Thursday, April 7, 2011

Mama Moland's House

Our grandmother's house is for sale... I hear it's "falling apart." Soooo, I'm hoping that if it's torn down I can at least get some wood from it to make a book shelf for my craft area... For now, let me share some random memories from a scrapbook layout I did a few years back [but keep in mind that these are *my* memories and I'm one of the youngest of 50+ grandchildren, I'm sure others will have different things that come to mind]...memories... taking off the window screen and playing 'store' on the back porch... helping feed clothing through the wringer washing machine... gathering eggs in the hen house... the musky smell of the smoke house - used for storing coal... cousins, always, everywhere... cutting down tiny little cedar trees for Christmas and stringing popcorn to hang on them... making cucumber dolls with her buttons when the cukes had grown too big... catching crawdads in the branch... the smell of coal heat in the winter, and later having the gas heater... learning to sew on her pedal sewing machine... sitting on the porch and swatting fly-after-fly... smelling the pig farm not far away... going to the outhouse and being thrilled when she got an inside bathroom... playing in the cemetery across the street and getting into stinging nettle and later rubbing witch hazel on it for relief... catching fireflies in glass jars and tucking them under our bed in the 'back bedroom' at night... going to the cellar during a storm... telling ghost stories by the light of a kerosene lamp... having 'the uncles' tie strings to june bugs to entertain us... seeing Ms Bessie walking up the street with a big stick and hoping she wouldn't turn our way... smelling sweet avon fragrances... avoiding the neighbor's scrawny dogs... going over the creaky wooden bridge to get to the house... eating popcorn and watching Dark Shadows...walking to the store on country roads, running through the pasture and hoping the bull wouldn't chase us... seeing newborn twin calves...teacakes ad biscuits with eagle brand syrup... hollyhocks and zinnias...the big cedar tree... feeling safe and secure... these are a few of my favorite things - and I still have good comforting dreams of her home today.

5 comments:

Shirley Ross, rockin' heARTist said...

beautiful memories!

Viji Siddharth said...

You are so lucky to have Su h beautiful memories... I never got to spend any time with my grandpRents on both sides....they expired when I was too young or before I was born....

craftymom205 said...

Thanks for sharing your memories. Some of the things reminded me of my grandmothers and how much I enjoyed going to their houses.

craftymom205 at yahoo dot com

Hollyk said...

Love the memories, some remind me of the time I spent with my grandparents. What wonderful times. :)

Marianne B in AZ said...

Wow! That is a lot of cousins! Sounds like a lot of fun. Growing up I never had any cousins until I was about 10-12 years old and they lived a couple thousand miles away. I do have great memories of my paternal grandmother and grandfather's house, which was on a cattle ranch.I spent a lot of time there as a child. The list you made is such a great idea. After I read this the first time, I started making one in my head one day when I was driving. Thinking of all of the little things really made me feel good.