What would I give...

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This afternoon our youngest granddaughter is staying with us. She is just a few weeks past TWO. When I walked into the kitchen, she told me she was having a snack with grandma. That got me to thinking when was the last time I had a snack with grandma?

With Dad's mom? It would be a few years before she when home in 1967. She was born in 1898. She was mostly old and frail by the time I remember her.

With Mom's mom? That would be when she and "Grandpa" came to visit our kids around 1990. She was pretty out of it, but enjoyed having the great grandkids talk to her. We had a snack of Black Coffee and cookies. She was born in NOLA in 1914 and died in 1993.

But as I watch Anne run all over the first floor telling me her snack is All Gone! I would give just about anything to have a snack with Grandma again!

Ivan
 
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I only had one grandparent,a grandmother that I met 4 times for a few weeks at a stretch. She was tiny and had a fearsome reputation. She lived through both world wars,was widowed after nine years of marriage at the beginning of WWII,raised three kids through the war and got all three through college.

I never saw that fierceness,she was sweet to me. She died at 92,a year after falling off of a ladder!

She was a tough little Scot
1932
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1970 visiting us in the US
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This afternoon our youngest granddaughter is staying with us. She is just a few weeks past TWO. When I walked into the kitchen, she told me she was having a snack with grandma. That got me to thinking when was the last time I had a snack with grandma?

Ivan

Ivan, I'm a little older than you and the generations of my dad's family were somewhat compressed, so I knew all all of my grandparents and one set of great grandparents.

My dad's mom made it to 90 and I got to spend a lot of time at her house when I was growing up. Eventually not only did I get to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with her, but she got to eat some of my cooking after I grew up.

Thanks for bringing this to mind.
 
I do not recall meeting the grandparents on my dad's side though I am told I did when very young.
I never met my mother's father. He passed before I was born but Grandma was alive and well and quite a character. She moved from South Dakota to Idaho to live with us after things got to be too much for her.
My girls still remember going to visit my mom and dad out in the country. Mom loved visits and especially grand kids. Every visit they would get to help grandma make home made cinnamon rolls and piggies which were just the left over dough from the cinnamon rolls. They would deep fat fry triangular pieces then they would dip them in dark Karo syrup and powdered sugar.
Have to wonder how many time the folks would laugh after sending us off with kids about to crash from a sugar high.
 
Another great reason why we need to talk to and be with family members when we can ...........
since we never know when the end is near.

When you get close to 65 years of age, things start to happen.
At 75 years of age you notice that friends and HS friends are "Disapearing".

Time to get things done, go on trips if you can and enjoy life.............
you Ain't getting any younger.
 
My Mom's Mom used to have teacakes (as she called them) made fresh when we visited them at the farm in Arkansas...Grandmama served them up with iced tea made with well water that I drew up from the well in back of the house hand dug by Poppy before I was born...What would I give for a glass of water from that well again?...Whatever the cost it would be priceless to me...

I missed my chance at the memory of a snack with Dad's Mom, and so did he...She died in the worldwide Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 when Dad was 2 years old...:(...Ben
 
One set of our grandparents were everything a kid would want in grandparents. I sure do miss them.

My father's father died when he was 12 so I never met him. But the grandma on his side was a lying, conniving wretch. Us grandkids went to her funeral for two reasons. To support our dad and make sure she stayed in the ground. Every time I see a buzzard circling the highway I wave to grandma.
 
My mom's parents were my only grandparents. I was the first born of an only child. Two brothers came along in a few years. My Grandpa was 55 when I was born. He was retired from the government on disability and had LOTS of time for a pre-school and out of diapers grandson. We lived in Washington D.C. ..... Grandpa and I were constantly together. He had five brothers and we visited with them often. Our most frequent destinations were the National Zoo and the various Smithsonian museums. I grew up spending most of my weekends with "granny and grandpa". I had grandpa till I was 15 and granny until I was 40. My "granny" was also "granny" to all my friends ...."Granny" was a LEGEND! My first "snack" memory is grandpa fixing me a peanut butter on a Ritz cracker. I was sitting on the high kitchen stool as he handed it to me and said "Here...try this". I did and I remember thinking .."Wow, this is GREAT...why haven't I had THIS before"? Granny and grandpa moved out to the Maryland suburbs in1952. Their house was only a short walk to the new movie theater (Langley Park). Saturday afternoon matinees of WHATEVER was playing were my normal weekend. After grandpa passed, granny continued to live at that house until she was 80. Oh yes indeed, how I would love to sit at the kitchen table again with my granny and have a snack. My two younger brothers and I all agree on this ... We were raised in a Norman Rockwell painting...... the luckiest of the lucky !
 
I had 1.5 sets of grandparents until after HS. My mom's folks were kind people, and I liked spending time around them. Plenty of snacks there-the last one would have been close to 35 years ago, I guess.

My dad's dad died when I was less than a year old. My GM had suffered a car wreck in the '60's and was a little off kilter mentally for the rest of her life. She didn't get along with my mom, was addicted to mail order contests, and her favorite snack was a pimento cheese sandwich and some Sanka.

I say all that to say something that may sound terrible at first, but hear me out-i don't miss my grandparents.

I was happy around my mom's folks, and never dwelled much on their passing. I don't miss them because I am able to think happy thoughts about them every day if I want.

I don't miss my dad's folks because they weren't really real to me. I wish I had known them the way my dad did, but I never got that chance.

Sorry for the novel…
 

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