foto-story Friday #11-- grandparents, mine

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

A few weeks back Ryanne posted this photo story Friday about our Grampa Sam.  Since then, I've been thinking about my grandparents.  I have this photo that I love of them, I didn't take it, but it makes me smile.  {don't mind the red ink, one of my children decided it needed a little more color!}I have a few items in my home that daily remind me of them.  I took some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  First we'll talk about my Gramma: 
She sewed, like she and her machine were one.  Gramma needed only measurements and she could make you clothes.  In fact, she made us clothes every year.  I remember she would call and mom {who didn't sew} would pull out her tape and we would line up for measuring.  It was always exciting wondering what we would get.  I nearly always wore the new dress for picture day.  She tried to teach me to sew one summer, but I wasn't as good a student as my sister and she gave up :(  One day, I said something  and hurt her feelings {what, I can't recall.  When told, I never remembered having said it...}.  The next Christmas, I didn't get a home made dress or anything.  I did get a gift and it was from "the grumpy old lady"  I nearly cry now thinking about that day.  It was several years later that I learned WHY I didn't get the usual home made gift. I felt terrible.
Not only did she make clothes, but she quilted.  Most often all by hand.  I have these two quilts that she made for me.  We each got a quilt when we were young and she made a special quilts for the grandkids as they got married.  When she passed on, Ryanne and I took it upon our selves to make the next quilt. We didn't know what we were doing, but it worked.  The first quilt is the one I got in Junior High school.  I slept with it on my bed for years, then it started to come apart.  I have repaired it and it has been put up.  The second quilt is the one she made for us when we got married.  I used to have it displayed, but I feared it would get ruined, so it too, has been put up. 
She was also talented in other ways.  She painted and was crafty.  One of the crafty things she did was take wedding announcements and turn them into framed art.  This is the one Gramma made for us.  She made one for my sister too.  If she were alive today she would be nearly 98, but she passed on in 1996.  My Grampa would have been 107 if he were still with us, but he passed on in 1990.

Now on to my Grampa Sam:  

Besides his family, Grampa loved his garden, his bottles, fishing, and a good game of Ole Sal. {solitaire} Pictured above is his garden in mid growth in 1979.  I didn't take this photo either, I have many memories of working in the garden with him in the summers and of sneaking into the strawberries and snitching a FEW.  They also had several fruit trees that ran along the fence.  In the field on the other side of the fence, was a herd of cattle.  These cows would get uncomfortably close to the garden and trees.  Grampa Sam had a nightly routine it involved the hose and a sling shot!  He would aim rocks at the cows and let the sling shot fly!  Also he was known to put the spray nossle on, ya know, the kind that can be directed into a tight stream and aim at those pesky cows.  We thought this was great fun and would ask to be his helper when we sleeping over.  Grampa loved to fish and kept a pole or two in the trunk of the car along with a sleeping bag and shovel.  One summer I was staying over and he and Uncle Ed took me out fishing in the boat.  I was so excited to get to go.  We fished all day and caught nothing!  When we got back home,he told Gramma that was the last time he was taking me fishing cause I was bad luck!  True to his word, I didn't go fishing again.  Ryanne was the Logger, Clancy was Mud and I was Bad Luck!This is a box of his bottles.  Before it was illegal to remove things from ghost towns, one of his favorite past times was to collect old bottles and such.  His windows were lined with them.  Grampa built shelves in front of the windows to display them just so the sun could turn them beautiful shades.  He could spend hours telling you about this bottle or that.  He researched them and sometimes wrote the time period and kind of bottle is was right on the it.  He gave my mom many bottles and we also had them lining our windows growing up.  When they came to visit, he would inspect them to see how the color had changed from the last visit.  In the above box is my small sampling of his vast collection.  I have not had a place to display them since we left Vegas.  This makes me sad.  It was like seeing old friends again as I unwrapped a few for this next photo.  Savanna was sitting there oohing and awing over them, wanting them all unwrapped.  It was like Grampa Sam was there smiling with us as we gently inspected and chose which to photograph.  Just before my Gramma passed away, I was visiting her and she kept telling me that if I wanted any of Grampa's bottles I should pick some out.  I only wish I had taken more.  
Another thing I wanted was this box.  It is Grampa's card box.  Every night before bed he would challenge Ole Sal to a few games.  Ole Sal is how Grampa referred to playing Solitaire.  I loved to watch him take on Sal and enjoyed asking him who was winning.  
I dealt up a game just for him last night with his broke-in deck.  Ole Sal was having a winning streak!  The box holds 2 decks, so I played another hand with his new deck..... sorry Grampa, he won again.  He was here last night handling bottles and playing cards with me.