One of my sisters and I were recently discussing things that you don't keep around on a regular basis, but once in awhile… you have a great craving for it… whether you go out and buy it and let the taste bring you back, or just want to lay eyes on it again for a moment.

Why? Because it was in Grandma's house.

In one Grandma's house it was Cool Whip, and funky artifacts from all over the world. A collage made entirely of snakeskin, a metal depiction of Kali, the big yo-yo knockers that hung on the door knob. And always… Grandma.

In another Grandma's house, it's the furniture that was handmade in Vienna during the 1940's, Spritz Cookies & Honey Milk, and the way she could roll her eyes (multiple multiple circles).

In the OTHER Grandma's house (yes, I had/have 3… the benefits of being a stepchild 8•D), the JuicyFruit gum in the kitchen drawer, the comforter that was almost threadbare, but you curled up under it while you watched tv, and the overcooked broccoli.

What was in your Grandma's house?

Campbell's chicken with rice soup. Nana always had a can readily available even if we had just finished dinner & my Mom would then roll her eyes :)

Very small teacups that Nana would fill with a small amount of hot tea, sugar and the rest was milk....that was our 'treat' at Nana's house.

The third thing was so much unconditional love that one could almost reach out & touch it. Nana loved us no matter what we did. That is the most important legacy I hope that my grandchildren remember me for.

My other set of grandparents were deceased before I was 9 years old. I just remember huge meals at the kitchen table on the farm :)

Thanks Cat for this thread.......interestingly enough, the girls cousins on Nana's side are having their first annual "Cooking like Nana" weekend this summer. It should be fun~~~:~)

In my Grandma's house were treasures.....family treasures. There was the portrait of Cousin Pearl-who-died-from-consumption-while-she-was-engaged-&-never-got-to-be-married-poor-thing-she-was-only-19 ...LOL....it was always said like that too, all in one breath. My Aunt & Uncle have the portrait of Cousin Pearl now, in her Victorian lace dress & Gibson Girl hair-do. I now have the sugar crock from the 1800's, my Grandmother's grandmother carried her clothes in it all the way from Ireland.

A chamber pot and a spitoon. { Man, I hated that old woman}.....

She had CHICKENS in the yard....and chickens everywhere...and made us walk barefoot and we'd get chicken dookie between our toes....


but damn....she made the best buttermilk biscuits......

Lots of family pictures, an old Nintendo, a pool table, and grandma's spaghetti...NO ONE makes spaghetti like my grandma...I mean I can have it made for me by a famous chef, and to me, its nothing compared to my grandma's. She also makes this killer green jello salad. Thankfully, my grandma is 81 and more alive than many of us, and I see her every saturday night when the twins go over there for her sleepover.
Every birthday she asks what I want for my b-day dinner, like she doesn't already know...and I always say spaghetti.
Let me again say, that there is no spaghetti in this world like my grandma's...probably because it is made with a very special ingredient...grandma's love.

My Grandma.

Grandpa, too. With ... *shudders* ... a spittoon.

Found grandpa's revolver. After eating dinner, and as usual I was the first to finish ... I couldn't wait to try out grandpa'a chair. No one but him sat in it. So I sneaked into the livingroom while everybody finished up ... sat down ... kicked back the lazy chair ... and that's when I spied his 'piece.' Tucked in on a shelf within arms' reach, and behind of all things, his recent birthday cards.

Grandma was not ... was not happy when I brought it in to show everyone.

I am so envious. I never knew any grandparents :( They died before I existed. I am enjoying reading this thread though :) I did have a great grandmother for 5 years who lived with us. She was a tyrant and told me if I picked my nose I would go to Hell. So I never did and never have lol.

The stuffed Pheasant that was always out of reach and the old Singer sewing machine...it was the closest thing to a toy in the house. The basement was always a little dark and scary...that must be where the fun things were!

Lol.

Ohh, the basement ... was a treasure trove of canned goods, grandpa's fishing equipment (he made his own weights at the foundry he worked at ... and I swear one must have been at least a kilo) ... but, yeah ... scary it was. The stairs leading down were on something like a 70 degree incline.

But ... but ... what I did or do remember?

They had a framed painting of the infamous 'dogs playing poker.' Lol. Never found out to this day, the why behind that one. 'Cause they had others, that were truly masterpieces.

When I was a wee one... Grandma ALWAYS seemed to baking cookies... always. You couldn't go over there without that smell in the house, of freshly backed cookies.
My mom and I lived down the road from her in Minnesota, and we would walk the mile down the road to her place, picking flowers in the summer time, only to be greeted with a fresh plate of cookies on the table. Of course, I got my mom in trouble once, during one of our walks... I found a Lady Slipper off to the side of the road, and picked it for grandma. Oooo... did mom get in trouble for that one. Grandpa worked in the Forestry department, needless to say, grandma let ma know what not... but not in front of me, of course... they left me alone with my plate of cookies. :o)

The chiming, bonging clock that would wake me up every half hour and remind me what time it was.

I remember my "Grandfather" { my father's step-father}, and he was REALLY sweet! He was always quiet, and smiled nice...unlike Grandma.
I remember he took me to kindergarten once....a white car with circle designs on hood...a real classic now, I'm sure.

What a great thread...Grandparents are so special, aren't they...I have so many wonderful memories of my Grandparents, especially my Mom's parents...at Grandma's house the smell of perked coffee and something baking in the oven is a vivid memory...the musty but mysterious attic where I was sure there were valuable treasures hidden and long-forgotten...the smell of the wood and the beauty of Grandma's fine china cabinet...mostly the feeling of utter joy and contentment at being at Grandma's and all the love and attention lavished on me...at my other Grandparents house, (they were alot older) I remember their old dog that I would play with and feed bits of food that I didn't want to eat, lol, and the sound of a budgie and canary chirping and singing and a clock chiming on the hour and going for a drive in Grandad's old car...oh, to be able to go back for awhile...thanks for the memories.

My mother's parents, we called them Ma & Dad because EVERYONE called them Ma & Dad ....LOL. I don't have a lot of memories of them, they both dies when I was fairly young. But my grandfather, Dad, was a factory worker & he played the flute & was a bantam weight boxer back in the 20's & 30's.
I remember Dad playing the flute, he'd sit on the back of the couch to do it with his feet on the cushions & my grandmother would bark at him that couches were NOT for perching ! Dad would just roll his eyes & make us kids giggle cuz my grandmother was always saying that to my sister & I. To sit & not perch.
Ma had this nasty old Chihuahua that hated everybody & would hide under her bed when company came. Then, if you had to use the bathroom off her bedroom it was like walking a mine field because you never knew when that dog would dart out & bite you on the ankle.
And whenever we kids complained to my mother she had no patience.....her statement to us was " That dog is so old he has no teeth ! What's we going to do.....gum you to death ??!! "
In my defense........he had hard gums !

lol: Lauren, maybe the chihuahua borrowed your grandpa's teeth to nip you? hahaha

In my deceased great grandparents' home, my brothers and I always got Klondike Bars after lunch. My grandpa always had his tub of Cottage cheese on the table at every meal, and grandma would let me sift through her jewelry drawer for pins and stuff that i could keep.

o.O

Fun times.

I was really young when my dad's mom died, so I cannot picture her in my mind, but I do remember grapefruit, saurkraut and buttermilk with pepper in it...to this day, when I get uber-stressed, I reach for the buttermilk.

Funny how certain things are soothed, by memories of long ago. I mean, I really didn't know her well, but I remember eating those things with her and feeling happy, and now 30 years later, those same things calm me and put a smile on my face.

We lived with my grandparents until I was 4... the things I remember (which is a very long time ago) is.... Grandma's big hugs... her fresh cooked cookies and bread.. her antique jewelery that she used to let me wear.. in the garden a swing where my grandad used to push me and sing to me (I always remember that).. oh yes... and she did have a gold fish .. which ummmm died one night when we were having dinner.... how was I to know that fish didnt eat chicken??... especially when the piece was bigger than the fish (but thats another story).. granddad's ventriliquists dummy which used to scare the living daylights out of me... there is so many things too many to name....

Who's Grandmother had weird / wacky home remedies for when you were sick ? My Grandmother, my Dad's mom.......put Vick's Vapo Rub on our chests if we got sick....yes...& in our arm pits aaannnnnddddd made us eat a teaspoon of it too.....Gross !

I remember that... funny how it used to work... lol..

Pat has reminded me of a few other memory treasures ... yeah, grandma always ... always had a budgie that would be singing in the background allll the time throughout our visit.

And ... and ... one of the best things ... particularly when you are a kid ... a box of puppies and a box of kittens (forgive them that, they didn't know about spaying and neutering). And I swear, this was without fail each and every time we visited.

We were allowed all the sweets we could eat ... yes, the origins of my sweet tooth ... er, teeth, in my case. Oh my ... could grandma bake ... and the house would be filled with wonderful aromas. True Hungarian baked goods and sweets. And with 9 children of her own (3 passed either stillborn, or shortly after birth ... yeah, do the math on that one) for each of our birthdays ... you always ... always were greeted with your favourite dessert item after dinner. Mine? Ohhhh ... the best ... the best lemon meringue pie bar ...none. And an added treat for me, as I was my grandpa's namesake ... homemade tapioca pudding. Two of amongst many, many of my favs.

I once made a comment that brought a big smile to my grandma's face. She had a truly miraculous garden. Fruit trees, vegetables, flowers ... and it was not small either. So, as the saying goes, people that can inspire a garden have 'a green thumb.' After dinner one night, we are finishing up a fantastic meal of roast pork, cabbage rolls, roasted chicken .... and her potatoes. Oh man, those potatoes you could make a meal of all by themselves. She bolied them in fresh chicken broth first, then oven roasted them.

Oops ... sorry, got away from me ... so, sitting around, talking ... and this is prime garden season and my mom and dad are commenting how wonderful everything looks ... brilliant colours on the flowers, robust vegetables ... and the saying comes out, that grandma truly has a green thumb.

Me? I pipe up and say; "Green thumb? Grandma has a green arm!"

Ta for now.

This was outside Grandma's house but my Grandfather had a 48 Dodge and when it idled it sounded like it was saying "needle." I dubbed it his "Needle Car."

Oh yeah, I remember the Vick's Vapo Rub and cod liver oil too, lol.

flat warm gingerale! that was the liquid prescribed to sickies in my parent's house.

reading through this thread, my mouth is now watering for grandma's standing rib roast, roasted potatoes, & yorkshire pudding.

I have wonderful memories from my other grandparent's house of trips to the beach (6 blocks from their house), goodies packed to go… spending 1/2 the day in the ocean (yes, I was a fish from WAY back when)… the lifeguard's whistle… constantly checking to see how far from shore/their bit of shore we were… being called in for reapplications of suntan lotion (aka i'm a pale irish person, help! I'm about to burn!)… the end of the day as the sun was setting… going up to the boardwalk and rinsing off our feet, pleasantly tired & energized all @ the same time. The trip back to their house, being hosed off again before going inside to take showers while gramps fired up the grill in the backyard… lazing around the front porch eating grilled corn and steaks and fighting over who got the cherry popsicle 8•)

OMG.....to this day when my stomach gets upset or I'm violently ill I want flat warm ginger ale.....too funny. Or what I don't want is milk-toast. Yuck.