Going to Great-Grandma's House

When I saw Grandma Helen's car in the driveway after arriving home from school it never surprised me. She would often be there when my mother worked, however,  when I would see her car on a Friday afternoon and I knew my mother was home, I would begin to get excited.  I knew that we were going to see Great Grandma Josephine.

During the long car ride down, Grandma would tell us stories about her parents. "Your Grandpa Frank was a go-getter," she would say, "he would collect big piles of bricks from construction sites after demolition and after cleaning the bricks, they would stack them nicely in a vacant lot down the street to sell them." Story after story would fill the many hours of travel and when she became tired of telling stories, she would try and guess what kinds of crops were growing along the side of the highway.

On the days that we left early enough, we would make several stops: Aunt Maryann's house for some candy bars, Anderson's for some of grandma's favorite split pea soup, Aunt Vivian's house in the mountains for some cheese and fruit, and finally we would arrive at Grandma Josephine's house. On the days when we arrived late, my grandmother would hustle us into the bedroom that had two twin size beds and an old singer sewing machine in it, but before falling into bed, we would go into Grandma's bedroom and gently give her a kiss on the cheek. She would wake up slightly startled, but once she realized who we were, the corners of her lips would rise forming the most beautiful smile, her skin would crinkle around her gorgeous dark brown eyes and the most welcoming feeling would wash over the room. She would put her hands together and bring them up to her breasts in a graceful gesture,  and she would quietly drink in the sight of us and tell us how much we had grown. Every time that she saw my little brother she would exclaim, "Helen, he looks so much like Tony." Later we would ask, "Grandma Helen? Who is Tony?" She would never answer, instead saying, "Shush, it is time to go to bed." Tony was Grandma Josephine's brother.

Those long trips in the car to go see Grandma Josephine sometimes seemed mundane while they happened, but they are now a treasured memory that I will one day tell to my own children.

(Note about the crops along the highway, Helen and I have different recollections of this event.  I remember her asking, "What is that crop over there?" It looks like such and such, or maybe it is this or that? However, her version is that she would tell me what it was every time. She would tell me a lot of times, but there was some major guess work going on with some of them.)