Happy 4th of July!

 

Happy

4th of

July!

My grandmother, whom I dearly loved, was born July 4, 1899.  

She was a pistol, and I wish I had more pictures of her.  It seemed our family seldom took pictures.  I guess that is why I try to take lots of pictures for any occasion.

Vausie, my grandmother, was a seamstress and made clothing for many of the women in town.  I had a new dress several times a week, and when I walked home from grade school for lunch, my mom (grandmother) always changed my dress and brushed my hair.  She did the same for my mother when she was in grade school too.

She was a tiny woman, barely 5" tall.  She wore a pill box hat with a veil and white gloves when she went out, as did her friends.  When she was home, and had spare time, she smoked Pall Mall cigarettes, drank Cokes in the small glass bottles, watched westerns on TV, read western novels, gardened, and spent time with her friends. She measured her words carefully until someone made her mad.  Then, she was quick to let that person know exactly how matters stood.  That happened a lot to my father.  Now I laugh about it, but I doubt he ever did!

She also had a wide front porch that had a solid front.  She and her friends would sit on the gliders and talk. It seemed for hours, and the kids in the neighborhood always knew all the of the news/gossip. (It always aggravated our parents when we knew more 'news' than they did!)

It was a great porch to play tricks on other kids and the newspaper boy.  We used to lay in wait for him to deliver the evening paper -who has that now?- so we could shoot him with our water pistols.

I stayed with my grandmother most of the time, as my mother and father both worked at least 2 jobs each.

Life as a child was spent with my beloved Mom.

The stories I could tell of me and the other children in the neighborhood who also spent lots of time with  their grandmothers!

I'll save those for another time.

Hope your Fourth is filled with good friends, good food, and lots of fireworks!