There are days when I
think about my grandmothers and I giggle.
I loved these women so much, miss them daily and think about them
often. The way they continue to
influence my daily life, even today, blows me away sometimes. My mother's mother and I were pen pals since
I was very young in the fifth grade. As
I became an adult she would send me recipes and share her days with me. When we could visit in person we talked a lot
about homemaking and thrift. We had a
lot in common that way.
My dad's mom and I were
extremely close, best friends. She
claimed we were besties from the day I was born. I never doubted that. She and I talked about nearly everything that
was going on in our worlds. She loved to laugh and we did it often. We visited
each other often and talked every Sunday on the phone as well as swapped cards and letters between visits. She also shared with me a lot of her
homemaking and dollar stretching tips. I
learned a lot from these women.
The other day I got the
giggles. When my paternal grandmother
passed away in 1999 and we were cleaning out her home to get it ready to sell I
had found her stash of toilet paper, light bulbs and all of the plastic
shopping bags she had squirreled away.
As I was tucking my recent toilet paper purchase away in the linen
closet I immediately thought of this and realized I am becoming her! Oh my goodness, not too long ago I told
myself to stop buying light bulbs and since the pandemic started last year I've
amassed quite a collection of grocery bags.
Well I won't be buying
anymore TP or light bulbs for awhile and I gathered up a gob of those extra
shopping bags and put them in the recycling bin at the grocery store last
weekend. There are so many things that
they did and taught me that I find myself doing on a daily basis. Pretty funny how those apples don't fall too
far from the tree.
What great memories!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like they taught you well.
I have a stash of grocery bags I use to scoop litter boxes, but I shouldn't keep so many. ;)
Hope you have a great weekend
You're probably fine. I had a ridiculous amount of grocery bags stuffed in the pantry and our garage. LOL
DeleteMy grandma (my mom's mom) and I were super close. I too learned so many frugal ways from watching her. Fond memories of cooking too and I have several of her recipes. I spent a lot of time staying with her and my grandpa. Almost every Fri I helped her make 100 pounds of potato salad for my great uncles meat market. We would take it there and by Sat. afternoon it was sold out. The meat market had wooden creaky floors and a pickle barrel and peanut butter barrel. I loved that place. Grandma taught me canning, embroidery and tried to teach me tatting - Oh, how I wish I would have paid better attention and learned tatting. She treated me like an adult and I loved her for it. She told me I was her favorite. lol. She even taught me basic sign language as an older adult couple in the family were deaf. I would take her shopping when she was older or our favorite - out for pie and coffee. We were pen pals after I moved to NV and I still have a big shoe box of her letters. Even when she had dementia the last 6 years of her life (and lived with my mom) she would remember my name and me and my boys every time I saw her. It used to drive my one brother crazy because she never remembered her. Boy do I miss her.
ReplyDeleteYour grandmother sounds like she was a wonderful lady. What great memories you have. Thank you for sharing with us. I love your story. XX
DeleteAt age 67 I notice daily the similarities from the women in my life that molded me into who I am today. My mom, Aunts and Grandmothers are all gone now but their memories and idiocrasies live on through me.
ReplyDeleteI was not close with my paternal grandmother at all. What I remember of her was when she lived in a tiny, tiny house in my aunt's yard. I knew my maternal grandmother better. But, the frugal things are all stories my mother told me when she was teaching me to be frugal and how they made do during the Great Depression.
ReplyDelete