“I always give my grandkids a couple of quarters when they go home. It’s a bargain.”
The morning is cool. The sun comes and goes. No rain is predicted until tomorrow so the sun may be back to stay later. The usual morning quiet has been interrupted by the guy next door putting in a new slider. The house is a summer rental, and they seldom do any work on it so the old slider must have been in really bad shape. I just know my quiet has disappeared.
My grandparents, my father’s parents, lived in the same town as we did. We didn’t visit them as often as we did my city grandparents, but I remember staying over their house a couple of times. It seemed huge to me. I remember it well.
To get to the house from the sidewalk, you had to walk up a flight of stairs then a second fight at the house. The driveway was below the house. Rocks lined the tall side walls of the driveway which curved a bit just before the garage doors. It was not an easy driveway to maneuver. The kitchen was my favorite room. The cabinets were wooden and reached to the ceiling. A small closet might have held all sorts of stuff, but I only remember the bottles of root beer stored on the floor. There was a built in ironing board, a built in table with some chairs and a bench and a deep sink below the only window. The dining room was right off the kitchen and had a wall of windows. The dining room set matched: the chairs, the table, and the dish cabinet, that’s what I called it anyway. There was a piano in the living room but nobody knew how to play it. There was also a fireplace in the living room but it was never lit. Off the living room was a small sunroom with my grandfather’s desk, his pipe cabinet, a small table and two chairs. Upstairs were three bedrooms and the bath. My grandparent’s bedroom had stairs in the closet which led to the attic. My aunt’s former bedroom had matching wooden furniture in dark wood. I remember the bureau had a mirror. The third bedroom was small and had a door to a balcony too small to be used. On the garage level was the laundry room and another huge room lined with bench topped bookcases. I remember the garage was perfectly neat. Tools were hung and a work table was clean and clear.
The yard seemed huge even though the neighboring houses were close. The house next door had a big garden and rabbit hutches at the top of a hill. I don’t remember any rabbits. There was also a huge shade tree between the houses.
I sometimes drive down the street where the house is just because of the memories. The house sits on what would be an isthmus if it were surrounded by water. The isthmus is too narrow for the two sets of houses, one on each side of two roads, especially since there are now fences separating the yards. The house looks exactly the same.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: attic, balcony, bank of windows, cloudy and sunny, cool day, dining room, fireplace, grabdparent's house, matching furniture, noisy, piano, rock driveway, sunroom
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 14, 2015 at 10:20 am
I’ve learned a new word today, isthmus. Never heard of it before but then again I rarely have the chance to use it either 🙂
I too can remember my grandparents home, on my mother’s side that is. My other grandmother lived far away andvwe rarely met. I guess I remember it so well because it was an important place for me and I went there as often as I could all year round. I also remember the candy that no one ever liked but never was replaced, I wonder how old it must have been the day they finally threw it away 🙂 🙂
Very windy here today but lots of sunshine and fairly warm. No rain predicted until Tuesday but when it comes it will stay for a few days and it will be even colder too again.
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 14, 2015 at 9:19 pm
Christer,
Where you are living, you’ll probably have no chance to talk about an isthmus.
Even though these grandparents were close, I saw my other grandparents more. They had 8 children and the older ones with their kids would be there on Sundays.
Today ended up cooler than it has been. Tonight is even almost cold.
Hope your tomorrow is a good day!
June 14, 2015 at 1:55 pm
I remember both my grand parents houses in Brooklyn. My maternal grand mother’s house was attached to another row house on one side and an apartment building on the other. You walked down a couple of steps to get to the living room, kitchen and a bathroom. Obviously, this was a finished apartment at one time because there was a large concrete stoop that led to the second floor that had two large rooms and two small ones. My grand parents raised eight kids dormitory style for the boys and the two younger girls got the small bedrooms. There was another one room apartment on the third floor that my grand parents rented out to a widow lady. The back yard was large to me and my grandfather had a green thumb and grew beautiful roses and trees. During the depression he grew vegetables in the back yard.
June 14, 2015 at 9:26 pm
Bob,
You have such a wonderful memory of your grandparent’s house. Everything is so visual I can see it in my mind’s eye. I find it amazing that a boy from Brooklyn ended up in Texas of all places.
Our memory drawers are such wonderful places for saving our childhoods!
June 14, 2015 at 10:49 pm
My dad was a salesman and sold cutlery to retail stores in the NY metropolitan area. His firm wanted him to take over the territory that included Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri and Kansas. The previous salesman traveled the territory from NY staying on the road for six weeks at a time. My father didn’t want to be away that long and suggested to my mother that we move to Texas. She refused to move that far away from her mother and family. My father resigned and that night my mother had an attack of bursitis in her shoulder. The doctor came to the house and told my parents that the only long term cure would be to move to a warm dry climate like Texas or Arizona. The next day my father got his job back and we moved to Dallas in the Spring of 1953.
June 14, 2015 at 11:26 pm
Bob,
The timing was serendipitous for both your mother and father. He was able to get his job back and she could feel better with the change of climate. Texas did seem like a long way from Brooklyn, but I understand the move.
June 14, 2015 at 5:49 pm
June 14, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Gnu,
That was extraordinary. Now I know exactly how seeds spread. I have many plants which started in one place and are now all over. I can see their seeds must have had an explosion.
June 14, 2015 at 6:56 pm
Hi Kat,
I remember my mother’s parents’ house. My grandfather built it himself when he was newly married. My grandparents’ house was a tiny bungalow on a corner lot across the street from the town reservoir. I remember the front porch which had a player piano on it. I remember the kitchen a bit. It’s where I had to sit every 6 months while my aunt gave me a Toni Home Perm whether I needed it or not because straight hair was evil. 🙂 I remember the back yard and the kitchen stoop. My brothers and I would play in the back yard and sit on the stoop to eat cookies that my Nana baked. Sometimes she gave us M&M’s which always melted in our hot little kid hands. The back yard also had a grape arbor and lots of flowers and vegetables.
My grandparents moved to California when I was 8 or 9 and my grandmother died when I was 11. Of the three of us kids, I am the only one who remembers our Nana or their house here.
Today was lovely and cool. I think I napped through a fair portion of it and so did the dogs. We must have needed it.
I hope the noise abated so you could have some quiet again.
Enjoy the day.
June 14, 2015 at 9:42 pm
Hi Caryn,
You have such an amazing memory of your Nana, her house and your visits. I laughed at the Toni Home perms. I didn’t have one, but I had friends who did. They always looked a bit too curly.
Who could ever forget the giver of M&M’s? I also remember melting and red hands with chocolate. They do melt in your hand no matter what they say!
It is cool even now-great night for sleeping.
Enjoy your Monday!
June 14, 2015 at 10:17 pm
June 14, 2015 at 10:27 pm
Gnu,
This gave me a chuckle. It is exactly the way I think of sales.