A Grandmothers Gift

Today my thoughts shifted to my grandmom, she has been gone for nine years, but my thoughts often float to her. There are so many memories of my childhood that include her, and how lucky I was to have her in my life! She taught me so much in life! My brothers and I were the youngest of her 17 grandchildren whose ages ran from 50 to 16 at the time of her death!



When I was a little girl my dad's sister Marie who I called Aunt Em(she was called this because one of my favorite movies was the Wizard of Oz) would watch me while my parents worked. Aunt Em and I would often spend our days with Grandmom, and we would often go on car rides to Shady Maple or my favorite Kitchen Kettle and take a ride on the horse and buggy. I have to say my fondest memories of Grandmom were when we sat in her sitting room, and listened to the tapes she played on her tape player.


Listening to her music I would try to imagine what was happening when back when. I can still hear the voices of Bobby Vinton, and Connie Francis filling the room! It was magic to me, and those old songs have so many memories tied to them! When the Glenn Miller Orchestra would play Moonlight Serenade I could picture the men coming back from WWII as their wives and girlfriends were greeting them as they came off their ships. It all seemed so real to me! Grandmom would tell me stories as these songs played about the 1920's and what it was like trying to feed children during The Depression in the 1930's. Her stories were brought to life with the voices behind those beautiful songs!



When I was 18 Grandmom died at the age of 91, but those memories of her have stayed with me, and now as Emma, Teddy, and even Dan and I all listen to the music together, we talk about Grandmom, and I share the stories with them that she used to share with me.





PS: I have decided to share some of those songs with you!