Gram
My earliest memories of my grandma are from when I was probably around 3 years old. I'm unsure whether I remember these firsthand or have seen them in home videos over the years, but I can vividly picture the orchard out behind the home they lived in. I'd ride in a trailer she pulled behind her lawnmower, and we'd get out near the trees and walk around a bit, sometimes meandering into the woods. She was always pruning and weeding and that trailer behind the mower, when not filled with grandkids, was filled with trimmings for the burn pit. I remember playing gnip gnop in the basement of their home, and having sleepovers. They had a waterbed, and I couldn't get over how cool it was to have a bed full of water. The precious moments knick-knacks on their mirrored headboard shelves were my favorite to play with. I remember the decor, especially the placement of two pieces that eventually were passed down to my husband and I in our first home... a big, heavy orange hide-a-bed couch, and a bathroom cabinet with wheat stamped into the tin on the door. My memories go on to when they moved 'up north'. That period of my life, from around age 5 to age 13, we lived a few hours south of my Grandparents, and there were frequent weekend visits and lots of driving. I'd come visit on the weekends, and I remember the rhythmic movement of keys in the ignition, her snoopy keychain clinking against her elongated metal circle - I think it said something about being a Grandma on it. I looked forward to my time with my grandparents, escaping the city for the country, where I was free to roam. We'd often stop at the buckhorn saloon for pizza [...]