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susandennisMy father's mother was mean as a snake. She was tall and kind of Olive Oyl looking. She was not keen on children and I, at least, returned the favor. We always had to dress up when we visited her and we were not allowed to sit on the furniture (which was fine cause she had horse hair upholstery which scratched your legs).
She was full of dire warnings. If you played on wet grass, you would get kidney trouble. If you swallowed your gum, of course, you would die within days. If you didn't get off the escalator immediately, it would chew you up. To this day, I am not comfortable on escalators.
She had not had an easy life. She was from a large family in East Texas and when she married my grandfather, they disowned her. None of them, not even her twin brother, ever spoke to her again. (My grandfather was just off the boat German and it was World War I years.) She had to give up her U.S. citizenship during World War II because she was married to an alien. My grandfather was an engineer on the railroad and was gone much of the time so she pretty much had to raise my dad and his sister alone.
But still... When they retired, they moved from tinytown Missouri to Oklahoma City (down the street from their daughter). It was then a close-to-town neighborhood, probably now it's downtown. The entire 'hood for miles was flat as a pancake and there were maybe 4 trees in a one mile radius. One of those trees was in the backyard of their neighbor very near their fence.
In the fall, when the leaves fell, my grandfather had to rake the leaves that fell on their side of the fence. It used to take him maybe 30 minutes. In the summer it made a small brown spot in the grass. And my grandmother bitched about that fucking tree constantly.
Remind us of anyone else we know???
Geesh. I do not know what brought this to mind today but it's kind of amusing me.
She and I avoided each other as much as possible but towards the end of her life. But she did leave me one great gift.
My grandfather and her daughter both had died so my dad moved her to their small town in North Carolina where everything was different and strange and lonely for her I'm sure. She was never happy but I'm sure her last years were the unhappiest of all.
Then she went into the nursing home to die. My Mom was visiting her one day and she was out of it but very agitated. She rarely had any coherence at this point. They had her in a chair with a tray that prevented her from getting up. She was struggling to get up and kept asking my mother to get the tray off. Finally mother told her that she didn't know how.
Mom said she looked up with eyes clear as a bell and said with the usual disdain she gave my mother 'well, go get Susie, she'll know how to do it!'
She was full of dire warnings. If you played on wet grass, you would get kidney trouble. If you swallowed your gum, of course, you would die within days. If you didn't get off the escalator immediately, it would chew you up. To this day, I am not comfortable on escalators.
She had not had an easy life. She was from a large family in East Texas and when she married my grandfather, they disowned her. None of them, not even her twin brother, ever spoke to her again. (My grandfather was just off the boat German and it was World War I years.) She had to give up her U.S. citizenship during World War II because she was married to an alien. My grandfather was an engineer on the railroad and was gone much of the time so she pretty much had to raise my dad and his sister alone.
But still... When they retired, they moved from tinytown Missouri to Oklahoma City (down the street from their daughter). It was then a close-to-town neighborhood, probably now it's downtown. The entire 'hood for miles was flat as a pancake and there were maybe 4 trees in a one mile radius. One of those trees was in the backyard of their neighbor very near their fence.
In the fall, when the leaves fell, my grandfather had to rake the leaves that fell on their side of the fence. It used to take him maybe 30 minutes. In the summer it made a small brown spot in the grass. And my grandmother bitched about that fucking tree constantly.
Remind us of anyone else we know???
Geesh. I do not know what brought this to mind today but it's kind of amusing me.
She and I avoided each other as much as possible but towards the end of her life. But she did leave me one great gift.
My grandfather and her daughter both had died so my dad moved her to their small town in North Carolina where everything was different and strange and lonely for her I'm sure. She was never happy but I'm sure her last years were the unhappiest of all.
Then she went into the nursing home to die. My Mom was visiting her one day and she was out of it but very agitated. She rarely had any coherence at this point. They had her in a chair with a tray that prevented her from getting up. She was struggling to get up and kept asking my mother to get the tray off. Finally mother told her that she didn't know how.
Mom said she looked up with eyes clear as a bell and said with the usual disdain she gave my mother 'well, go get Susie, she'll know how to do it!'
