How Not To Baby Sit A Great Grandchild

Abigail and me

I remember being SO excited when I found out I was going to be a great grandmother.  I can still feel the joy, the excitement ... the "what did I ever do to deserve this" ... I married so young, grew up with my babies (my dad used to say they grew up but I never did) so I was a grandmother at age 36.  Now here I was, as excited as a teenager because one of my grand daughters was bringing a tiny sweet new little life into this world!!!
My phone rang in the middle of the night and I answered it to hear Brittany say the 3 most beautiful words I believe I have ever heard ... "Grandma, Abigail's out!".  So began the tiny little great grandchildren that have brightened my life so!!
Brittany took this picture one night when I babysat Abigail while her mom and dad had a much deserved night out.  This is what they came home to!!  I swear it was in the dead of winter, probably 5 degrees out, and I am sound asleep, wrapped up in the blanket with my back to Abigail as she lay uncovered in nothing but a diaper!!  Her doll is even over by me!!!  Some great grandma I am  ... I was mortified when I saw that picture, but my sweet little Brittany had to take the picture, exclaiming to me later, "Awww, Grandma, the two of you were so cute sleeping like that."
Even now, when I look at that picture I want to scoop Abigail in my arms, hold her close and promise I will never sleep again when she is with me!!

The Way It Was

The south is known for the unusual names of some of its quaint little towns ... Gourdneck,  Bald Knob, Weiner, Possum Grape, Hogeye ... all are in Arkansas, with those as just a beginning.
I remember when some friends of our family were on a well known game show and the host poked fun of the name, Weiner. He immediately began calling it Hot Dog Town USA.
If he thought Weiner was funny, he would probably have rolled in the floor to hear the names of some of the neighboring towns!!
We never thought anything about it. That's just how it was, how we were ... how I still am!!  The old saying "you can take a girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl" is very true!  I absolutely adore going barefoot, would give anything to know where a good patch of wild blackberries grew berries as big as a thumb, dusty and begging to be picked for a cobbler or pie or maybe a bit of that delicious blackberry preserves! Nothing in a supermarket comes close.
I am forever reading something about "going green", making your own cleaning supplies, cooking from scratch, etc. This is supposedly the new way.  Actually the new way is the old way which has come full circle, into its own again!  With eyes closed  I see my sweet little mama bringing her sliced apples to the back porch to protect them from the morning dew, slowing their drying process.  Those dried apples made the best fried apple pies you could imagine, with a crust so flaky it practically melted in your mouth and the sweetness of the apples with a hint of cinnamon make those with ingredients you find hard pressed even to pronounce, seem tasteless!
Make do or do without. That's how it was, how it should be.  Life was sweet.  We rarely saw a doctor as mama and my grandmas knew exactly what was best for every ailment.  I remember once when my brother and I ate a whole card of buttons, staples and all, you better believe my mama lost no time getting us to see old Dr. Hickman then.  It scared her to pieces.  Her mouth dropped open, her eyes widened, as round as saucers.  This was cause for alarm and sent her scurrying, preparing us for the trip to the doctor!!!

Treat others as you would like to be treated and, remember, in all you do be kind and be sweet!!

Hugs and "Hi, Miss Puff!"

No, Christian, Great Grammy Polly has NOT had her hug today!! 
Somehow the day never goes quite the way it needs to without a good hug.  A hug from anyone will do, but that hug from someone special just puts an oomph in your day that nothing else quite does!!!  My grandchildren give the best hugs in the world, at least it seems to me they do. 
I am positive it IS just me and that every grandma thinks her grandchildren have hugs as sweet as honey, but I swear when I get those big bear hugs from the boys, I just feel like asking, "Okay, now, Lord, what can I do for you today?" 
Michael is a teenager now and has always squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe, and I always tell him how I miss those big bear hugs when I don't get to see him for a while!!!
How I got from 'hugs' to this is a mystery to me as well as you, but I am thinking of the time Michael told me once when he was quite small that I reminded him of Miss Puff.  He had to go into a long explanation of how Miss Puff was on Sponge Bob!!  I thought it was so sweet ... Miss Puff!! 
AS I walked through the living room one day where he was sprawled watching cartoons he said, "Wait, Grandma, Miss Puff is going to be on here."  I was so excited and sat with him till my namesake made her entrance into Sponge Bob's watery world. 
I was shocked speechless when I saw Miss Puff was a big fat blow fish!!!!  I had envisioned her as an angelic little creature with such a sweet little name!  I was not about to let my little guy see my disappointed face as I exclaimed cheerfully how cute Miss Puff was and anyone worth their salt should be honored that their grandson was reminded of her when he saw Miss Puff!!
We still laugh about that and just a few days ago, I had a Facebook message from him that said simply,
"Hi, Miss Puff."

Be sweet!

Grounds In Grandpa's Coffee

How well I remember the visits to grandma's house when I was a little girl. Luckily I had both sets of grandparents and loved them equally. They actually carried on a conversation with me! None of that baby talk I heard from others, or the cooing and "oh, isn't she just too sweet." My grandmas and I had secrets no one else even suspected. They would let me gather eggs by myself and feed the chickens. All Grandma did was stand in the back door, screen held open, and smile. I felt almost as big as my older cousins, as I scattered the feed around the chicken yard!
I watched both of my grandmas as they prepared red eye gravy for Grandpa's breakfast. Each grandpa would swish a big fluffy homemade biscuit around to gather up the last bit of what was left on his plate. Grandpa always sat at the head of the table, ate out of the same plate and drank his morning coffee out of the same giant mug. Coffee grounds swimming on the top were downed with the rest of the coffee. He always told me "It isn't real coffee unless it has grounds in it."
To this day, I occasionally put water and coffee in a pot to boil, then let most of the grounds settle and pour off the dark liquid to relive those days when I drank coffee at my grandparents. My mom and dad said I was too young to drink coffee, but not Grandma and Grandpa! I knew my mom had been fed a spoonful of coffee at just a few days of age.
For some reason, I always felt so important when I was there. I always got the corner biscuits, which I loved because they had two crunchy sides. Sometimes, at home my brothers got them first so it was a real treat for me. The only time that was not totally pleasant was the time it took to go to sleep after grandma and I were in our gowns and in bed for the night. It would have been okay even then, but I became so stiff from trying not to move, I could hardly stand it. I thought I had to be just like Gran and I swear when she laid down in bed, she never moved!! I wanted to be just like her so I laid as still as I could for as long as I could till I thought I would surely die if I didn't move just a little! In my own bed at home I tossed, turned, changed positions every 3 minutes till I wore myself out and went to sleep. I had to make Grandma proud and if she didn't move, I wasn't moving. My little mind whirled with these thoughts till without realizing it, I fell asleep!
Most grandparents have that knack for making little ones feel so very special, because it so happens they are very special, especially through the eyes of their grandparents.

Mama's Dishes

As a child growing up in the forties, living in a rural area, everyone I knew used empty peanut butter jars, jelly jars and sometimes a pint mason jar. as drinking glasses. Our mamas would soak off the labels most of the time and scrub them till they sparkled like crystal. I thought nothing of it and neither did anyone else. It's how things were. Many a table was set with mismatched and chipped dishes and the empty jars set beside our plates to drink from. Those were some of the best meals I ever ate!
Mom never had a set of matching dishes in her life. I was grown and married before I learned there was such a thing. Sooo, one Christmas Dad planned to surprise Mom with a complete set of dishes. He let me in on the secret and, though I really wanted to, I never told a soul. We had a small town around twenty miles away with a hardware store that sold open stock dishes, which is where Dad decided to go. He said there were so many to choose from.
Well, when Mom opened the big box there they were!! A plate with a gold rim, one with blue flowers, a cup with a green vine and -----you get the idea. No two dishes were alike! I know my poor dad must have spent quite some time making sure of it. Mom was as pleased as punch. My eyes were big as saucers when I saw what else was in the box----six plastic glasses!! They were all different colors, but, oh,my! Real glasses! I thought about being a little uppity with my friends, but knew that Mom would not approve. She let me help her wash them and put them all away. I put the pretty new glasses in front of the assorted jars.
It was just not in me to wait till the holiday dinner was served to use our new glasses. I looked around to be sure no one watched, got the pink one down and took it outside to pump ice cold water straight into it. Oh, Lord that was good water! I raised my glass in the chilly air and right then I knew that, for whatever reason, I would always remember this day and Mama's dishes.