125 Comments »

1. Diane said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 8:49 am

   Sheri……how sad that they are tearing down your grandparents house, but how sweet of the new owner to be so very considerate of your special memories…..

   My maternal grandparents came to this country by boat from Poland many years ago….My grandmother loved to sew…she would make us Feather Pillows and when I slept over at her house I would get to use her Big, Fluffy and soooo comfy Down Comforter that she made by hand…..I miss my pillows, that I actually took with me when I got married, but after 27yrs they have gone into retirment….I still can’t find one that is the same….those $100 down one’s don’t light a candle to my grandmothers….

   Treasure your memories…and how awesome about the doors…can’t wait till WH gets them in for you and we see picks!

   Diane

2. Colleen said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 8:54 am

   Hi Sheri,

   My grandparents’ mantle clock comforts me with its constant tick-tock (as the “chimes” are sort of wonky). Both the pendulum and the spring for the chime need winding with an antique key every few days. It always seems to stop in the middle of the night or when no one is home, so after winding, the time needs to be reset.

   To reset the time, you have to manually move the hands of the clock, pausing for it to chime the half hour and the hour. This has been done now for 3 generations. I have learned how to move the hands without touching the face of the clock as the numbers from 9 to 11 have almost disappeared from people skimming the face of the clock as they reset the time.

   The best part of having the clock is the comforting background tick-tock that is the same today as it was when I was a child and memories of my father with the clock entirely dismantled as he cleaned it.

3. Laurie Tucker said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 8:55 am

   Sheri,
   So glad you shared those wonderful memories and that you’ll have them in your own home in the form of the doors.
   I remember a special drawer in my aunt’s house that was filled with empty wooden spools- she was quite a seamstress and saved the spools as she used up the thread. As children, we would pull open that drawer and dump out the spools to build and play with.
   Laurie

4. meg said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 8:56 am

   Sheri, my hands and my knitting still smell wonderful from the Bee Bar. It really keeps on your hands a nice long time….I am delighted!
   I loved your post today. My favorite place was my grandparents farm. (now..my husband and I kick ourselves that we didn’t buy it..but when they sold it, we were newly married and didn’t have the $)

   Anyway….as a child, I loved walking in this big farmhouse and smelling the old woodstove. Huge Lilac bushes next to my grandmas peony and vegetable garden. My grandpa used to make ice skating rinks in the back yard. We all used to go tobogganing. Another fun thing..there was a huge old tree that was called the “Love tree” all my mom’s sisters and brothers had climbed this tree at some point in their youth and carved hearts with initials of their current love’s. I have wanted to go climb that tree and see what it looks like all these years later.

   The kitchen was a huge room with wooden beams on the ceiling and was always the spot for a lively game of spoons!

   This house and land represents my childhood memories and all the special times we shared as a family. As you can see..I could go and on, but I won’t:)

5. Heather said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 9:03 am

   Wow…you are absolutely NOT crazy to buy them without measuring first! I mean, heck, even if there’s no way they’d fit in your house, who’s to say that Knitting Daughter won’t grow up to build her own home, and want to use them there? Then YOUR grandchildren would turn those glass knobs, too. How very cool.

   I haven’t many treasures from my grandparents yet, as my parents are still quite young, and have most of them in *their* house. There are a couple, though, that are very dear to me. My maternal grandmother was a FABULOUS seamstress, a trait she certainly didn’t pass on to her daughter, and if it skipped a generation, then I don’t know it yet. She had a top-of-the-line Husqvarna sewing maching in it’s own desk that she used to make all kinds of classy clothing, and when she passed some years ago, it was handed on to me. I don’t pull it out too often, as I’m still just beginning to teach myself to sew (and I’m really not so hot yet), but the desk stands in my bedroom, and I think of her every time I look at it. The drawers are still full of all the threads, buttons, notions, bits & bobs she used, too, which tickles me no end.

   My paternal grandmother was an incredibly interesting woman, too. She lived just off campus of Purdue University, and she continued going there & getting degree after degree for most of her adult life. She’d gotten a PhD. just a few years before she passed, though I can’t remember for certain in what (she’d gotten so darn many degrees that they all began to run together for me!). Her birth mother had passed when she was very tiny, and that had a HUGE impact on her life (and her father’s). There is very little of her birth mother, treasure-wise, that I know of, so I was incredibly honored when she chose to give her mother’s emerald ring to me. Keep in mind, also, that Grandma had several daughters and quite a number of granddaughters, so this is quite a thing that she chose to pass it on to ME. It’s truly lovely, though…a rectangular emerald with diamonds all around it, in a beautifully simple setting that’s really reminiscent of the times when it was made. I wore it on my wedding day, even though it’s a bit big on my scrawny fingers. I’m deeply, deeply touched by this gift, and feel a real connection with my great-grandmother whenever I put it on.

   What an incredibly neat question, Sheri! I really look forward to seeing what everybody else has to say!

6. Isobel said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 9:35 am

   It’s wonderful that you bought the doors, everytime you turn the handles they will be with you, and you can pass them on to your son or daughter in the future. I love things from the past, they connect us to what has passed and will never come again. I was fortunatle growing up as my grandmother and great-grandmother lived next door to each other. When we visited we would pop in and out of each other’s houses all the time. As I grew up in Scotland I have very few momentoes from either of my grand parents but I do have a few. Once while visiting in my teens my great-grandmother (she was in her 90′s at the time) gave me her string of amber beads (they are huge and very heavy and I have to admit that I have never worn them), I am sure that not a week goes buy that I don’t pick them up and touch them and think of her. From my grandmother I have two diamond rings, I used to wear both of them everyday, but as the gold is getting rather thin I now only wear them when I am feeling sentimental or when I visit my dad, he always comments that “you’re wearing your grannies rings”. I wish I had more, a piece of furniture or a lamp but proximity did not make that possible. After writing this I am now feeling some what sentimental and I am going off to fondle Grannie Walker’s necklace.

7. Alyson said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 9:39 am

   What a wonderful story – it’s a shame about the house, but still, what a wonderful story. Our house, built in 1920, has those old doors and antique touches, and the glass doorknobs that remind me so much of the ones in my own grandparents’ house…sometimes when I’m opening the pantry, I sort of get lost in the doorknob. You know?

   I remember when my grandfather passed away, my mom took me into his workshop, the little room behind the garage with windows all around, the one that smelled like sawdust and lava soap – I used to stand in there and watch granddad work, and I was completely fascinated by all the tools and presses and drills and saws – and she told me to pick out one thing. I found a wrench, a small kinda rusty wrench that had the brand stamped on the handle but had been used so many times that the impression had rubbed almost smooth. I chose that because it looked like the one that had the most of my granddad in it.

   I love sentimental things – I’m getting married in four months and I’m wearing my great-aunt’s diamond ring as my engagement band. (My great-aunt and great-uncle were my mother’s godparents, and they were nearly as close to parents as her own parents were.) They were married over sixty years, and I selected the date of June 2 for the wedding because that’s the date that they married on – as did my mom and dad. I’ll cut the cake with the silver lily-of-the-valley carving knife that was my great-aunt’s favorite. All my most prized possessions are those small things – and it’s wonderful how much more special they become. I mean, when your grandparents first moved into that house, those were just doors. Doors he’d built, but doors….sixty years later, they’re priceless pieces of your life that mean so much more than in and out.

   Wow. Thanks for this post. It’s made my day.

8. Lisa said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 10:19 am

   I remember my grandmother’s house with the thick panel doors and glass handles and the skeleton key locks. She kept the keys in the doors and I remember visiting and turning the lock in the bathroom door. I was 4 or 5. I also remember my parents pleading to put the key back in the lock. They gave that up and then somehow got me to slide the key out to them.

   I also remember stairs lined with books. Stairs to the 2nd floor, stairs to the basement, stairs to the attic. Books, books and more books. I used to love stopping at every stair and looking at the books she left there.

   Thank you for sharing your memory!

9. Sue Johnson said,

   January 19, 2007 @ 10:22 am

   What a great story, Sheri. How well I remember so many things from my grandparents house. I stayed with them a great deal when I was young because my parents travelled a great deal for business, even in the 50′s and 60′s. This was a post WWII house with the fake brick siding and a huge flower garden in the back that they lovingly tended for 60+ years. But the main thing I remember is the porch, and more importantly, the porch swing. My grandmother and I would rock in that swing by the hour as she told me of her life growing up in New Glarus, WI. We would snuggle, and I would just listen to her talk about our family. She wanted to make sure that I knew who everyone was because no one else in the family really cared to listen to her. I did. I listened every time I got the chance. Then my grandfather would join us, with me sitting in the middle. He would tell me what it was like to work at the Parker Pen Co. which has long since been swallowed up by some conglomerate. And at night, we woudl turn on the special porch lamp-a tiffany style lamp that had been given to my great grandparents by my grandfather and his siblings for their 50th anniversary. That lamp now graces my bedroom armoir, and at night when I turn it on all the memories come flooding back. How lucky I am to have those memories.

10. Catherine said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:26 am

    My grandmother is English. When I was five she taught me to knit. Everytime I pick up needles I can see her kitchen. The bright sunlight coming in the huge window, I can feel the warmth of the aga and smell the baking apple crumble. Nanny is in a home now, but I will always remember her sitting in the kitchen patiently teaching me to knit. My time spent with her is one of my most treasured memories.

11. Stacey said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:29 am

    Wow, I have to pick one? Playing in my paternal grandparents orchard comes to mind. Just the thought of their house made me “smell” the vegetable soup my grandmother always had on when we came to visit. My grandfather’s “Two Guys” vest hanging on a coat hook. My grandfather smoking through dinner… at the table. My grandmother would alway buy pringles for me when I visited. And I knew it! We never had them at my house, but mom-mom did.

    ACK… getting all teary eyed.

12. Michele said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:30 am

    I love that you are so connected to your family. I feel bad sometime because my husband has very little family. His father has a whole new family and doesn’t keep in touch very much and he was adopted so all he has is his mother and his parents. I come from a very large family so I naturally wanted to connect with his as well. His grandma taught me how to Crochet and Knit and now that it is becoming an osession we have bonded nicely. I think he likes to see that I have something in common with his grandmother.

    As for my Grandma, I always remember her making tortillas, dozens and dozens of tortillas. I would watch her make the dough and roll them out, and she would give me a ball of dough to make my own then she would cook it for me. I always have loved homemade tortillas and now I love to cook as well.

    Thanks for helping me take a minute out of my busy day to remember the things that keep us going. Have a great day!

13. georgia said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:36 am

    it’s making me feel sick to think of that beautiful old house being torn down. people just don’t appreciate the old way of doing things anymore. our house was built in 1910 and there are so many wonderful things about it that we wouldn’t be enjoying if it were built in 2006. i love living in a place that has history. i’m so happy you are saving the doors!

    i was lucky enough to have wonderful grandparents and great grandparents as well. I have one great grandma’s silver, and my other great grandma’s china. i have stacks of quilts made by my quilting granny and doilies and table linnens that have been passed down for almost 100 years.

    my most treasured belongings though are my grandfather’s paintings. i remember playing in his studio with my cousins, him trying to teach me about painting, showing me how he mixed the paint to get different colors… it was so fun to grow up in that family, surrounded by art and free to be creative.

14. Wendy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:43 am

    I’m so glad you got the doors!

    My favorite memory of visiting Grandma — her beautiful, ancient, Wedgewood china with strawberries painted on it. The luncheon plates were square! I now have that set of china. I almost never use it, but it’s on the top shelves in my kitchen cupboards and I smile every time I see it.

    I also have the beautiful four-poster bed (with carved pinecones on the posts) that HER father made, and the claw-foot oak table he made as well. Both of those are lovely memories from childhood, as I remember them from my grandparents’ home.

15. Carol in Oregon said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:47 am

    My earliest memory of my Grandma’s house in Pittsburgh involves the kitchen, of course! Theirs was a large Italian family – eleven kids, and meals going all the time. I remember standing at my Grandma’s side a the kitchen table and watching her roll out and fill the ravioli. I could smell the sauces simmering on the stove – she always did both red sauce and chicken broth for the ravioli. The table had a small drawer on one of the shorter ends, probably for silverware. I only visited them once before I was a teenager, but this memory is very strong. In fact, when I go into an Italian restaurant, if the sauce is particularly fragrant, I see my grandmother’s hands again, rolling out the pasta.

16. Janice in GA said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:51 am

    My item from my grandmother’s house is still with me! My bed is an old iron frame bed, with curved pipes at the head and foot. It’s nothing fancy at all — just an old iron frame bed. But I’ve slept in this bed since I was too little to climb into it by myself. I can remember bouncing on the rails at the foot of the bed with I was no taller than they are — about 3 feet tall, I think. My father slept in this bed when he was a boy.

    When my grandmother died, the only thing I asked if I could have was the bed. For many years, I even slept on the mattress and springs that were older than I am. I did finally get those replaced about 20 years ago. But the old bed is still with me.

17. Peggy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:51 am

    My maternal grandparents lived a few blocks from our house. I spent a great deal of time there growing up. My grandfather was a gruff man but his was the only grandpa I had so we had to make the best of it. He would sit in his leather recliner, smoking his pipe, sitting by the heath of the handbuilt stone fireplace. I would sit at his feet and watch the smoke from the pipe as it wound it’w way up to the mantel. There was an Anniversary Clock there on the mantel. The kind that have three brass balls that turn in one direction and then rotate back. That clock is the only thing of my grandparent’s that I have. As it turns in my home, I can go back to my memories of grandpa in his chair and almost smell his pipe.

18. Jen said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:09 am

    I don’t know where you grew up but they are doing that all over the mid county area in st. louis. I get kind of sad when I see the landscape of my memories changing is all. I don’t blame you for buying the doors. I have some things I had my Grandpa give me off of his house. Of course his house is in no danger of being torn down I just wanted them to remember it by.

19. Alyssa said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:10 am

    My grandparents house was in La Jolla, California. Every summer I would visit out there and I miss it so much. Even though the front of the house faced the ocean, my favorite place was in the back, on the patio. My grandfather had owned a garden nursery and put so much care into their garden. The thing I remember the most is sitting out on the patio in the garden smelling all the different La Jolla smells (ocean, plants, flowers) while reading a book. Just thinking about it evokes so many emotions. After my grandfather died, my grandma sold the house and it was torn down. I almost prefer knowing that no one else ever shared that space. It was all my grandparents.

20. Beth said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:27 am

    One day at my grandparent’s I was lying crosswise on the feather bed where I slept and I noticed a water stain on the ceiling that looked like the profile of a young Native American to me. He had a long pigtail. After that every year I would always “visit” with my Indian. I have a small desk from my other grandparents. The front part folds down to make a writing area and there are lots of pigeon holes and little drawers. I always liked the desk when I was growing up.

    I think your idea of installing the doors in your home is so neat.
    We took down the new door to my bedroom and put in an old front door from England. I love Britain so this is really special for me. It has a stained glass window at the top and we cut it in half to make a Dutch door. There’s a mail slot and part of a bell. We still need to repaint it and put in a door knob and lock (which we found at an architectural salvage yard in England) so it’s not finished, but I will try to send a picture!

21. Alex said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:34 am

    It’s very sad to hear about your grandparents’ home being torn down, especially when you think of the huge monstrosities that are being built in the place of them =( But at least you have your memories.

    I’ve only ever met my paternal grandmother, and only once, when she had a 3-month visa. She gave me a simple silver necklace with a diamond set in it, which I never take off. It was rather pathetic on my part because she doesn’t speak any English, and I barely speak Cantonese. So I could understand what she was saying, but we couldn’t talk much.

22. Carol said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:40 am

    Sheri , what a great topic! It’s hard to read all the comments without getting misty eyed! I have a few things from my grand and great-grands. My great grandmother made many rag rugs which Mom got first. Since Mom couldn’t use them, she passed them to me and there is always one in my front hall! The hand made down pillows have finally worn out – after being used more years than anyone can remember! When my paternal grandmother (Granny) passed away, my aunts gave all her jewelry back to the kids who had given to Granny. My folks passed on a beautiful gold and pearl pin that I just love.

    Thanks for the trips down memory lane. My husband and I lived in a 1920 era house for 15 years or so, until a job transfer. We loved our old home filled with 15 different sized windows, handmade doors, glass knobs, etc. We’re in a newer place now and while it’s much easier to take care of, it doesn’t have the wonderful feeling my old home had. Or a great front porch!!

    Carol in southside VA

23. jessica said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:47 am

    How sad about your grandparents’ house! Growing up my Dad restored historic homes for a living, so we were always moving into some old place or another. In the part of town I live in you aren’t allowed to tear down houses like that without getting neighborhood approval (which you wouldn’t be able to get – people love the old homes!) When we move I want to find a bungalow in that neighborhood – something with brick porch columns like your grandparents’ house!

    I just got engaged and my fiance gave me my grandmother’s ring to wear. It’s so much more meaningful that him just buying something, so that’s my favorite memory at the moment. I can remember the rings on her hands, and I think about her every time I see them on my own.

24. Marcela said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:49 am

    Sheri,
    thank you for making me think about my grandparents.My fondest memory is of sitting in my grandma’s kitchen in the late afternoon as she started preparing the food for my grampa’s birthday. She used to prepare enough food for over one hundred people and always started by frying raisins in olive oil to flavor it. She would then take the raisins out, drain them, cool them and hand them to me in a special little bowl. They did not taste very good but the experience was wonderful.

25. Kay said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:56 am

    I have many treasures that belonged to my grandparents, great grandparents and beyond. I have the first wristwatch my grandfather bought for my grandmother when they were only married a few years. I have my grandpappy’s old beer mug, many plates from sets of dishes of too many to mention. But this made me think of a nontangible treasure. My grandfather on my dad’s side was a man of few words. He had 5 children who lived to grow old and lost their mother when the youngest was only 2. He honored her deathbed wish to not let a stepmother raise her children and remarried a very wonderful loving woman when my dad, the youngest, was 18. This woman was my grandmother, blood related or not. They didn’t have any children together so his kids became hers and their children became her grandchildren. But I digress. I never remember holding a true conversation with my grandfather. He left for work each morning and would come back in the evening. He’d sit and watch tv or do chores around the farm (if he’d worked in town that day). But every morning we were there he did one special thing. He would come and wake my sister and I. And this is how he did it. He’d grab our noses between his knuckles and wiggle them and say “Wanna bisquit?” He’d repeat it a few times as sometimes we were hard to wake. But he knew how to get us up. We LOVED our grandma’s homemade biscuits. They were light and tall and about two bitefuls of melt in your mouth biscuit. (probably achieved with lard but hey….) Anyway, that is my favorite memory of my grandpa.

26. Emily said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 12:06 pm

    My grandparent’s home was just torn down. They lived on a 60-acre farm outside a town that used to be tiny, but is now a thriving growing city (thanks to I-70). Grandpa had quadruple bypass over 2 years ago, and he could no longer take care of it. They sold to a developer and moved to a brand new house in town.

    The developer was not interested in keeping the small 2 bedroom farmhouse when the land would be worth so much more as a new residential neighborhood, so down it went. Part of me wanted to take boards from the hardwood floors that Grandpa put down himself. My Aunt did take the columns that Grandpa hand made for the study. I ended up with a bunch of Irises and Daffodils that my Grandma had planted at the house when my Mom was a little girl, and a sprig of her lilac bush as well. I hope they all survived the move. Maybe they won’t bloom this year, but maybe they will. They will move with me whenever we get a new house.

    There’s no way we could have bought it; the land went for $7000 an acre. I hadn’t cried about it until now. I’m so glad you got a memory of the house where your grandparents lived their lives.

27. Claire said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 12:12 pm

    NO, you’re not nuts! Even if you couldn’t widen/narrow your doorways, old doors can be used as coffee tables, or just leaned up against a wall. Very decorative in a farmhouse kinda way. And what an opportunity to get the doors from your grandparents’ house!

    I think my best memory is of my paternal grandparents’ house in Fort Valley, Georgia. It was a big old house. In fact, the upstairs, though not separated by a lockable door or anything, was like a separate house. There was a kitchen up there, and this really cool tiny bathroom. Old Mr. Hiley lived up there until he had a stroke, and couldn’t handle the stairs anymore. But downstairs, where my grandparents lived, was always special. The long hallway that ran straight from the front door to the back door. The only phone in the house was in that hallway, at the phone table, of course. The table had a chair built into it, so you could sit down while talking on the phone. And the phone was a big, chunky black thing with a dial. =) I really loved the bathroom too. It was BIG. It had a really high ceiling, just like all of the other rooms in the house. There was the claw-foot tub (no shower), and this gas heater thingy that I was TERRIFIED of! It made funny hissing sounds, and the ceramic grill thing inside it glowed orange when it was on. Very frightening! There was also an old armoire, painted white, full of grandmotherly-smelling towels and washcloths. I remember all of the rooms in that house were really big. More the size of a really big living room! One room I often slept in (the one with the painting of some man, and his eyes would follow you as you walked around the room – also very creepy!) was something like 20×25 feet! Then there was the kitchen. Everytime I think of that kitchen, I think of homemade peach ice cream, brunswick stew and cornbread. Grandmama Veale could COOK! Grandmama and Granddaddy Veale both died in the 80′s, and the house is now owned by someone else. I wonder what changes they’ve made?

28. Mia said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 12:13 pm

    Like Georgia said, it is really sad how people do not appreciate old house and the way they were built. It is a big problem all over the country. I would hope that the lady who bought your grandparents house will at least reuse as much as she can. I live in an old house (circa 1926) and I will not live in a new house anymore.

    Because I grew up in a military family, visiting my grandparents was difficult. Plus my father’s family immigrated from Cuba in 1968 so that the house they lived in was not one that had a lot of history behind it. But every time, we came back to the States, we would always visit Boston and my abuela. The kitchen was tiny but that is where you could always find every one. And eating dinner was always an adventure because there would up to 15 people crammed around a table that would only comfortably seat 8 or 9. And everyone would be talking at 6the same time and reaching for the food. The best part was that that everyone would start out speaking in English for my mother’s sake but the language would slowly switch over to Spanish and than back to English. And the funny part is that no one ever really noticed the language shift. It was a given

    One thing that I do have is a photograph of my father’s real mother who I look like. She died when my father was 2 so neither he nor I ever really knew her. But this was a photo that my abuela made sure she brought with her out of Cuba.

    Another favorite place to visit on the stateside visits was my great uncle’s house in Miami. My Uncle Sam did all of the cooking. His favorite dish to cook for large crowds was a dish that required limes. He would always send me out to the tree in the backyard to pick limes.

    Even though, I do not have a lime tree in my backyard, I still have his recipes and treasure them. I also have my abuela’s recipes and I treasure them. Comfort food to me is either Cuban food or Filipino food. (I never really had the opportunity to know my maternal grandmother because she refused to travel and she lived too far from the East Coast for us to visit on the trips stateside. And my mother always seemed to prefer going to her in-laws/)

29. Heather said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 12:35 pm

    Ooh, y’all reminded me…I just cooked lunch for my family in the cast iron skillet that was used by my great-grandmother over 80 years ago. That skillet ROCKS, I use it almost daily, and it amazes me that it’s used to cook food for my little boys, when it was owned & used to cook food for the small children of their great-great-grandmother. She was an Amish woman, and she married a Southern man, so you KNOW the food was good!

30. Michelle said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 12:53 pm

    Sheri,

    I am so sorry to read that your Grandparents house is being torn down. My favorite memory of my Grandparents house would be the house they where in when I was about 3. They have since moved but my Gran’s bathroom in that old house was my favorite room. It had pink tile and pink fixtures and smelled of Prell ? Shampoo. I loved the tile and it was comforting to see all Gran’s perfume on the glass tray on the counter. I guess when your 3 a pink bathroom is pretty cool!

31. melissa said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 12:56 pm

    your story really made me tear up – i love that you were able to buy those doors! i bet your grandparents would be so happy to know that you are keeping their home alive in your own.

    one memory i have of my grandma’s house is her cookie jar – it was ceramic, with little ceramic cookies all over it, all different kinds. as long as i can remember, she always had cookies in it for us when we came to visit, though my grandma not being much of a cook, they were usually store-bought. i know she’s had it for a long time…my mom used to tell us stories about when she was a little girl, and how she perfected the art of taking the cover of the cookie jar off without making any clinky ceramic noises to give her away! my grandma probably still has it – she has great-granchildren now – but i live really far away from her so i haven’t been to her house in a long time. i will have to ask her about that cookie jar!

32. Marti Johnson said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:04 pm

    Oh I so agree with you purchasing those wonderful doors … I only wish I’d been offered the opportunity to save things from my childhood home. My family moved into this new house when I was one (1948), and like your grandparents’ home, it had land! An approximate half-acre (I think) and a photo of my dad in the back yard working on his garden with a picture of an old 1948 car driving on the 2-lane “main” street off in the distance makes me laugh every time I see it; Nowadays, that same intersection has four lanes of traffic going in each direction, and the intersection during rush hour is terrifying! But one of my memories concerns the old floor heater in the hallway/living room. Set up to warm both the three bedrooms off the hallway, and the living room in the other direction, it had a grating on the floor and when you were cold in the mornings dressing for school, I can still recall my sister and I fighting over who would stand on which grating to dress while the warm air rose & circulated up and around our legs. Central heating isn’t nearly the fun that the old floor heater was! The old house is still standing, but has been turned into a complete child-care facility. Although my mother ran a very successful child-care business out of it for 20 years (with over 60 children there every day), we still lived in the family part of the house. The current owners turned that part into the business as well, and it no longer is for family. What a shame … that home gave me some great memories.

33. Trish said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:05 pm

    Thanks for sharing your memories Sheri. It got me thinking about my grandparents. We lost my grandpa back in May, so memories help me with the sadness. I remember spending every summer with my grandparents. There were two great things about staying with my grandparents. One of the best things for me was waking up early on Saturday morning to curl up with my grandpa on the couch and watch the Looney Tunes on TV. My grandfather use to laugh so hard at the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote and Foghorn Leghorn. The other thing I loved so much was helping my grandma in their cozy little kitchen….making cookies, baking pies or cooking dinner it didn’t matter. They sold the house about 7 years ago and moved out of state. The house is now completely different and has gone through 3 owners but the memories are still the same.

34. Kathy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:10 pm

    It makes me so sad to see wonderful old houses that have been torn down to build new houses that are so often lacking in any charm or individuality. I would have bought those doors in a heartbeat even if they never got put up! What wonderful memories you have.

    My parents were older when I was born; my mom was 41 and my dad was 52, so I never knew my grandparents on my dad’s side and only knew my maternal grandmother, who moved with us from Michigan to Texas. She had immigrated from Scotland with her brothers and sisters when she was 18 but never lost her strong brogue. She was so soft spoken and so thrifty (a trait I did not inherit…) and I loved it that she lived with us until she died in 1976, just a month before I married. I have her beautiful engagement ring, which is 4 emeralds in a cloverleaf shape with small diamonds surrounding it. Every time I look at it I am reminded of her and all that she contributed to my life.

35. Maria said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:14 pm

    There are so many things that I remember about my great-grandmother’s home – it was the house my mother grew up in. It’s hard to believe that she died 10 years ago. I remember the blue bedroom where I got to sleep whenever we came to visit. She would put a comforter on the bed that had stars and moons on it that glowed in the dark. There was a painting of a young woman who I always thought looked like my mother on the wall on which she placed some of her costume jewelry. I can still remember the shag carpet and the closet that connected all the bedrooms. My siblings and I would each take a room and play “Letters”. We would write little notes and get the youngest to go up and down the closet, knocking on the door and delivering the letters. Granny had glass figurines on all the door ledges – I can remember countless nights falling asleep looking at them.

    So many little things: the striped carpet in the kitchen where we would make tortillas and bread together as a child. The mirrored tiles in the bathroom that also had carpeting. The old black rotary phone that sat on the desk in the entry way. The green armchair where we would sit and spin and watch TV. The front porch where we would play. The detached garage where the bunnies lived.

    I only have a few things from her, but the most precious is my name – Maria.

    She thought that knitting made me nervous because I’ve always had a hard time sitting still and tend to fidget constantly.

    How I miss her.

36. Melissa said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:16 pm

    Sheri, thank you for sharing such wonderful memories of your grandparents’ house. The house I grew up in was actually my grandparents’ old house – after my parents were married, they bought the house from my grandparents, who were the original owners. No one has lived there but us, which I think is pretty cool! I lived in my mom’s old room, and it was always such fun when my mom would show me old pictures of how she had it. Now that I’m married and I’ve moved away, it’s become her craft room, but the stenciled sunflowers I added are still there!

    My grandparents are still alive, but the one thing I have told my grandma I want is her sewing machine. She was surprised because it’s not fancy and is in fact fairly beat up. I want it, not because it’s beautiful, but because that’s the sewing machine where she made me my Halloween costumes and where she taught me to sew for my Girl Scouts badge. I remember so many happy times choosing fabrics and buttons and sitting on the bed reading while I watched her sew.

    I hope the doors fit your house without too much “tailoring.” I love that you saved them … they will bring a lot to your own house, I know.

37. Joy Jarus said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:18 pm

    My grandfather had an old telephone stand. This was before cordless phones were in every room of the house and you could only have one so it was on a stand in the main hallway. I can still see my PawPaw on the phone standing in the hallway. I used to hide things inside the telephone stand when I was a kid while he was on the phone. My grandfather died before my daughter was born so he never got to meet my two children (even though I know he’s looking down on them). My mother still has that telephone stand and my other grandfather has since returned it to it’s original finish. One day, I was at my mother’s and I looked over to see my daughter hiding her things in the telephone stand. I just knew my PawPaw was laughing from above. Like mother like daughter, he’d say.
    My mother recently asked me what I would want from her when she passes away so she can specially designate one thing in her will for all her children and grandchildren. I don’t want the antiques, the great jewlery or anything else of value. I just want the telephone stand and all it’s memories.

38. Ana said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:24 pm

    Hi Sheri,
    Your post made me cry. I don’t have anything that was passed on to me by my grandparents but instead I have kept over the years, the doilies that my grandmother made for me in which just happens to be my favorite color now. I have them stored away in a box and visit them every now and then. I had kept a fishermans sweater that was the last Christmas gift that she had ever given me for well over 20 years but age took that away from me. But most importantly I have some letters that she had written me while I was growing up. Even though she only lived a half an hour away from us, everytime one of us kids would write her a letter she would write us back. I just loved the idea of getting mail.

    My aunt still lives in my grandparents old house so there are a lot of memories still there. Everytime I go there I love looked at the little trinkets that are in the cabinet on display. They had so many that we could spend some time just admiring them.

    Now, I often wonder what my children will keep from their grandparents as reminders of them. I am very blessed that both of my parents are alive and my husband’s also.

39. Staci said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 1:33 pm

    I have my great-great grandfather’s rocking chair. It’s made of oak and hand-carved. My grandfather told me once that when he thinks of his grandpa, he remembers him in this chair reading the Bible and taking notes.

    My grandfather passed away last October, so the rocking chair means even more to me now, because it was my grandpa who gave it to me.

    From my grandmother I have two quilts, some embroidered pillow cases and an embroidered dresser scarf. The pillow cases and dresser scarf are edged in hand crocheted lace. The quilt that makes me smile the most is made of scraps of all her double-knit polyester dresses. Since it’s made of such an indestructible fabric I don’t mind using it and can sit and remember all her dresses.

40. Jean said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 2:02 pm

    i could tell you several items that fit into this category, but here’s the first one that jumped into my mind: my aunt’s marble table top that she made peanut brittle on every Christmas, for everyone she knew. I have her peanut brittle recipe and I make it every Christmas now, but not in the quantities she used to. I can no longer use it for peanut brittle, since it has a fracture in it that I would be afraid to subject to high heat, for fear it would split the entire thing in half.
    Thanks for the memory…..

41. Barbara said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 2:22 pm

    Dear Sheri,
    My grandmother and grandfather came here f rom Russia. They were very poor,
    but did manage to buy a house in the city. They had eight children and my
    grandma washed all her clothes on a washboard. My grandfather worked in a cap
    factory. I remember my grandmother’s stove. It was the really old fashioned kind
    like you see in old magazines, but she cooked on it all day. The eight kids were
    sent outside and didn’t come back in until she called them for lunch or dinner.
    Those were the days when your kids could go out and you knew where they were.
    She had beautiful rosewood furniture and armoires that she brought back from
    Russia. She had a huge rosewood beveled glass china cabinet.
    When she died in the 1950′s, my mom and
    dad and all her sisters and brothers had to pay someone to take those beautiful
    things away. Now they are worth a fortune. My mother saved the china and packed
    it up and sent it to my aunt Ann in California who loved glass and it all got broken
    on the airplane. We have absolutely nothing left from my grandmother and
    grandfather. Isn’t that awful? I know how you must feel about your grandparent’s
    house. My grandmother was a very strict person. There was no tom foolery, but
    my Grandpa was a pussy cat. Everyone wanted to sit on his lap, sometimes all at the
    same time.
    Keep those memories.

42. Patty in Indy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 2:49 pm

    Oh what a same that the old must make way for the new. I’m so happy that you got the doors..that is such a great idea! I would have never thought of that idea myself. I remember the glass handles on the doors in my grandparents home.

    You bring happy tears to my eyes as I remember the summers I stayed with my grandparents on their farm in Iowa as a child. I lived in Indiana with my parents with all the conveniences of modern life, but may I say that I did not have the best home life due to the alcohol abuse problems that my parents dealt with. When summers would arrive off I would go to my grandparents farm. Oh, how I loved it there….That wonderful big ole farm. I would get up with my grandma and collect the eggs in the chicken coop….help grandpa milk the cows. Conveniences? What were conveniences there? We had to go to the well and pump our water, use the seperator for the milk, and use the outhouse. My grandmother even curled my hair in rags! When I was there and it was cold, my grandfather put my jammies by the stove to get them warm before I put them on.
    The upstairs of the house did not have electricity and we would take the carosene lamp with us and I would sleep in the same room as them in a bed across the room.
    The afternoons and evenings that were spent on that front porch……well, let’s say I never look at rocking chairs without thinking of my grandmother.
    I have so many memories I could continue on and on.
    Sheri, you asked what they gave me. My grandparents gave me my life as a good person who has done something with my life. I could have so easily became someone else but they and their love were there for me.
    Boy, I do miss that farm.
    Thank you for the memories.

43. Jan said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 3:20 pm

    What a great opportunity you’ve given us, Sheri!

    I’ve had the great good luck to have 3 sets of grandparents, but really only ever knew one set, my stepmother’s parents. They lived in a duplex outside Philadelphia, on the Main Line railroad; a little town called Narberth.

    Tall ceilings, steep staircases, and we kids hung out on the top floor (dormers) or in the basement. The basement had a middle room with all kinds of stuff stored. There was a “secret” room at the front that I think really went under the front porch. To the back, there was the boiler room with a huge heater, then the access to the back yard through a staircase covered with doors, like you see in The Wizard of Oz. In that boiler room, we’d put the homemade birch beer to age, and every so often we’d hear one blow its top!

    I think memories are all I have of any of my grandparents. Oh, and this grandmother’s mother and I shared a birthday. What a great lady — when I was 18, she was 90, and sharp as a tack! I really enjoyed the times I was able to spend with her.

    Thank you for this interlude of remembrance and sharing.

44. sandy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 3:40 pm

    Sheri…thanks for sharing your memories of your grandparents. It brought tears to my eyes as I thought of my own grandparents and parents. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s stories as well.

    Because my parents were older when I was born (ages 30 and 35), most of my grandparents had already passed on. I did get to grow up knowing my mother’s mom and my great-grandmother as well. I remember my Granny’s house was small, but cozy. My brother and I loved to sit on her big front steps and play “rock school”. Does anyone remember that game?? My great-grandmother loved music and could play by ear. I remember her playing an old foot-pumped organ. When I was in high school, my Granny came to live with us. She and my mother would spend hours quilting. Granny also was the one who taught me to crochet and I still have many potholders that she made.

    I have several treasured pieces of furniture that were passed down to me from my father’s parents…the rocking chair that my grandmother used to rock my father in when he was a baby, a small clover-leaf shaped table, and a china cabinet filled with dishes that the family had used. Although I never knew my father’s parents, my dad often said that I reminded him of his mother. Several years ago after my dad passed on, the old homestead where he grew up was sold. I regretted that we didn’t have the money to purchase it because it, too, had many memories. I remember going out to the barn to see the horses that my uncle kept there…and seeing the chicken all start running whenever my brother and I came around. It had an old cistern well inside on the back porch that my dad was constantly having to tell us kids to stay away from. The family that bought the old homestead has restored the main house and build on to add more room. It looks very different now than what I remember growing up. At least the house is now filled with love and someone is taking care of it. Thanks, Sheri, for causing us all to once again go down memory lane.

45. Doris said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 3:41 pm

    What a nice story. My grandparents lived in Germany and my most precious possession is the doll bed that they made for me. It is a miniature of the traditional “himmel bett” or german canopied cradle. My grandfather was a basketmaker and he wove the body of the bed and put it on rockers. He forged a steel frame for the canopy. My grandmother lined the basket and sewed a feather mattress and pillow for it, as well asa down blanket and matching canopy. She loved to crochet, so she made a tiny doll blanket in the same red and white of the blanket and canopy. I keep that doll bed in my family room, and get a warm feeling every time that I look at it. Oh, and this is the grandmother who taught me to knit, crochet, embroider and smock. What wonderful memoiries you made me think of today! Thanks.

46. Melissa said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 4:18 pm

    Sheri,
    What a nice thing to happen. I love the house, too bad the new owners could make it work. It is so cute.

    I have my paternal grandmother’s wedding ring set. She died last May, and that was really rough me, my parents, and my brothers and sister. My sister has some of her other rings. She didn’t have much, but we got to keep a few things that had belonged to her.

    Melissa

47. Alison said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 4:18 pm

    I’m sad to hear about your grandparents’ house, but I’m glad you got something from the house. My favorite thing about my grandparents’ house was the laundry chute. It was nothing more than a little door that went from the upstairs hall into a downstairs closet. My cousin and I made the closet into a clubhouse of sorts and would go up and down the laundry chute. I remember one time we talked my younger brother into going upstairs for something and we climbed through the little door and hid in my grandparents’ room and made ghost noises. It was a long time before he would go upstairs after that. Does it mean that I’m a horrible person if that particular memory still makes me laugh?

    Thanks for a wonderful question. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone else’s memories!

48. Janelle said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 4:46 pm

    I have to agree wtih you about doors, Sheri. My grandma’s house, built in the 1940s, had glass doorknobs everywhere, and that is what I remember most. She also had hardwood floors (this seemed extraordinarily quaint to a girl who grew up in the suburbs of a vast Southern city), which I loved to slide on in my socks. What a great house that was!

49. Christine said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 5:05 pm

    Wow looks like you really struck a cord with this contest! At my grandparents old house, since sold my mom got the smaller room when she was little. She was upset about it and so they had the construction guys put a secret cabinet in her closet. It was just this little cubby with a door inside her closet but we thought it was the greatest. My mom’s cousin has made sure every house of hers has had a secret room ever since!

50. Katie said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 5:17 pm

    My great grandmother fled Turkey/greece around the turn of the century. They were only able to take a few items, one of which was a janus faced ring. It had been passed down thru the years and no one knows how old it really is. It is so unusual and beautiful. I never knew my great grandmother but she taught my mom to knit who in turn taught me. That I think is the greatest treasure of all, even more so than the ring.

51. Jenn said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 5:31 pm

    What a great story – I’m sure you will love having those doors in your home. I have a treasure of my own – my paternal grandmother passed away when I was only five, and, as a result, I have limited memories of her. The night before my wedding my parents gave me her wedding ring – it is the thing I treasure above all else in my home. And the best part is that I didn’t have to have it fitted or redone at all.

52. Lisa said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 6:37 pm

    As I sit at my computer writing this, my son sits not 10 feet away watching TV and having a snack at a table from my grandparent’s home. It is a beautiful 5 legged square table of solid oak. My grandparents have been gone for many years, my parents are gone now as well. But, I still love to look over at my “taller than me now – looks just like his Dad” son and know he is sitting where his great-grandparents had breakfast every morning during the Great Depression, his grandfather ate breakfast all through WWII, and I ate my grandmother’s homemade fried pies (they were fantastic!) when “Andy Griffith” was still on network TV! I am so happy you were able to purchase the doors but happier you are blessed enough to know what a treasure family and memories can be.

53. Caro said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 6:38 pm

    You’re not crazy at all, Sheri. Having those doors as part of your home will be worth all the effort because it will be like having a bit of your grandmother and grandfather there with you.

    When my grandmother on my mother’s side passed away, I asked Mom if I could possibly have the globe that had sat in their living room for years. Made out of industrial paper-mache, it has a light inside so it cane be illuminated and sits on a wooden stand. The base that holds the globe in place is clear plastic and proudly bears the symbol of the National Geographic Society.

    Grandfather bought the globe when my family moved back to Texas from California because he thought it would be good for his oldest grandchild (me) to have access to a good size globe. The boundaries are those of the early 60′s and “manned spaceflight tracking stations” are dotted across the surface, along with orbital patterns.

    Mom asked her brother and sister and their reaction was “Of course! Caro loves that globe. She used to drive Dad crazy playing with it.” It now sits proudly in my own living room, and gives me a warm feeling every time I look at it.

54. Tammy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 6:48 pm

    My grandparents lived on a beautiful piece of property in a mobile home. There was a house on the property but my aunt and uncle lived in it. Over the years there were more modular homes added to the property as the kids grew up ane married. It was a unique arrangement, but it worked well for everyone who was involved in the family business of honey bees. I have a lot of memories from the old home, the best are the snowball bushes and the lilacs. My grandmother loved both of them. They are still on the property which is owned by my cousins now. I often want to add a snowball tree and more lilacs to our backyard. It is a someday process for me as I really don’t like gardening.

    My other grandma (the one who taught me to knit), helped her mother finish crocheting a little jumper dress for me when I was probably 4 or 5. It is in those granny square patches. My great-grandmother was ill at the time and I don’t think she lived much longer after that. Anyways, the little dress was worn by me, my cousin, my daughter and my boy cousins daughter. It has carried on for all of us. It is the cutest/ugliest little dress with a matching purse. But I look at those pictures of each of us in the dress and it reminds me of my great-grandmother and grandmother.

    Those doors are going to be wonderful reminders/memories for you!!

55. inky said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 8:25 pm

    When my grandmother died, my father and my aunt asked all us cousins if we’d like something. My cousins wanted her velvet tufted couch, her rosewood coffee table, her china, etc.

    I wanted (and received) two porcelain angel figurines. They probably cost her a dollar each. It’s a boy angel and a girl angel with their hands folded and their eyes closed, lips slightly pouted. Anytime I went to Grandma’s, I made the boy angel kiss the girl angel on the cheek. My grandmother always tsked and separated them, saying “angels don’t kiss each other” and I always put them back kissing. She’d come into the room and start talking, then see the look on my face and whirl around to find them kissing again.

    I suspect she enjoyed this little game as much as I did. That’s the only thing I took from my grandmother’s house, and I came out way ahead of the game.

56. Kristi said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 8:50 pm

    Sheri, I am so glad you were able to get the doors from your grandparents home. My grandmother is 97, will be 98 this year, and she’s lived in her home forever and a day. She still uses “skeleton” keys for all her doors, inside and out, never updated. The one item that I wanted of hers, is her rocking chair. It is from Germany and kind of reminds me of a mission style chair. She sat in that chair while quilting, crocheting and knitting until it broke. Two years ago, I was given the rocking chair and it is my pride and joy. I had it fixed and I love sitting in that chair while I knit and quilt.

    The doors are going to be a wonderful reminder of your grandparents. Thanks for this opportunity to share. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s comments.

57. Candy said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 9:05 pm

    My Grandparents lived in a two-story white house with large, round columns on the front porch. They bought the house when I was 8 and I remember them scrubbing and cleaning the wood floors and huge windows to erase the mess left behind from a family with 6 children. It was a fabulous old house and built to stand the test of time.

    The staircase was a favorite thing of mine and I dreamed of floating down the stairs in my wedding dress to marry the man of my dreams. That dream came true 16 years later when the house was decorated with English Ivy and yellow Gladiolas, white Daisies and yellow bows and Daddy walked me down the stairs to my Michael. Fifty people crammed into the house to witness our wedding and we will celebrate our 35th anniversary this year.

    The back yard was huge and covered in thick, lush St. Augustine grass. My Grandmother’s green thumb kept the roses and miriad flowers blooming all along the edge of the horseshoe-shaped beds with huge shade trees.

    My grandmother sewed for the public for 50 years and could look at a garment and make it without a pattern. She knitted, latch hooked fabulous rugs, was a self-taught pastel chalk artist and, thankfully, passed on some of her talents to me.

    I have several of her paintings in my home with lots of antiques and wicker which she handed down to me. I love to sew, knit, paint and quilt. I have a wonderful three-year old granddaughter who is already learning the basics of what to do with a needle and thread and yarn. She picked up my knitting needles and started pretending to knit the afghan I had just finished for her Mama (my daughter). “This will make my Mama happy,” she said. She sits in my lap at the sewing machine just like I did with my Grandmother. Let’s keep the traditions going and growing!

58. Terri said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 9:33 pm

    It’s a shame you can’t just have the house, since it is going to be torn down anyway, and have it moved to the place of your choice. I don’t know where your current Loopy Room is located, but the relocated house seems like it would be a charming knitting cottage. As you can probably tell, I love family history, stories, and homes, and even hate to hear about other’s family homes being lost to progress… Happy knitting.

59. Cate said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 10:23 pm

    My paternal grandmother taught me how to sew. I have her sterling silver thimble and think of her every time I use it.

60. Minnie said,

    January 19, 2007 @ 11:26 pm

    i completely understand about losing your grandparents’ house. my grandmother passed away almost 6 years ago, and until she had, we were unaware that the house was leased from our great aunt (who died 21 years ago) with the provision that my grandmother could live there until she died, and then the house would be torn down. i haven’t been back yet.

    but on to my memory.

    with the knowledge that the house was indeed going to be torn down, we completely stripped the place. to include a few door knobs, lol. the one set i got was white & blue delft china. i don’t know if they’re worth something, but the door they were on led to my grandmother’s “sewing room” (it was a 3 season enclosed porch, lol), where i would sleep when we’d come visit her. i also kept the switch plate from that room as well, also delft china. ok, i need a tissue now. i miss my grandma (she was 97)

61. Dawne Lucas said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 12:55 am

    Sheri, I luuuuved your blog entry today. I’m turning 40 this year and have noticed myself becoming nostalgic … mostly about my kids. Treasure your beautiful memories and – ahem – good luck with those doors!

    I remember some kind of crazy laundry chute ‘thing’ in my granparent”s bathroom. When I was very young I remember being terrified of it – thinking I’d fall in and never be seen again. As I got older it was less mysterious and more fun – sent the cat down it a coupla times

62. Jo said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 7:30 am

    I have some really cool old photos, of my Nana in the 1930s in a bikini, I mean my nana was always a frail little old lady to me so a picture of her in a bikini was a novelty, I’ve also got a china cat which used to sit under a table in her hall, and a ring which I don’t know if she ever wore, it’s a dress ring with a glass italian stone.
    Really enjoyed the blog today, makes me want to get the old photos out, but it will make me sad.

63. Amy said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 10:21 am

    I really enjoyed your stories about your grandparents. I’m glad you have a special part of their home to keep in your family.
    I am closest to my maternal grandmother, as she lived in my very small hometown of Minneapolis, Kansas. I have fond memories when I was young of sitting down at her dining room table for breakfast and “helping” her with the crossword puzzle while she had her morning coffee. She even let me have my own cup (although just a small amount) because I liked the taste so much… I also often accompanied her on the long drive to her childhood hometown of Marlin, Texas (also a small town) for the annual summer family reunion. We always stayed at my great grandmother’s house. I also always remember breakfast-time there as well.
    When I graduated from 8th grade, my grandma’s gift to me was a simple necklace that had the diamond from her wedding ring on it (my grandfather passed away when I was only 6 and I have a few, but special memories of him as well). She gave it to me early so I could wear it during the graduation ceremony. And, I wore it proudly. And, after my great grandmother passed away a few years later, I was allowed to pick out something from her house as a keepsake. I chose a small glass jewelry box that I always admired sitting on her dresser. I keep my necklace from my grandma in it. It seems a perfect fit to keep two treasures so close to my heart…

64. Disentangled said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 12:51 pm

    I will always remember my grandparents basement. Coming from LA, we didn’t have a basement, so I loved spending time down there. They had a room section and then another section with a maze of shelving. I loved to walk through the maze of shelves and look at all of the pretty jars of canned goods. They even had a special shelf with games for the grandkids to play with…Kooties being a favorite! I will always miss that house.

65. Laura said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 12:57 pm

    My parental grandparents had moved into a retirment community by the time I was born, so I never had that feeling of a family homestead with them. Instead, what I inhertited from them is more of an intangible. My grandmother was an Reading teacher. Some of my most vivid memories of her are going over to their apartment and having her read to me. That love of reading has always stayed with me and I think she would be proud to know that I’m a librarian.

66. Charity said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 3:17 pm

    I have an old steamer trunk sitting in my living room, that once stood on end in the landing of my grandmother’s house. It was there for years, and I can remember opening it up to dig through the drawers (filled with treasures, of course), and try to shut my younger sister in it. :0) Years later, it was given to my mother, who used it for her dresser. I can remember her sweaters smelling like the trunk….

    Now it’s mine, and whenever I see it, or open it up and smell the old, musty smell, I remember these women in my life.

67. Kathleen said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 5:06 pm

    The thing that I was most fascinated with in my grandmother’s house was the set of mounted cow horns that were on the wall in the front hall. They were mysterious and somewhat creepy. The story was that my grandfather had had them in his tavern–one of his many enterprises. When my grandmother moved from that house I really, really wanted those cow horns. It was my sister who got them somehow. I was given a mirror, also said to have been used in the tavern. Airplane vibrations knocked that mirror off my wall and smithereened it–I still have the empty frame. My sister still uses the cow hors as a hat and scarf rack.

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I am glad you will have those beautiful old doors.

    Kathleen

68. Sarah said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 9:00 pm

    It was so funny to me that you posted about your grandparents house because my family has just sold my grandparents historical home. My grandfather passed away two years ago and the beautiful old house is just too big for my grandmother who is starting to starting to lose her memory and is not as mobile at 82 as she used to be.

    This house has been our family home. Every Christmas since I can remember we have spent there. My mental picture of Christmas is that house. The place that the tree goes, the carol singers on the fireplace mantle, the garland and bells that winds its way up the stairs.

    My parents keep asking me if there is anything that I want from the house (my bf and I have just purchased our first home). I can’t think of any one specific thing because that house itself means so much to me and to my family. I understand your sadness at the thought of someone tearing your family home down. We sold my grandmother’s house to a young family who have lived near there and have often walked by and admired the house. There was a man who offered us more money but was going to turn the house into and office for the nursing home next door. We wanted to be left with the knowledge that a family who would love the house as much as we have, would be living there.

    I will one day have one very special thing from that house. It is my grandmother’s piano. It is an upright piano with beautifully carved legs. My grandmother once had the opportunity to be a concert pianist. Her father told her she had to have a career to fall back on first so my grandmother went into nursing. She married my grandfather and worked to put him through school then became pregnant with my mother. My mother has often told me stories of my grandmother playing piano in the early hours of the morning. When my grandparents moved into the house we have just sold (about 30 or more years ago) my grandfather did not want to pay extra to move the piano and so it was left behind. 30 years later when my grandfather began to realize his old age he decided to buy my grandmother this beautiful piano with lovely carved legs. After 30 years of not playing it breaks my grandmother’s heart that she cannot play the way she used to. I listen to her and am amazed that though her memory and body are failing, this beautiful music flows from her hands to the keys. She stops and shakes her head. She turns to me and tells me that the music is in her head but her hands can’t do it anymore. This last Christmas was the last time that I sat at the piano playing in the living room of that house. My grandmother came in, put her hand on my shoulder and told me she loved me. I got up and asked her to play some Christmas music for us. She dazled me again..still shaking her head “I’ve lost it” She played a few songs while my cousins and I listened. I know she has had” enough when she plays her last song. She ends each time with “God Save the Queen quiety gets up and walks away.

    One day that piano will come to my house and I know I will have more memories and more music but I treasure most the times I shared with my grandmother in the living room of that beautiful old house.

    Enjoy your doors and the memories
    Sarah

69. Janice said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 11:22 pm

    Those doors are going to be an incredible addition to your house… what wonderful memories. You are lucky to have a WH with all of those skills!!
    It has been fun reading all of the memories that people have been sharing… What a blessing to be able to take time and reflect on where we have come from… the people and the memories that have shaped who we are. I loved going to visit my grandmother. (My grandfather passed away the month after I was born). I can close my eyes and see her in the kitchen cooking up incredible meals with that twinkle in her eye. (I think my love for cooking and having large groups in comes from her…passed on through my mom!!) I remember being afraid to go down into the ‘cellar’ with her…. (where all the canned goods were kept). and always so thankful when she can back up the stairs..alive! I remember all of the ceramics she had and used in her kitchen.. especially the cow creamer. (The tail was the handle and the cream came out the mouth). Wish I had it today.
    The other strong memory I have of our visits to Grandma’s house is Dippity Do. (Do you remember that hair stuff???) I don’t know if they still make it, but my Grandma used it all the time and the smell still takes me back.

70. Dynna said,

    January 21, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

    hi sheri. oh how i loved your grandparents story and their photo. i was weepy by the end of it, but i’m very sentimental and emotional when it comes to family too. i love that you bought the doors. not crazy at all and i’m sure hubby will figure them out for you. thank God he has that talent. i only knew my mom’s parents. they lived on a farm and had some dairy cattle. grandpa also worked at the grainery mill just up the road. he would walk there to work. i have forgotten alot of things but do remember as a 4 yr. old, loving to play with a tuna fish can of marbles there. such a simple thing but i enjoyed it so. i have a photo of myself holding that tuna fish can and me in my ruffled white panties. back in the day when little girls could just wear a pair of cute panties and be cute!! my grandma always baked on fridays for company on the weekends. you never went there with out eating something before leaving. we went there every weekend. she always made molasses, white sugar, and oatmeal raisin cookies every week. had a small cute cookie jar in the center of a big table in the kitchen. it had a bird on the lid. part of its tail was missing and when i was older and asked what happened to it, she said i was the one who broke it. i don’t remember that. then she had a tall crock jar for cookies in a lower cupboard. i don’t recall what the third ones were kept in. my other memory is about their bedrooms upstairs. they did not have built in closets or anything like that. iron frame beds and a commode. she had metal potties with lids that sat in the commode door or just under the bed. she always kept a bit of bleach in them. to this day, bleach smells bring back those memories. my youngest son has one of my grandma’s iron bed frames. got it through my middle sister. she got it in the estate sale so many years back. the day you wrote your memories here was my grandma’s birthday. she would have been 107 yr. old. grandpa was a real sweetie. he used to let me drive his tractor sometimes. when i was about 12, he wanted me to sing in church with him. i was too afraid to stand in front of the folks so i chickened out. we practiced it at home, wonderful words of life, but i couldn’t go through with it. i have regretted that since. my pastor reminded me, i’ll get another chance some day. happy knitting to you all.

71. Whitney said,

    January 21, 2007 @ 6:48 pm

    I think the thing I treasure the most from my grandparents isn’t really a “thing”…When I was a junior in high school, our final project was to interview a family member about their lives at a given point in history. I interviewed my grandmother over the phone (I was in New Hampshire, she was in Florida) and she basically told me the story of her life…I had to record the interview and transcribe it, and despite the amount of time it took to do that, I will always treasure that interview because I learned so much about my grandparents and I’ll always have the tape and transcript to go back to. So my grandparents have given me a little piece of the history of our family, which I can hand down to future generations of my family.

72. Michele said,

    January 21, 2007 @ 6:53 pm

    Sheri, that house is darling and I am glad that you have the doors to go with all your special memories.
    As for my grandparents, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents growing up. I remember the shag carpet that was there until my brother moved into the house. I would lay on it and run my fingers through it. I thought it was very luxurious! My favorite, though somewhat odd, memory of Grandpa Ero (he was Finnish), was sitting on his lap and getting him cigarettes out of the freezer. He was so gentle and sweet. Now, Grandma was very sassy and I have multiple fond memories of her. However, she was the person who taught me to crochet, and as a result, I learned to knit. It only took me until last year to realize the reason that I could not figure out how to knit OR follow crochet patterns appropriately was because she had taught me left handed! As a result, I knit and crochet left handed! Now that I know that, it is a heckuva lot easier!

73. Jen said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 5:11 am

    Sheri – What a loveley and touching story. Even though they’re not in the best condition, I will always keep my grandmothers knitting needles.

74. Michelle from Arizona said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 9:56 am

    No way are you nuts! I would have bought anything I could afford in your situation. The doors are a great idea I think. I do hope they can be made to fit in your own home… but if not you will have plenty of time to figure out their niche. Maybe a room divider or something. :>) Anyway your story is inspiring and I loved seeing the photos.

    I have very few ‘things’ from my grandparents as they had very few things to pass on. I do, however, have a coffee table from my grandmother’s living room. It is a square pedestal base (with storage inside) and a blue mirrored glass top, something I am told was quite popular many decades ago. The minimal detailing is art deco-esque with rounded lines. The table shows definite signs of use and ageing with scars on the wood and a few scratches on the glass. All of us grandkids learned to walk around that little table, holding on to its toddler-height edges. Tiny impressions live in the rounded wood edges – wee teeth prints from us teething grandbabies gumming it. In its middle years the blue coffee table lived with my parents and was shuffled from room to room, never quite fitting in. Many years ago it became mine as a hand-me-down no one quite loved. Except I always loved it. Now it is in my house right by my favorite knitting spot. It does not go with my furniture or house, but it ‘goes’ with me so I keep it.

75. Raquel said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 2:08 pm

    I’m pretty sure that back then, when your grandparents built their house somebody else was thinking: Oh! my farm o my whatever!!! Everything changes, but remain the same (the french say: plus ca change, plus cést la meme chose!). It’s very sad to see the place where so many people was happy go away. At least you can have a piece of it. I’m not that lucky, but I remember all the clutter my great granma had. Only God knows what treasures she had. I wish that I only have a little piece of that.
    Hope your husband can use the doors!

76. Emily said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 2:29 pm

    Sherri, thanks for sharing your memories…they are very touching and I am sad for you that your grandparents house will be torn down! I know I had a lot of good memories from my grandparnets house as well. Especially my grandfather’s garden….he turned his whole backyard into a very elaborate arboretum. He had every single plant labeled with the scientific name and the common name. We had a lot of fun playin hide and seek and exploring in that garden.

77. Kelly said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 2:33 pm

    What I remember the most about my grandparents’ house is not the things, but the atmosphere. Literally.

    My mother’s side of the family is pretty much off-the-boat Italian. So then, was the cooking. It didn’t matter what time of the year it was, or how long it had been since she’d last prepared a meal — the house always retained the smell of oregano and basil. I can remember it as though it were yesterday, and grandma sold the house three years ago. (Kinda painful in and of itself for all concerned, since grandpa built it with his own two hands.) I’m sure it was mere coincidence that there was always a plate full of freshly-baked tomato pie (what the rest of you would call pizza, although it was just dough, tomato sauce and grated parmesan) waiting for us on the counter. Said pizza would have been baked on an odd-looking bit of hardware: a vaguely u-shaped aluminum baking sheet/pizza pan. Grandma’s new (circa 1947) pizza pan didn’t fit in her new (see same) oven. Grandpa, not renowned for his patience, took it out to his workshop and made it fit, curving up the ends to accommodate the narrower oven.

    I wonder what happened to that pan.

78. Tasha said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 7:09 pm

    I love reading your blog and remembering all sorts of things from the past. My biggest memory of my Nana’s house in Roseburg, Oregon is the sweaters that she would make my sister and I. She had always made the sweaters for her children (my mum is the eldest of 5 and 4 boys came after) and she was thrilled to make sweaters in “girly” patterns. I still have 3 of them stored away for my future children and my Mum has others. I remember her sitting and knitting for hours and I figure that I get my love of knitting and constantly working fingers from her!

79. Ann said,

    January 22, 2007 @ 9:42 pm

    I have many things that were my grandmother’s. Perhaps the most special item I have is her wedding ring. I think of her when I wear it and of how hard she worked to raise a family during the Great Depression. But my favorite cinnection I have to my grandma is that she is the one who taught me to knit. I can often feel her and my mother beside me as I knit and I wish they could see how skilled I have become at it.

80. stephania said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 2:05 am

    I finally asked my mother who taught her to knit, although she may have told me when I was much younger. I always assumed it was my grandmother. Apparently it was my great-grandmother.

    My grandmother can knit, crochet and sew and did until about ten years ago. Apparently, she absolutely hates it. Still, she was quite good at the sewing and the crocheting. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her knitted work.

81. stephania said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 2:06 am

    Sorry, I hit return by mistake.

    Anyway, the legacy my great-grandmother left my mother is the knitting. What I remember most about my grandmother’s house is a pair of children’s wicker chairs with embroidered cushions. Work of my great-grandmother I think.

82. Isela said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 2:31 am

    A cherished memory from my Grandparents…there are so many. I lived with them most of my life, they were like my parents. When my Mom left to come to the United States, she left me with them. I learned everything I know from them…my Grandma gave me the love for the fiber arts. My Grandpa gave me love and tickles whenever I got sad.

    I have many cherished memories about time with them. But I will always remember that my Grandpa always snuck some candy for me from the little store they had. Every morning when it was time to go to school, he would go to the front of the store to “tend it” and I would leave through the side door, Grandma would be in the kitchen. Grandpa would sneak out through the front of the store and wait for me to appear and he would give me candy to take to school. I am sure Grandma knew that he gave me candy but she never said anything. It was Grandpa’s and I’s little secret.

83. Tracy said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 8:07 am

    Just found your store and site this morning. What wonderful memories you have, and how heartbreaking to lose something like that. Sometimes I want to hold on to everything in life and never let it change, but you can’t do that. You just have to wait for the next wonderful set of memories to come about.

    My Grandmother was the single most important and influential person in my life. She had a strength and dignity about her that everyone loved and admired. She gave me my love for creating things. She taught me to sew and crochet, showed me how to find the wonderful in fabric and yarn. Most of my life she lived in a little townhouse, but it was full to the brim with cloth and fibers and books, lots and lots of books. When I think about the kind of person I want to be, I think of her. We lost her 14 years ago, but I still ache every day missing her, and regret that my children will not know her the way I do. I named my daughter after her.

84. Claire Miner said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 10:21 am

    what memories your blog brought to mind. Actually, this was my first home as when I was born, my parents lived with your grandparents. After we moved next door, Tante Anna & Uncle Hans were allways second parents to me. So many memories have been made in their home. I’m so happy that you were able to secure some items from the house – would make your grandparents very proud.
    Your grandmother and my mother came from Germany together and my mom and dad met on the ship coming over. As of memories from my parents – I have their kitchen table (purchased nearly 80 years ago – a porcelain one) which I now use daily for my laundry table. While my family was poor, two things they did have that were not purchased my many people at that time – a radio and a camera. I have many photos of my folks before they were married. I also have photo of your grandparents house being built. What precious memories.

85. Joni said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 10:37 am

    The thing I remember best about my paternal grandmother’s house never existed. It was a fun house to visit and all, with a wooded hill out back to play on and a pool table in the basement, but my favorite memory is about a dream I had once when I was young. I must have been 6 or 7; old enough to know better. I dreamed that there was a secret area of the house, that you got to via a secret passageway. In that secret area was just an enormous amount of fancy candy, and all sorts of fun games to play. The dream was so real that I never told anyone about it. I really thought I might find that secret passageway someday, and for years I would secretly look for it when we visited. lol

86. Sarah said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 10:54 am

    My paternal Grandmother was a spit-fire! Definitely the black sheep of her family. She was a debutatne, coming out party, the whole bit. Ended up marrying an army sargeant she met at a USO dance in 1942 (much to her parents chagrin….that is how I came to be. She was an wonderful cook and taught me many things in the kitchen. However, for the life of her she could not make cookies without burning the daylights out of them. So, it has become my life’s mission to make the perfect cookie – in her honor….so far, my Dad (her son) says I have accomplished it and she would be proud. To this day I cannot drive by her house without getting over come with sadness that she and my grandfather are gone, but also with tons of happy memories too……

87. Mary said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 3:11 pm

    Sheri,
    Your grandparents’ house is the exact likeness of the house that we lived in when we lived in University City.When I saw the photo,I wanted to open the door to see if the stained glass windows,in shades of pink and green were still to the left by the stairway or see if the scratches from my son’s little red metal bed were still visible on the bedroom floor upstairs.I shard your pain of having the bushes from the front ripped out and remembered fondly the beautiful azaelas and rhododendrons that bloomed every spring in front of our house.
    I’m so glad that you saved the doors from your grandparents” house and wrote about it because it triggered all of the fond memories of raising our son in a house that looked exactly like it.Thank you for sharing your thoughts with all of us who read your blog.

88. knit_tgz said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 3:51 pm

    I am sorry to say I have almost no memories from my grandparents, as three of them died before I was born. The fourth, my maternal grandmother, died when I was one year and a half. Still, I vaguely remember a dark shape (she, in black clothes) passing by while I had fun in her backyard amidst the black earth and oranges (she had a nice little orchard with a lot of fruit trees: we ate healthy back then!)

89. Kate/Massachusetts said,

    January 23, 2007 @ 7:27 pm

    Sadly, my grandparents were all gone by the time I was 11 or so. I do have some memories of my father’s mother preparing food for us. She baked great bread and rolls, applesauce, too! My father’s father played the fiddle…only knew one song though. Everytime I hear the song “Three Blind Mice” I think of him scratching that one out on his fiddle! Sounded like screeching cats to me but I thought it was great! I really wish I had known my grandparents – I feel like I missed out on a lot. I would so love to hear their stories. Now those stories are told in family legends. Imagine my Grandfather as a young boy working on the Clipper Ships out of Nova Scotia! What stories!

90. Robin said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 9:24 am

    I think my favorite memorie of my MeMe was pies. She made the pineapple pie and with the leftover crust she would make cinnamon rolls. They were kind of crunchy but wonderful with a glass of milk.

91. Cecilia said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 8:40 pm

    The only mementos I have of my grandmother are knitted & crocheted items she made for me when I was a child. Beautiful cabled sweaters & vests, charming granny square afghans. She was from Ireland and took her knitting very seriously. And, I suppose, even more importantly, I have the knitting lessons she gave me, which I can now share with the people I love.

    How special that you were able to save a piece of your grandparents home and will be able to incorporate it into your own home!

92. Jean said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 8:52 pm

    I loved reading your memories, the doors sound wonderful and I’m so glad you were able to get them.
    With my grandma, I remember the wonderful time we had during the holidays, she made– home made Taffy and all of us would clean our hands then put butter on them and then pull Taffy for a long time before we could eat it.
    It was a great time for all of us. She also knitted faster then I could see so she never could slow down to teach me, she lived to 96 years young and we all still miss her very much.

93. Martha said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 9:01 pm

    What a lovely door story. And I loved that the new owner was sensitive to your memories and made it possible for you to have the doors in your current home.

    I have a treasure from my grandmother’s home, also. Grandma cared for an elderly woman during the woman’s dying days. The woman’s husband had no money, but wanted grandmother to have something special as a thank you. He asked her to come to his house and choose between a table and a three corner cupboard that he had made. Grandma choose the cupboard and was very proud of it because she had earned it herself. When Grandma moved to Florida, the cupboard was given to my mother. Recently, the cupboard made the trip from the East Coast to the West Coast to be in my home. I have memories of taking the ‘best’ dishes from the cupboard for my Grandma and memories of taking out the cut crystal for my mother. The cupboard now houses hand thrown pottery, woven baskets, and carved figurines. I think my grandma and my mother would be pleased that the cupboard is in my living room and continues to house treasures.

94. Hari said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 9:02 pm

    Sheri,

    When my daughter was young we were 4 generations in one house. My Grandmother got to be with her Great-Granddaughter ervery day. It was a site to see. They both got to really get to know and love each other.

    When my daughter was 5 years old my Grandmother passed on. I told my daughter she could have anything that belonged to my Grandmother. To our surprise she chose my Grnadmother’s change purse (remember those?). We asked her why she shose that and her reply was that Nana always had it to pay for things and it smelled like her.

    We never know what it is that will remind us of our loved ones.

95. Linda Bradley said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 9:27 pm

    That is so kewl that you got the doors to the house. I ‘m sure hubby can make them fit.

    What i remember most is my grandma’s bed. When i was over there most of the time when very young, my Mom would want me to lye down in her bed and take a nap.
    I was scared so Grandma can and took me into the room and pointed to her pillow.
    There was a head shape sunk into the pillow ( that i can still see today). She said to me – see hoppy-hobbin, I have done all the work and that is the sweet spot on the pillow.
    When you lay down you will go right to sleep and have only happy dreams.

    And wouldn’t you know it worked for me, and now I tell my Granddaugters the same thing and it works for them too.

96. Lynne said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 9:55 pm

    I have always regretted never having grandparents. Both sets died before I was born or during the first year of my life. It was always such a mystery to me…what a grandmother must be like. My sister would share stories of “Ma” and “Pa” and I could only wonder. I’d see their pictures and imagine being held in her smooshie lap while she told stories of when my Dad was little. But an interesting thing happened. With the longing for grandparents, I had only to take a walk about my neighborhood to find one. There was Beulah and Bill, and thier dog Lady, who treated me to a walk in thier gardens every day, and showed me how the snap dragons had mouths that opened and closed. Mrs. Anderson, next door, who would invite me over during the summer to sit on her porch and play rummy while we drank root beer floats and ate peanut butter sandwiches with the crusts cut off…so fancy! Bessie Pritchard, with the warmest hugs for this shy girl, and who always had a treat for Smokey, my dog, in her pocket. Esther, two doors down, and Mrs. Higgins, too. Oh, the list was long when you lived in such a small town, where everyone knew everyone else, and had lived there forever…they filled the gap of the missing grandparents, and helped to create memories for a lifetime.

97. rhonda said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 10:10 pm

    I have my grandmother’s engagement ring, which is very precious to me… to most it would seem tiny and not very impressive, but it is the only thing I have of hers and I treasure it.

    I also have a hand knit baby blanket that my great grandmother made when my oldest brother was born in 1961, he was the first great grandchild, and when I gave birth to my grandparents’ first great grandchild (16 years ago!), I received the blanket. It is 45 years old now!

98. Hillary said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 10:14 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing the story. It made me think of my grandparents house again. They sold it when they moved to assisted living nearly 2 years ago and I still can’t imagine anyone else living in it.
    I have many memories of the house and things in it but the memory I’m sharing concerns my eldest daughter. When she was born I was working full time days while attending grad school and my husband was working crazy weird hours so my grandparents would pick my daughter up from daycare each afternoon and watch her until I got out of school late in the evening. It was wonderful because my daughter got really close to them and forged a bond that is really strong. When my daughter was about 18 months old we moved from NY to VA and on our first visit back to the house I was so worried. I had to see if she recognized the house where she had spent so much time. I was so relieved that she did.
    Recently, when the house was sold, we were all invited to take something to remember it. My daughter chose a small desk lamp. My grandparents thought it was a weird choice because it’s a kitchy lamp that my uncle made in shop class but they let her take it. She uses it every night and the funny thing is that it always sends me right back to that house because it was so distinct and closely associated with the attic bedroom where it used to be.

99. Jackie said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 10:17 pm

    Thank you for sharing your memories of your grandparents.

    What I remember most was spending the night at my grandmas. When we would go to bed I would go into my Uncles room to look at the old radio with the big dial and glass tubes, she would turn it on and it would hum but no music. When grandma and I got up in the morning she would let me brush her long white hair before she would put it up in a bun. Then my job was to go out to the chicken coop and get the eggs for breakfast. BUT I had to make sure the chickens were out of the coop first. Then I had to search for the eggs because there were no spots for the nests just an old log and hay on the floor. After breakfast we would go to the pond and pick wild strawberries or raspberries and eat them as we picked them. We could tell grandma anything and she would listen as if we were the most important person in the world.

100. BusyHSmom said,

     January 24, 2007 @ 10:22 pm

     Thank you for your entry that made me think about my roots and heritage. I am so blessed to have known my maternal grandparents. My grandmother was a hardworking farm woman who taught me so much just by being the person she was. She was thrifty and practical. I think it is because of her that I have a love of all sorts of needle arts. She knit and sewed and quilted. I remember her making dolls for me when I was a and Barbie clothes too. When I got married, she gave me a double wedding ring quilt that she had made for me. She also had her rosewood rocker refinished and reupholstered for me. When she died I was fortunate to get a foot stool from her house that is covered in needlepoint that she made. It is so special to me, even the mistakes that are in it. In fact, when I look around my house and ask myself what do I own that is truly important to me, most of my list would be the old things that I have gotten from family.

101. Marsha Fletcher said,

     January 24, 2007 @ 10:37 pm

     I remember the fruit and walnut trees in our backyard in California. My mom canned the pears and they tasted like ambrosia to me. She also made candy canes from scratch at Christmas and hid them in the roasting pan. My Dad and I knew where she hid them and always snitched them ahead of time. I think she knew, but didn’t care too much. My mom is now 96 and has lived with us for many years and it is nice to rememeber the good times!

102. Melanie said,

     January 24, 2007 @ 10:45 pm

     Hi Sheri, first time poster here. =)
     I have so many fond memories of my grandmother growing up. I used to love going to her house because she had all the Disney movies, and all the “classic” musicals. She was an amazing cook. She could take the simplest thing..like chili and cornbread, and make it the best darned thing you ever ate in your whole life.
     At Christmas, she would make fudge for everyone in the family..it was a top secret recipe that we all swooned over. And for some reason, I was the special person she decided to share it with.
     It is one of the fondest memories I have. Packing up my stuff to stay with her for a few days. Just ME. No siblings or cousins, just grandma and me..and spending that time in the kitchen making her tremendous fudge. Not only did she teach me the recipe, she took my suggestion to expand from traditional chocolate and make a few other flavors. Peanut Butter, Rocky Road, and Maple Nut became new family favorites.
     But it was not just about making fudge. We talked, and talked, and then talked some more…and I realize now that those talks we had have helped form the woman that I am today.
     She told me I was her favorite grandchild..and that I was special. But not to tell anybody because she didn’t want any feelings to be hurt.

     Want to hear a cute thing? Her fudge recipe is almost exactly like the one on the back of the marshmellow fluff jar..And at her funeral my cousins, siblings and I were talking, and someone said..”You know, I was never supposed to tell you, but I was grandma’s favorite.” To which someone else said,” No you werent I was!” We soon realized she had said it to all of us.because we were all her favorites..and she wanted all of us to feel special.

103. Manda said,

     January 24, 2007 @ 10:46 pm

     ohh, how sad. my dad’s parents’ house was torn down and zoned for commercial property. it had an acre, at least, of land in front and behind it, and it was a cute little house. it was yellow. and the living room was small (big enough for my grandpa’s piano, a work table where he did paint-by-numbers, and his chair, so he could watch the packer games), so we always hung out in the kitchen. it was orange. and hideous. the best thing about my grandma’s house was the spare bedroom.. she had an exercise bike, and we spent sooo much time playing on it. she also had a crocheted owl purse that my sister and i would fight over (once she was old enough to fight back. haha). i wonder what happened to that purse.

     my mom’s parents’ house is still around, as are those grandparents. i remember the smell.. and all the antiques and my grandma’s perfume bottles! swarovski crystal and i think she had a couple of bottles that belonged to some famous people, but i don’t remember that. and the desk in the office, where we used to play school, and house (my being the oldest, i always got to be the teacher!). i love that house. the YMCA is expanding, and they’ve been buying up a lot of the land and tearing down the houses to put parking lots in. according to my mom, all that’s really left of that is the corner house, and my grandparent’s house (right next to it), and the white/green house on the other side of my grandparent’s house. i hope it stays there.

104. Vange said,

     January 24, 2007 @ 10:50 pm

     That’s such a wonderful entry and that’s so noce that the lady let you go in and get the doors of your grandparents house.

     I have many memories and items I treasure from my paternal grandparents as they helped raise me. Especially my grandmother. My one of my favorite items that was passed on to me that I treasure is an afghan. My grandmother passed it down to me before she passed. Sure I used it before she passed on, but she eventualy gave it to me for good shortly before passing. Now my grandmother didn’t knit at all, but this afghan was knit. That made this afghan a little more special since my great grandmother was alive when I was born, but passed before I was 2 years old. Also I apparently look like her and act like her alot. This afghan had a few years on it before I was born and had a lot of love in it. My great-grandmother (her mom) had knit the afghan. I still have this afghan. You can tell it has seen better days, but I still treasure it. It’s what I reach for first when cold, lonley, sick or any other time I need comfort.

105. Kate said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 12:36 am

     a beautiful little house. the doors will surely bring great energy into your home.

     when i was a toddler my grandfather took me on walks to find neighborhood cats. maybe why i have three cats today! then when we returned, i took great care choosing from my nanas delicate teacups for afternoon tea. she was so proud that i liked tea strong, just like her!

106. Christine said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 5:47 am

     My parents have been divorced since I was 2 years old and I would visit my Dad every weekend. My paternal Grandmother meant the world to me and my favorite memories were that she would have me sit on her lap and she would sing “I love you a bushel and a Peck” and rock me in her chair. And if my Dad let me sleep over her house on his one weekend a month, I would get to turn on the television at 6am to watch Davie and Goliath (now I know that it was so she could stay in bed a little longer), but it made me feel like such a big girl!
     Thanks for making me think of it, I miss her terribly!

107. Sarah said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 7:26 am

     From the time I was 4 until I was 6, and then again from age 14-17, I lived with my maternal grandparents. They taught me so much about what matters in life that I cannot begin to put those things into words. I can say that my grandfather, a master model maker for Boeing, used to take me out in the backyard as a little girl, and teach me about all the planes that would fly over the house on their way to Sea-Tac airport. My grandma would send me out into the same backyard with a big bowl to pick raspberries, and then let me eat them covered in sugar! Some of my best memories involve thay backyard….I even wrote a paper about it in college.

108. L-B said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 7:36 am

     ‘m so glad you are saving those doors,Sheri! If you can manage it, you could also salvage some of the bricks to make a garden path! After my grandparents died, and their children were clearing the old farmhouse, my father brought me exactly what I would have chosen had I been there. First was the giant wood cupboard my great grandfather built from old walnut trees cut down to make way for my grandmother’s kitchen garden and grape arbor. Each time I have moved since then, that cupboard has been measured and re-measured to be sure it would fit. I swear he built that piece to never leave the farmhouse,but it was destined to become the focal point of my knitting room! And inside it were a handsewn and embroidered quilt my grandmother made for my wedding day (which was still to come at that point), a log-cabin quilt she had made for my father’s bed when he was a young boy in the 1920s and two coverlets handwoven on a loom from yarn handspun and hand-dyed with indigo and madder by my great grandmother! Dad knew me well and made sure I would be surrounded by the handwork of my ancestors!

109. Nyasha said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 7:54 am

     When I was in High School, my grandmother told my grandfather she wanted another wedding ring. He told her, “Well go get one!” My grandmother took me to the jewelry store and spent hours deciding which rings she wanted. When she had picked 3 she gave me a choice. “Tell me which one you like.”

     The one I picked is the one she bought. When she passed on, she left that wedding ring set to me. To this day I wear that ring set as my wedding ring, as it is what she wanted. Every time I think about that day I tear up. It is one of the memories of my grandmother that I cherish.

110. MaryAnn said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 8:11 am

     Sheri,
     You were so wise to purchase the doors. They are entryways to memories and the
     joys and sorrows of our lives and hearts. Your front door will always have the warmth of your grandmother’s love greeting you when you and your family come home. How wonderful!
     I don’t have any memories of my grandparents;they perished during WWII in Germany and Poland. My Dad is now 86 and was a slave for then,my godfather a POW. My Mom was German,my Dad Polish. Love beats all,doesn’t it?
     About 20 years ago,my husband and I were lucky enough to find a 6 foot solid
     oak door being thrown out when a house was demolished a few towns over from us.
     Gleefully-without measuring it-we loaded it onto our old car and raced away with
     our treasure. Today, it stands sentinel and guardian to our home.Two years ago I thought a change might be nice,so we went to Home Depot to check out those new steel doors with Victorian Oval windows in them. When we told the lumber salesman what was there now,he shook his head and told us he would never replace a door like that! He was all of 22 years old. The door is still there.
     We never really own anything in the end-we are only caretakers. A hundred year old porcelain creamer handed down is put into a china closet because it is fragile.. Doors and handles are used ever day.
     Use your doors in good health and joy. Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories.

     MaryAnn

111. Allison said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 9:01 am

     I had to laugh when you bought doors, My brother took the french doors that were in my grandmother’s house after she died, he put them in the new home that he was building. It was a blessing since the house burned down about a year after that. It was very old and built with what my grandparents could find from their original house that washed away in a flood when my mother was 2. I have the treadle sewing machine that was both my grandmothers and greatgrandmothers in my home, and would never part with it. I also have several quilts that were made by both. I have not started to quilt yet, but I will since it is in my genes. My greatgrandmother was a wonderful seamstress and could make anything from just looking at a picture. I also tend to look at pictures to make things also.

112. Alice said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 9:23 am

     Hi Sheri!

     Since my maternal grams lived in Michigan and I grew up in Virginia, I didn’t get to see her all that often. She was an extremely loving woman, and would do everything she could to spoil us rotten. Every time we visited, she would stock up on kit kat bars, and keep them in the freezer. Frozen kit kats will always remind me of her.

     After she passed away in 2005, my female cousins and i were talking about how good it felt to come from her lineage. I had just finished reading a book on genetics, and I realized that since grams had two daughters (my mom and aunt), and those daughters had one and three daughters respectively, we ladies had her exact same mitochondrial dna! M-DNA is passed directly from mother to child, and if it goes female-female-female everyone has the same. It’s strange, I know, but I love knowing that I have an exact replica of a piece of my grams in my genes.

113. Danee said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 9:28 am

     When i was a little girl, i and the neighbor girl used to go into the woods near our trailer park and collect acorns and little “helicopter” seeds. we’d take them back and play with them in the sand box. I grew up with my family not haveing much money, so we used them as the people and castle decorations. One morning when i was four, i noticed a little plant in my sand box. i scooped it up and gave it to my grandfather the next day. (my grandfather used to knit me mittens when i was a little girl and i think that’s why i knit mittens most!) Well he died when i was six. when i was 13, my grandmother was moving and selling her house. We dug up my little tree and brought it to my parents house. it is now doing great. i plant a little garden around it every year.
     It is my tree now.

114. Jen said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 9:42 am

     I have a very very old Viking sewing machine that was passed onto me from my Grandmother. The first time I sat down to sew on it I was so impressed that I now also own a new Viking machine. But after a couple of hours of having the machine on, a strange thing happened…. It just took off sewing by itself! The foot pedal wasn’t stuck so the only way I could stop it was to rip the cord out of the wall! It was very late at night when I was the only one left up in the house and at the time I was sure it was the ghost of my grandmother sewing with me!!!!! I took it to be repaired but they don’t make the part to fix it anymore and it basically works fine until the motor gets hot and then it just sews by itself. But here is where it gets even weirder…my mom inherited my Grandmother’s old Kitchen Aid stand mixer. When I told my mom about what happened with the sewing machine, she told me that when she was using the stand mixer, the EXACT same thing happened! It just would go by itself if it was plugged in. She said she thought it was my Grandmother trying to cook with her!

115. Jamie said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 9:48 am

     My Granny (great grandmother) had a round clear plastic box that has little pegs to hold spools of thread. I loved playing with all the different colors of thread as a child. I would take them out of the box and put them back in and rearrange them and sort them. She also had an old treadle sewing machine. She allowed me (when I was about 12) to sew patchwork pillows. I have a treadle machine of my own now and plan to teach my children and grandchildren to sew on it. Jamie

116. Debbie Guidi said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 11:01 am

     What a touching story! My grandparents never had a real “house” home. They always lived in 2 flat apartments in Chicago (several while we were growing up). Since there was no one “home”, my grandmother left us many of the treasured possesions they had. I have her 1st Communion rosary & case from her Communion in 1911, the special knick knacks that were always on the bookcase shelves that she got when they married in 1930 & the only surviving piece of her good china (the gravy boat).

     But the most important things I have are the memories of the summers “vacations” my sister & I had each summer when my Mom would let us go stay with my grandparents. Things like the little arched niche in the hallway wall that held the telephone that I was not supposed to play with, but I did (partylines were great fun as a child) & the time I decided it would be great fun to stick my head through the ballistrades on the staircase between the 1st & 2nd floor flats in the brownstone they lived in. They had to finally call the Chiicago Fire Department to get me out. I think that brownstone may be gone, but it will always be there for me.

117. Denise said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 11:57 am

     My maternal grandparents recently moved to a senior apartment community near my parents in metro Atlanta, but up until last year they had lived in the house my grandfather built for them in Pensacola, FL. They moved there when my mother was in the 8th grade. Just a tiny little 2 bedroom house, but I have so many great memories of visiting there! Grandma loved to go to garage sales, and they had a walk-in closet they called “Fibber McGee’s closet”, where my sister and I would search for treasures whenever we visited. In grandma’s bedroom, grandpa had mounted a large shelf on the wall with a mirror, to serve as a vanity – my sister and I spent many hours in front of that mirror trying on all of grandma’s fabulous costume jewelry. She also had a cedar chest where she kept all of our artwork, school pictures, letters, etc., we used to love to sit down with her and go through all that stuff. They had a huge lot with those towering Florida pine trees on it…grandpa had his shed, and his “boathouse” (a carport for his boat, along with lots of other “stuff”).

     Wow….thanks for your post – it’s nice to relive these great memories! You will be so glad that you have those doors in your house.

118. Phyllis said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 1:16 pm

     The summer that I graduated from high school was spent with my grandfather in a small village in western Sicily. The house was built in the late 1800s. My bed while there was the bed my great grandparents slept in. It was a massive carved wood 4-poster with canopy, but the best part was the mattress. It was a giant pillow filled with freshly carded wool that was suspended on ropes. When I made the bed in the morning, the mattress was fluffed just like a down pillow. I sat with my cousins one afternoon while they carded the freshlyl washed wool from another mattress. My understanding was that every summer they would all get together and do one mattress at a time until all had been freshly washed and carded. I have to admit, that was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. It was cool on a hot afternoon and warm on a chilly night, and oh so comfy at all times. That was 45 years ago, but it is etched forever in my memories.

119. missyjoon said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 2:19 pm

     My grandmother lived in an old victorian home, with an accompanying orchard on the property. One of our jobs as kids, was to pick up all the apples which fell on to the ground. The sour apple trees hosted not only hammocks but also a place for us to climb and hide, sit and read.

120. Julie said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 2:51 pm

     Sheri,

     What beautiful memories! I know you will cherish those doors.

     My family is all gone…I am an only child, no more grandparents or mother. I did not grow up with my father so he is a great friend, but not necessarily a parent. I was just going through the desk in my guest room. This desk was my grandmother’s. I remember my grandfather sitting there daily “doing his receipts” on an old adding machine. The adding machine was the type you punch the numbers in, then pull down the handle. I still have the adding machine sitting on the desk. Above it is the receipt showing how he bought the machine “on time” in 1957 for $125, a small fortune in those days! The desk also has my grandmother’s nameplate from her years as a telephone operator, my grandfather’s name stamp and my mother’s “left handed genius” sign. I love to go and sit at the desk and think of these special people who are no longer around. I try to give my boys a since of their history and tell them about their heritage.

121. Patti said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 6:52 pm

     In the little town we lived in most everyone was poor, so we had to make up games, and boy did we! One of our favorite things was to go to the “camping grounds” which was just vacant lot behind our house with a small stand of trees and some underbrush. What more do all the neighborhood kids need to keep them occupied? There were trees to climb, underbrush to hide in, and get this… we drug an old mattress to our camping grounds, renamed it a trampoline, put it under the tallest tree, and proceeded to jump out of the tree onto the mattress. Its a miracle we survived childhood.

122. Lisa said,

     January 25, 2007 @ 7:15 pm

     We spent a year slowly emptying the homestead after Grandpa passed away. We found all knits of fun things – hazing pictures from crossing the equator during WWII, 50 years of birthday, anniversary, and post cards, pictures of the last people my grandparents dated before they got married to each other (His – intact. Hers – old boyfriend’s face cut out *hee hee*). The whole family went thru the house and “dibbed” the things we wanted to keep – and now every time I come home I see my grandpa’s bookcase and my grandma’s dressing table, and I love having a little part of them with me. *sniff*. Thanks for letting me share.

123. lynne s of Oz said,

     January 26, 2007 @ 11:54 pm

     What a great house,with great memories, and what a pity it is going to go. Lots of older houses here have heritage orders on them.
     My granma’s place was nothing special. It was built of concrete slabs as cheap housing for the underprivileged. It had cheap furniture and way too many cats (I like cats but Granma’s were not neutered, oh dear…). Granma’s bed was about three feet off the ground. That was fine for Pop cos he was tall but Granma tipped 5′ so I guess she jumped into bed literally. The house was built on a small block with heavy clay = cracks big enough to put your hand into in summer and heavy heavy mud in winter. But going to Granma’s always meant presents and sponge cake with pink icing from the cake shop. It meant sloppy bristly kisses from Pop and climbing up the old apricot tree. It meant family having fun together. There was nothing in my Granma’s place that was special except for the people.

124. Sherry Johnson said,

     January 31, 2007 @ 3:34 pm

     I too have many wonderful memories and now live on the ranch my grandparents owned since 1920 in Northern California. I can relate to you so well. But my most recent wonderful memory is of finding the house we lived in when I was 6 years old (I’m 62 now) out in the country in Montana. My husband didn’t think I would be able to find it, I fooled him. The young family that was living on the property let us go in the old farmhouse. This brought back so many wonderful memories ..where I got locked in the cabinet in the bathroom while playing hid and go seek, the kitchen counter where my mom had us lay to wash our long hair, the barn and the upstairs bedroom that I shared with my sister because I was afraid to sleep in my room after my older boy cousin told me there were ghosts. While we were going through the house, the new owner asked what my maiden name was and as I spelled it to him since it was a difficult German name of Romelsbacher he finished spelling it …I though that it was strange he knew how to spell it and then he came out of another room holding a wooden sign that my Dad had carved our last name into. It had been in the house for 55 years. Of course I broke into tears. Needless to say I now have it.

125. Sheri at The Loopy Ewe » New Second Quarter Challenge for You! said,

     April 6, 2009 @ 11:39 am

     [...] when they first moved into their home years and years ago. (Here’s a post that I did about their house. It is in a very desirable town and was eventually torn down and the lot turned into a McMansion.  [...]

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