My Life Monday!

Rachelle has started a new weekly topic. It is called My Life Monday. This is way cool. For this week, the question is my most memorable childhood experience. This was tough. I have a lot. My childhood was not always ideal. I can't say that there weren't good times, but the bad times far outweighed the good. I have a wonderful father and a mother who is also wonderful when she is not sick. It has been a struggle with her and her inabilities to cope with life. There was a lot of abuse that I will not get into but as I was thinking about this question, one person kept popping into my mind and that was my maternal grandmother. I have wonderful memories of times with my parents when things were well, but the best memories that I have stem from my time with my grandmother.

I know we were supposed to focus on one event or time, but I have a vast amount of memories of her that make up some of the best times in my life. She was not a perfect woman, as none of us are, but she was a wonderful grandmother. In October 1990, she passed away and I still think about her. Sometimes, I still wish I could just call and talk to her on the phone. I get glimpses of her in my children and I remember all of the things that she was about. Here are few things that I remember about my grandmother. She really did help make my childhood a little more bearable and at the time, I probably didn't appreciate that fact as much as I do now.

1. Hugs and kisses.
2. Homemade birthday cakes.
3. Summer and spring breaks going to Ocean Shores or occasionally Lincoln City or Cannon Beach with her friends and their grandchildren.
4. Violets in her backyard that she brought from the farm that she grew up on in Yelm, Washington.
5. Blueberry picking.
6. Bowling and swimming at the Elks Lodge.
7. Wonderful homemade stylin suits that she made on her old Singer sewing machine. They were stylin at the time anyway. She was a very good seamstress. I still have that sewing machine and while I no longer use it, I could never part with it.
8. A round blue cookie jar filled with cookies.
9. Staying at her house and being woken up by her and she would always walk in and say, "Wake up merry sunshine." When it was both my sister and I, it was "Wake up merry sunshines." Now, I love that memory. I didn't love it so much when I was a teenager.
10. Sitting and talking in her backyard, which was gorgeous and just enjoying the company of family.
11. Blackberry picking.
12. Homemade applesauce and jam.
13. Fighting over watching Lawrence Welk or The Wonderful World of Disney on the Sundays that we were at her house. Maybe not so much fighting as debating.
14. Wonderful home grown tomatoes and a fried steak.
15. The smell of her Estee Lauder powder. The day after she died I was at the store and a woman behind me had this on. I half expected to turn around and see my grandmother standing there.
16. Playing for hours in her basement on a rainy day.
17. Long walks along the water or around her neighborhood.
18. I loved that she always took my sister and I out with her "friends."
19.Trips to Never Never Land. Yes, really Never Never Land. This was a cool park.
20. Her laughter.
21. Trips to Knapp's Restaurant for an awesome hamburger and good conversation.
22. Going to the Puyallup Fair with her.
23. Christmas at her house with all the trimmings and her tiny little tree. One year, she decided to buy a fake tree and thought that it was going to be the size of a regular tree and it ended up being like two feet tall. She thought it was cute and kept it. So, she had this dinky little fake tree for years that was almost buried by presents.
24. Train trips to Portland, Oregon to see family and for the fun of riding a train. My grandpa work for the Great Northern Railroad for years.
25. I loved how she told me about her life and the things that she did and how she grew up on a farm and about her life with her brothers and sisters.
26. She always seemed to have time for me.
27. Candy stashes at her house that she never cared about me or my sister getting into. Yes, Grandmas are sweet and about the treats sometimes.
28. White pillowcases or doilies that she embroidered with flowers. I loved watching her do that. I still have some of those.
29. I loved hearing about her trips with my grandpa around the world. They went to Mexico, Africa, Europe, Hawaii, etc.

There are so many things that I could say about my grandmother. This small list seems an inadequate tribute to the person that I knew. I know it would give her the biggest thrill to hear me say that she was/is my most memorable childhood experience. She always took time for me and talked with me and gave me some of the best experiences that I had as a child. There is so much that I would love to say to her now. I wish I had spent more time with her when I was older but when we are young adults, we really don't realize how life is and that people really do die and leave, but I know I will see her again someday and we will create new memories together. Hey, can you dig the stylin clothes that we wore!