've got that on tape!" He just loved us so. They called us "precious" but it came out sounding like, pray-cious! Grandma would call me her Sunshine Girl and then it started coming from Grandpa, too. He always told me I should be Miss America - that I was so beautiful. Grandma inspired me and still does to be a classy lady. Always getting her hair done, and of course, nails painted on Saturday evening, after her hair appointment on (or was that on Friday?) and then Saturday cleaning the house, and a lunch of Wendy's or Burger King hamburgers. SO Classic! Then not ordering pop from the restaurant .. bringing the food back home, I think they would switch off who would go get the burgers, but then come home and get the ketchup out of the fridge and of course, get down the plastic or plastic coated fabric placemats from atop the fridge and the napkins from the corner cabinet. We would drink out of either the blue or purple plastic cups (like the old school ones from a restaurant), fill them with ice (no ice maker ice, like at Aunt Sharoni's) and then go to the pantry closet (smelled a bit like leather) and find the Cherry Coke, Pepsi or Strawberry pop on the floor and open up the liter .. it was most of the time already opened and not a lot of fizz left.. but I guess that doesn't matter!
I can remember the times when we got to spend the night at their house and wake up to sounds of Charles Swindol on the radio in the kitchen. Coffee brewing, eggs cooking -- they would crack them and put them in the white smoky glass little bowls and microwave them and then turn over the cup on a plate .. after a ton of salt and pepper seasonings. We'd eat toast. IT was buttered (or oleo'd) and even sometimes margarined and cut in half and place on a place. We would also get Special K or later Grandma would buy that yum yum yummy Reeses Puffs cereal .. the peanut butter ones were my favorite and sometimes she would just buy a box of the plain on not mixed with the chocolate, knowing I didn't like it. A lot of the time Grandma and I would just eat the cereal right out of the box, as a snack! When we ate our Special K they insisted we put sugar on it! We weren't allowed to have sugar on our cereal at home. Most of the time at home we just ate it plain but with the occassional squeeze of honey on top. For the longest time I felt bad that was putting sugar on my cereal .. I felt like I was almost sinning or something. And then to top it off, Grandpa always drank his coffee with flavored creamer or with half and half. So then he would pour some of the creamer over the cereal, "To make it good." Grandpa always was joking around and would say that things were "musty" ... "Musty have some more-ey." What a crack up he was.
Along with breakfast, came the juice and the vitamins. And the vinegar and honey. The bread was kept in the 2nd drawer below the silverware in a green Tupperware container with the lid on the bottom of the drawer. The vitamins and mineral bottles sat int he drawer too. Quite the collection of vits. Grandma was always reading something and would get onto various different kicks of vitamin fads like, "Vitamin O" .. it was a liquid supplement that was basically a form of liquid oxygen that was healthy for you. Of course she, being from the best era of the 1950's and canning her own grape juice.. They would harvest the grapes in season and the use the little aluminum vat with the wooden crusher to expell the juice from the pod and the grape seeds. She made juice (or they would buy Grapefruit juice .. or Cranberry and the good and expensive brand of Ocean Spray) and would always pour a small glass to go with her breakfast tea. She used her tea kettle and warmed up some extra water for which they would pour over a tablespoon of honey and a couple tablespoons of vinegar. The concoction they claimed kept them from getting sick and it was one of the "fads" that stuck.. You could always count on them drinking their vinegar and honey and offering for you to take some too. I don't actually think that this mix was a 'fad' -- It may have been something they took for years and was a hand down recipe from her Mom.. so i'm recalling the statement about that being a fad. .. because quite frankly, isn't a fad something that is popular for a short while? This was not a short while...it was a tradition!
I could go on, and on. I'll stop now but here are just a few memories.
Cheers to life, love, and yummy cereal. And video cameras. Miss you both, dearly!
I can remember the times when we got to spend the night at their house and wake up to sounds of Charles Swindol on the radio in the kitchen. Coffee brewing, eggs cooking -- they would crack them and put them in the white smoky glass little bowls and microwave them and then turn over the cup on a plate .. after a ton of salt and pepper seasonings. We'd eat toast. IT was buttered (or oleo'd) and even sometimes margarined and cut in half and place on a place. We would also get Special K or later Grandma would buy that yum yum yummy Reeses Puffs cereal .. the peanut butter ones were my favorite and sometimes she would just buy a box of the plain on not mixed with the chocolate, knowing I didn't like it. A lot of the time Grandma and I would just eat the cereal right out of the box, as a snack! When we ate our Special K they insisted we put sugar on it! We weren't allowed to have sugar on our cereal at home. Most of the time at home we just ate it plain but with the occassional squeeze of honey on top. For the longest time I felt bad that was putting sugar on my cereal .. I felt like I was almost sinning or something. And then to top it off, Grandpa always drank his coffee with flavored creamer or with half and half. So then he would pour some of the creamer over the cereal, "To make it good." Grandpa always was joking around and would say that things were "musty" ... "Musty have some more-ey." What a crack up he was.
Along with breakfast, came the juice and the vitamins. And the vinegar and honey. The bread was kept in the 2nd drawer below the silverware in a green Tupperware container with the lid on the bottom of the drawer. The vitamins and mineral bottles sat int he drawer too. Quite the collection of vits. Grandma was always reading something and would get onto various different kicks of vitamin fads like, "Vitamin O" .. it was a liquid supplement that was basically a form of liquid oxygen that was healthy for you. Of course she, being from the best era of the 1950's and canning her own grape juice.. They would harvest the grapes in season and the use the little aluminum vat with the wooden crusher to expell the juice from the pod and the grape seeds. She made juice (or they would buy Grapefruit juice .. or Cranberry and the good and expensive brand of Ocean Spray) and would always pour a small glass to go with her breakfast tea. She used her tea kettle and warmed up some extra water for which they would pour over a tablespoon of honey and a couple tablespoons of vinegar. The concoction they claimed kept them from getting sick and it was one of the "fads" that stuck.. You could always count on them drinking their vinegar and honey and offering for you to take some too. I don't actually think that this mix was a 'fad' -- It may have been something they took for years and was a hand down recipe from her Mom.. so i'm recalling the statement about that being a fad. .. because quite frankly, isn't a fad something that is popular for a short while? This was not a short while...it was a tradition!
I could go on, and on. I'll stop now but here are just a few memories.
Cheers to life, love, and yummy cereal. And video cameras. Miss you both, dearly!
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