Today I am doing grandparents memories and how they impact our lives. Every part of whom we are today is based on our growing up and what we were taught.
My mother's family was unusual. My grandfather was a locomotive engineer and he married a woman who was a honky tonk piano player. She was all of 5 foot tall (on a good day) and decided that now she was married to a professional she was in society. She had a Wednesday bridge club and tea gathering for almost fifty years in her living room and library.
Apparently my grandfather's father lived in an upstairs apartment and used to make bathtub gin during prohibition at the top of the stairs. My mother would bring her dates into the front lobby area at the base of the stairs which led to the upstairs apartment. She and her date would neck in the front lobby until my grandfather would chase out the suitor. It was rumored my mother had this all planned so she didn't have to worry about over agressive dates.
My grandfather was a very quiet man. He would arrive home each day from work and walk into the kitchen. He would pull out a large shot glass and a bottle of Jim Beam. He would then fill the glass and then toss the drink down and go in to change out of his locomotive overalls.
My grandparents were rocks of society and community in the area. Their home was huge with a big basement, large first floor, and a second floor apartment. The second floor apartment was a full apartment. Each year they would sponsor a medical student from overseas who had come to the Mayo Clinic to study medicine and specialize. I can remember students from Nigeria and from Sweden living upstairs.
They were also the ultimate in doing things as a routine. It was how things happened. We knew that every year when we visited iin the summer my grandfather had a special pick-up. He would drive the train to pick up the Libby's fresh corn (the Libby plant had a water tower ear of corn put up in 1931 that was 150 feet tall. The Libby plant is gone but the ear of corn watertower is still there.)
It meant the following weekend we would have four or five cases of fresh corn. We knew it was going to be a great day because all the kids in the family showed up to spend the morning shucking corn. Then there were huge pots of boiling water, vats of butter, and off we would go. Things were done because that's the way it was done. It was not about changing things.
But mostly I remember really deep friendships that spanned decades. The lady next door was named Ann Wade. She owned a hair salon downtown. She loved all kids and so we all would visit her house next door. It was not child proof yet it was always filled with children. When she wanted to see more of us she would invite us to the hair salon to visit. We got so excited because it meant she would take us next door to FW Woolworth's lunch counter and buy us lunch. I would order a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate milk shake and I was in heaven. It was beyond understanding that an adult would buy us lunch.
It was a time of amazing kindness by a lot of adults who only knew we were kids. It was the mid-50's, when we got into trouble is was simpler. There was one multi-story retail store in town and periodically we would get kicked out for riding the elevators up and down all day.
We learned about politeness, returning calls and saying please and thank you, taking time to do nothing, and spending time face to face in conversation. Amazing stuff!
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