I did however get the blue dish below. In my home with my own kids and husband, we decided to keep our butter in this dish because when it was hot out (and it gets very hot in KY) and butter melted, it didn't melt all over the counters. When we moved to sunny Cal and left most of our possessions behind, our blue butter dish was one of the items that didn't make, I think because my kids wanted to keep it. So having one again bring a little bit if happiness to me.
Of course seeing the dish and all has sparked some other memories of my Grandma Millie who like my Mom had the same set of dishes in the same colors.
I came home on my Grandma's 60th birthday from the hospital and until my adult life, birthdays were shared with Grandma. There were times that I really resented having to share MY DAY, but in retro speck what I wouldn't give to share another one with her. She was my world for many years, after my Grandpa died, and I was told I wasn't going back to preschool, yes some might say that was the start of my way-ward ways, I would go to work with my Dad. His office (the family business) was at my Grandma's house and was there until about 3 years ago when he sold her house and moved the office into my parents house. I would go on Monday's stay until Friday and them come back on Saturday while Daddy check the mail and of course on Sundays for Sunday dinner, where I'd beg to stay and promise I'd come home on Monday. I was only 4 when my Grandpa died so not sure how much company I really was, but I loved my Grandma so I'm sure I had lots of hugs to give and kept up my end of a lively conversation. My early days were filled with walked around the block in a little red wagon, oatmeal for breakfast, hot chocolate and cookies before bed. But most of all, being one of 5 kids, at my grandma I was an only child who got ALL of the attention :) I continued to spend weekends at my Grandma's house though high school, not every weekend, but at leasts one a month.
Over the years my Grandma taught me how to sew on snaps, buttons, hooks and eyes. She also thought every young girl should know how to do a proper hem in a skirt. She also gave me potholders and such to embroider as I got older. My Grandmother worked for her sister my Aunt Tess, when she came to the big city as a young woman as a dress maker for my Aunt's shop. I really wish I would have made her teach me to sew on her machine, which I now have. I've always been pretty good, but never great. I wish that I had been old enough to have my Aunt teach me what she knew, she was a great seamstress. I look back on all those years and I'm so glad I got to spend the time with my Grandma, she is a part of who I am, she inspired me to be creative and I like to think I got her eye for color.
So when I look at my new - slightly used blue dish, I don't see a blue dish I see a simpler time of my life, a time when the biggest worries were did Grandma have Ginger Snaps or cinnamon stars in the cookie jar and would Daddy let me stay another night...not that I ever felt I was missed with 4 other siblings at home. Not the oldest, not the smartest, not the only boy and not the baby, but I was my Grandma's little girl...what I wouldn't give to share one more birthday with my Grandma - in a few years I'll be as old as she was when i came home. My Grandma has been gone for 20 years last May and a day doesn't go by that she isn't with me, in my heart, in my thoughts, in my tears.
Don't get me wrong I love my Mom, I cherish my time with her - she is a great Mom, but sometimes there is a special bond between a granddaughter and her grandmother. I want that relationship with my granddaughter and I hope one day she will look at something like my dish and think about me when I'm long gone.
Cherish your grandmother, cherish your Mom, cherish you siblings no matter what a pain they can be at times. I'm so blessed to still have my parents and all of my siblings.......Sandy
No comments:
Post a Comment