Sunday, October 14, 2007

Remembering Gramaxine...

Last night as I was about to lay down to sleep I heard a police siren for just a few seconds in the background and it brought back a flood of memories for me.

Growing up in the farmlands of Southern Alberta with only the sound of the cows, sheep, birds, horses and other odd animals to lull me to sleep or wake me up, I always craved and thought it very exciting to go to my Grandparents house in Raymond and sleep over there where I could hear other noises such as police sirens for a few seconds or cars driving by or even seeing the shadows cast upon the walls from the headlights of a car driving by. It was a cool whole new world and it filled me with a sense of excitement.

(Me, Grandma and Baby Candace)

My Grandma Maxine and Grandpa Lenard were the coolest. They would have us 4 kids over on a regular basis, and not all at once either! I said they were cool, not stupid! Sometimes I would go by myself. Sometimes I would go with my sis. Other times it would be my older brother and I. It just depended on what kind of mood everybody was in. Whether it was my brother or my sis, we used to go on these "Great Adventures" We would hop on bikes with banana seats and those handle bars that go up..you know the ones? Then we would ride all over Raymond exploring new places and enjoy our freedom without the accompanyment of any adults. Then when we got back we could have pretty much anything we wanted. Ice cream, hard tack candies, nigger babies, homemade pies and sometimes homemade rootbeer if it was the right time of year. Whatever she had was there for us. I especially liked her selection of ice cream. She rarely ever had plain old vanilla and chocolate like my mom did. It was always strawberry ripple, butterscotch ripple, chocolate ripple, neopolitan, tiger, strawberry...yah, the selection was great. We could watch t.v. as much or as little as we liked, which was definetly a treat for us because at our house watching t.v. was definetly a special treat. This was where I got to watch The Price is Right probably for the first time. There was usually something fun to do at Grandma's. Take Fraggle Rock for instance...They had a real life fraggle rock below their house. It was so cool. I'm sure if I were to take a look at it now I wouldn't think it was anything exciting, but to a child, it was fantastic! Tunnels with dirt walls and floor...We weren't allowed down there too much though cuz gramps was always afraid something might happen to us down in fraggle rock without him! He just wanted to putter around in the shed outside and pretend like he was fixing the world! ha ha
Grandma with Candace and Baby Blaze in the hospital after she was too fragile to be on her own.

Waking up to the smell of coffee was such a comfort those days. To this day, I love the smell of coffee and I think that's why! Gramaxine would make us anything we wanted for brekky. Toast, eggs, hot chocolate, cold cereal. Then she'd put her trust in us to go get the mail from the post office and often give us money for a treat at the Raymond Pharmacy (usually gum as my mum wouldn't let us chew gum! We were so sneaky!) and then later on maybe we'd go to the Merc and do some shopping with her. In the winter time it was always fun to race to the heaters and almost get burned by the hot air coming out of them...Only at Gramaxine's and Grampa Lenard's house...

Us with my Dad in the hospital. This would have been shortly before she died.

It was so cool how just that few seconds of police siren brought back a flood of memories for me and for the first time in the 9 years since she died, I cried cuz I missed her and I had this huge aching desire to be a child again and be in her house and feel of her love for me. She always made me feel special and would give me almost anything I wanted which was quite uncommon for me as it seemed my own mother used to say 'No' more often than not! Anyways, I hope I didn't bore you all to tears with my memories. I really did this for my family because I know when they read it they will remember too and memories of our loved ones is such a precious gift. There are so many more memories but...

Grandma with Baby Candace

6 comments:

Jeni said...

I love that first pic of you rach!! haha and YOU ARE TAGGED! It is just hard when I am limited to 5 people!!

Lydster said...

that was real nice. I'm glad you put those pics of her on here.

Anonymous said...

I think about all the same memories of Grandma and Grandpa that you do, sis. I think about them quite often and end up in tears many times myself. I make sure to visit their gravesites whenever I go down south. They certainly have been, and continue to be, a significant influence in my life. Thanks for the memories you posted. They mean more than I can say.

saltysista said...

ok that is totally weird about your dream! Hope he was a good dancer! haha Yeah that would be a better name for them!! :)

Heinzlmeir Haven said...

I love those pics. You don't look any different...still gorgeous! And the babies look so precious...you should print off these entries for your journal...great memories!

Anonymous said...

I have so many memmories just from thnking about all of the nestalgia candy. It brings tears to my eyes but also puts a smile on my face. It was like yesterday and now I am a grandma three times over at 53!. My sister and I have talked so many times about going to the dime store with a quarter. We would both come out with so much loot! I remember getting tons of penny candies(3 for a penny), gum balls, toys, and of course, nigger babies. They were delicious! I would get a box for only 5 cents. We could also go trick or treating in town and shop owners would give you lots of stuff. Back then things were different and names of candy were not offensive, at least to a kid. If my parents or grandma would buy us candy it was because we liked it, not due to name. I just wish our children of today could have a taste of the innocense that went along with all of this. As a kid, I never gave a second thought to the name of candy bar, etc. I never knew what being pregidice was. I never realized any connection to any race. It was something as a kid I wasn't exposed to. I think kids now are still like this,but grow up too quickly due to progressand perhaps parents should be more selective when speaking in front of them. My Mom always said "little pictures have big ears" and I knew that meant to not ease drop.I just wish my children and grand children could have the experience of the early 1960's and the innocense it had. Thanks for the memory!