30 Day Challenge- Something you miss from childhood
I don't miss anything from my childhood except for one thing. Grandma's house.
Visiting both of my grandparents each summer was never really something I got overly excited about mostly because I hated leaving home and my parents but I look back at those trips with a great deal of fondness.
There was nothing better than spending the day with my dad's parents in their beauty supply shop. I will never forget the musty smell of that store with a trailing hint of Clubman Talc. I remember watching my grandpa stand at the front desk, visiting with customers that would come and go, filling out ledger books, stocking shelves. My grandma would teach us to macrame plant hangers on the floor of my Grandpa's office or take shampoo towels and magically turn them into dolls for us carry around in an apple box.
Every morning, the menu was the same- Porridge and whole wheat bread that grandma had baked in a tomato juice can. I can still see the bottle of sugar sweetener my grandpa used and his favorite bag of digestive cookies on the cupboard.
At my mom's parent's, the fridge hummed and the clocks ticked and tocked but rarely in sync. Waking up in the basement, I could hear the old, green radio playing on the kitchen table. My grandpa was always at the dining room table playing a game of solitaire or reading the paper and my grandma was in the kitchen fixing breakfast, her hair still in pin curls.
I loved walking with my grandpa, hand in hand to the bowling alley for a game of 5 pin bowling or to the little store on the corner for penny candy. I was always amazed that everyone seemed to know my grandpa. He always seemed so proud to introduce his grand kids to everyone we saw. Grandpa tried so hard to sound grumpy and would chase us around the front room making his dentures rattle back and forth while grandma stood by watching and laughing so hard! I nicknamed him Grumpa Gooneybird.
We helped grandma in her rose garden, played in the sheets she had just hung on the line to dry. We watched her crochet, brushed her hair and figured out that Lawrence Welk wasn't half bad...When you're 10. If we were lucky, grandma was making a wedding cake and we could watch her make hundreds of royal red roses.
Grandma was always busy in the kitchen that she ran like a well oiled machine. We had coleslaw every lunch and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and raisin cookies every night. You could count on ginger ale to drink out of faded green and yellow, plastic cups.
I guess you could say, the thing I miss the most was how simple life was at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was simple and when my world seemed to be changing so fast, things always stayed the same at Grandma and Grandpa's. You could count on them and time just seemed to slow down, even stop. I miss that feeling of security; of everything being the same.
Visiting both of my grandparents each summer was never really something I got overly excited about mostly because I hated leaving home and my parents but I look back at those trips with a great deal of fondness.
There was nothing better than spending the day with my dad's parents in their beauty supply shop. I will never forget the musty smell of that store with a trailing hint of Clubman Talc. I remember watching my grandpa stand at the front desk, visiting with customers that would come and go, filling out ledger books, stocking shelves. My grandma would teach us to macrame plant hangers on the floor of my Grandpa's office or take shampoo towels and magically turn them into dolls for us carry around in an apple box.
Every morning, the menu was the same- Porridge and whole wheat bread that grandma had baked in a tomato juice can. I can still see the bottle of sugar sweetener my grandpa used and his favorite bag of digestive cookies on the cupboard.
At my mom's parent's, the fridge hummed and the clocks ticked and tocked but rarely in sync. Waking up in the basement, I could hear the old, green radio playing on the kitchen table. My grandpa was always at the dining room table playing a game of solitaire or reading the paper and my grandma was in the kitchen fixing breakfast, her hair still in pin curls.
I loved walking with my grandpa, hand in hand to the bowling alley for a game of 5 pin bowling or to the little store on the corner for penny candy. I was always amazed that everyone seemed to know my grandpa. He always seemed so proud to introduce his grand kids to everyone we saw. Grandpa tried so hard to sound grumpy and would chase us around the front room making his dentures rattle back and forth while grandma stood by watching and laughing so hard! I nicknamed him Grumpa Gooneybird.
We helped grandma in her rose garden, played in the sheets she had just hung on the line to dry. We watched her crochet, brushed her hair and figured out that Lawrence Welk wasn't half bad...When you're 10. If we were lucky, grandma was making a wedding cake and we could watch her make hundreds of royal red roses.
Grandma was always busy in the kitchen that she ran like a well oiled machine. We had coleslaw every lunch and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and raisin cookies every night. You could count on ginger ale to drink out of faded green and yellow, plastic cups.
I guess you could say, the thing I miss the most was how simple life was at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was simple and when my world seemed to be changing so fast, things always stayed the same at Grandma and Grandpa's. You could count on them and time just seemed to slow down, even stop. I miss that feeling of security; of everything being the same.
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