The closer it gets to Thanksgiving, the more memories of my grandparents loom in my mind. I am blessed to be able to say that I had a happy childhood. Love was present in my home and in the homes of my grandparents. I believe the reason why I have such a profound love for the Holidays is because of the memories that I hold dear of those times spent with them. My mothers parents lived in the same city as my parents and I do and although I loved visiting them and reliving those precious moments in my mind, my dad's parents lived a little further out near the country. I think I looked forward a little more to visiting my grandparents in Maryland not only because it was a chance to venture out of city limits but because of the special time that it presented for my grandparents and I. My grandfather Jesse was a quiet, laid back man, full of joy always. He left and unforgettable mark on my life. My grandmother Mary Agnes, his wife, was a strong woman, the cook, the organizer, the go getter, the one who had a slightly bigger part in creating the wonderful memories in my mind that I miss so much today.
At Thanksgiving time grandmom would have the house looking right and smelling right. She didn’t decorate as much as me, her granddaughter, but what she did was enough. From the tree to the three sticked candle lights she would have in the four front windows. She would have hard butterscotch candy on the living table as well as the can of Kathryn Bach caddie dids she would have hidden especially for me under the back bedroom bed upstairs. She sold these candies for fundraisers and would always put aside a can or two for me during the holidays. She would have Christmas cards all over the house. The house would be so warm, and the smells of the apple pie and butter cake that she always made filled the air, till this day I know that people love my butter cakes because I was able to duplicate her recipe. I remember many times sitting at the kitchen table watching her prepare with love those scrumptious butter cakes. The only other two things she made I wish I could duplicate was her homemade biscuits and preserves. My favorite was the Virginia Ham that she would bake. My grandmother was a clean woman, never in my life had I seen a person clean a ham with Joy dish detergent and water. The first time I saw that I said oh my goodness we gonna taste dish liquid but to my surprise never once did I taste it and I had enjoyed eating dozens of her baked hams up until she passed back in 1989.
The bus ride to Maryland would be two hours of pure joy. I delighted in watching the countryside roll by outside my window, looking at the animals on the farms and seeing all the houses decorated for the Holiday, the Pierre resistance would be when it would have snowed days before and I could enjoy the snow covered roadsides and snow covered houses that would be all decked out for the holidays. Then to pull up in the greyhound bus station and have my grandparents waiting for us is a priceless memory I hope God will keep seared in my mind forever. Sometimes grandpop would pick us up alone because grandmom would be busy at home cooking. I will never forget sitting around the family table the 5 of us breaking bread and being thankful for all that God had done for us that year and just enjoying being together. When we would visit during the Christmastime grandmom would always get me a doll. I looooooved doll babies and still do. My favorite doll that grandmom Mary gave me was a doll named Hi Dottie, she came with a phone for her and a phone for you. I wonder is that how I developed the gift of gab via the cell phone and then in the future the internet, lol. The saddest part of my trips to visit my grandparents in Maryland was returning home, not that love was not at home because it was, it was just having to leave grandmas and all the extra long distance love that was in her house behind.
Although it has been 22 years since I spent my last Christmas holiday with my grandmother, (for my grandfather died back when I was still in high school), I remember it like it was yesterday. I stayed with her a week, and my husband of twenty plus years who then was just my boyfriend came to pick me up to take me home at the end of the week got to meet her. She was the first one of my relatives that got to meet him and she embraced and accepted him as my future. Another blessing came later that year when she came and stayed with me at the apartment for a week back in the summer of 1987, another priceless memory. My only regret is I wish I had some pictures of those times to put up here to show you them both and some of those happy times that I am now speaking of that we spent together, but thank God for sweet memories!
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