The other day I was driving Jack home from school and we saw a bunch of birds flying off of a telephone line. All of the sudden it sparked a memory from when I was little. My Grandmother told me if I could throw salt on a bird it would freeze... I spent many summer days chasing birds with her salt shaker and never got one to freeze... Oh but how much fun that was!
Of course I told Jack the same thing and his simple reply was "mommy... that's impossible!" It made me laugh because the memories of those days when ANYTHING was possible as long as your imagination was free were so wonderful. And I am so grateful to those who contributed to my many adventures and dreams that were fed to my imagination as a child. Part of me wished Jack had said "mommy that is very possible." But he is a serious little boy and I am sure his little imagination is just a big as mine was.
For Valentine's day this year I wanted to document all of the memories I have from playing and visiting with my Grandparents and actually say "Thank You" because memories aren't something you can lay down or misplace; have stolen or broken. They cannot be thrown out with the trash or even buried at sea. Memories may fade and come back but they will always be with you, for your imagination may be big, unrealistic and wild but it eventually forms memories and those are very true and real . It tucks them safely away in your heart only to be sparked by little things, such as birds flying from a telephone line...
To My Beautiful Grandmother:
I Love You For:
1. Making the perfect oatmeal.
2. Donating ingredients from your kitchen that were called for in our gazebo cooking experiments.
3. Actually baking our gazebo cooking experiments.
4. That extra “pat” of butter.
5. Your flawless method for tucking us in at night.
6. Teaching how to make the perfect pallet with the right amount of blankets.
7. Using your yard stick to show us how far we could sit from the TV so we don’t “ruin our eyes.”
8. Teaching how to sew by making little bean bags.
9. Using tiny little bottles and hot water to remove a splinter.
10. Showing us that peroxide actually doesn’t hurt on a scrapped knee.
11. Taking us to Kmart after eating out and buying stuff we “had to have.” (a carbon copy receipt book for example. I can’t tell you the last time I ever had to write a receipt for someone because that situation has never occurred. Thanks to you I am ready if it does.)
12. Putting perms in our hair and propping your back door open so the smell wouldn’t do us in.
13. Associating the word “warmth” with a smell. When I think of how your house has always smelt the only word I can think of is “warm.” And that makes me smile.
14. Keeping memories with your camera. Even when the subject didn’t want a picture taken, you never gave up trying to capture the moment.
15. Creating each of us our very own photo album.
16. Giving us baths. I haven’t been that clean since. And I can still smell your soap lathered in that white warm wash cloth.
17.Cleaning the bottoms of our feet before we left “just in case.”
18. Allowing our dogs to visit and not seeming to mind as they tramped through your clean house.
19. Convincing me if I could get close enough to a bird to throw salt on him, he would freeze.
20. Allowing me to wander around your backyard chasing birds with your good salt shaker.
21. Opening the apartment when it was empty, for us to play “house” in.
22. All of the hard work you and Granddaddy did on my first house. Or any of our families’ homes for that matter.
23. Maintaining the perfect length fingernails for back scratching.
24. Letting me watch “The Young and the Restless” with you. I actually always enjoyed your “stories.”
25. Having Nickelodeon on for us when we came early in the mornings.
26. Letting us experience what a real picnic is like and making that a memory I want my children to have as well.
27. Letting us pick your beautiful buttercups.
28. Looking the other way when we fed the cows the good apples when we ran out of rotten apples to feed them.
29. Showing us how a real garden works by keeping us involved in the whole process. From planting the seed, tending the garden, shelling the beans and even canning.
30. Giving my memory of growing up at your home a sound. It is the sound of your pressure cooker; it will always remind me of your home and my childhood.
31. Exposing us to liniment. The cure for anything that ales ya!
32. Having the perfect cure for every possible ailment.
33. Letting us use your little trampoline and record player to “Mousercise” with the Micky Mouse exercise record.
34.Giving us a place to come and be nurtured when we got sick and had to leave school.
35. Designating one special drawer in your kitchen just for us. (And our children.)
36. Allowing us to jump from the barn loft into hay. Then helping us get cleaned off when we were unusually itchy afterwards.
37.Teaching me about ferns and birds; always keeping humming bird food available for the humming birds. This brought them close so we could see them just about any time.
38. Being such a wonderful cook, your food always tastes the same.
39. Always supporting us in school and sports events.
40. Giving me the opportunity to tell people I have officially seen “Hee-Haw” and “Yes! in fact I do know the Oakridge Boys… and now that you mention it I feel the need to tap my feet while also tapping my hand on my knee in unison.”
41. Letting me lay in your lap while I thought I was about to die of appendicitis when it dawned on you to treat it with Tylenol and then you rubbed my head until my appendicitis very first experience with cramps faded away.
42. For everything I may have forgotten.
43. For loving unconditionally, never letting me feel judged, being a soft place to fall and for letting me call you my “Grandmother.”
