Grandparents

[susandennis]

I was incredibly lucky to have grown up knowing all four of my grandparents. I think I'm going to Memory Lane them one by one. Let's start with my least favorite.

Momoo. She was Daddy's mother. My cousin, Bill, named her Momoo and named her husband Popoo. Nonnie Darnell was the name she had when Popoo found her.

Momoo was born in East Texas in a town that was not big enough to be designated a small town. She had a pack of brothers and sisters including a twin brother (Lonnie). Most of her family disowned her when she married Popoo so I don't remember meeting any of them. But, Daddy kind of kept up with some and their descendants.

She had a pickled face. And she was no fun at all. She was a walking encyclopedia of dire warnings. "Don't play on wet grass, you'll get kidney trouble." She happened to be with me when I rode my first escalator. "If you don't hop off fast, it will suck you down in there." And I want you to know that to this day I am not at all comfortable on escalators!

She was always complaining. She was tired. So and so said something that she didn't like. She had too much work to do. We children were being too xxxxx (xxxxx = any adjective as long as it connotes something unpleasant).

But Popoo loved her and we LOVED Popoo. And Daddy loved her and he was, well, Daddy.

After Popoo died, she lived on her own in their house in Oklahoma City until she couldn't handle it any more. Mother and Daddy were living in western North Carolina in a small town (Valdese). Daddy rented her a tiny house there and moved her into it. She could walk to town and get her hair done. She loved to read the movie magazines at the hair dressers and Mom said she used to get there an hour early and stay an hour after 'to make sure her hair was dry', just to read them.

The guy who ran the local appliance store called Mom one day to say that Momoo had been in demanding that he replace her TV. She told him that her 'Oklahoma' TV did not work right in North Carolina and he had to trade. Further investigation revealed that she could not find the Lawrence Welk show which was still on in syndication in about 2 markets.

She lasted in that house a couple of years and then went to a nursing home where she just ran out of gas. I think I was about 25 or so when she died.