Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Grandparents

Braden (9) and Cara-Lee (6) are spending a lot of time at my parent's house this summer. They spend the night a few times a week. My parents love having them. They don't do anything special, but these are special times for my children.

When I grew up my grandparents all lived out of town. They were two and four hours away, respectively. I would spend portions of the summer with each set of grandparents. With Dad's parents we went on vacations - to see my aunt in south Texas, mostly. We would stop along the way and read every Historical Marker on the road. We went to all kinds of historical sites - the LBJ Ranch, Birthplace, Boyhood Home, Library, Lady Bird's Bithplace, John Nance Garner's home (he was VP under FDR who said the vice presidency wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit). A one day trip to my aunt's turned into a full two or three day excursion, complete with a stay in a motel - the kind where you pull your car up right in front of the door. We'd eat at Dairy Queen in whatever little town we were in, but usually ate out of the ice chest in the back seat.

Back at their house days were filled with picking vegetables in the garden, playing in the tree house that Grandad built for the kids, and drinking Coca-Cola out of the 10 ounce bottles from the fridge in the back room that was just for drinks. I can remember my Grandad coming in from a day in the oil field and sitting in his recliner with a cold Coke. I was always there for VBS, and would ride the Joy Bus to church - (Hello, Travis! Hello, Travis! Hello, Travis! We're glad you rode our bus! Merrily we roll along....) Great memories.

At mom's parent's house, who live on about 300 acres in Oklahoma, life was a little different. Huge garden - about an acre in size. One year there were so many watermelons that we literally gave them away on the side of the road. I would help my grandmother can all kinds of food - green beans, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, etc. They had cattle, and there was some kind of plant that was poisonous to cattle, and he would pay me one cent for every one that I pulled. It was on the honor system, and I was honest about it, and made quite a bit of money over the summers. I put the money in a savings account up there, and withdrew it when I went to college. Double Cola was the drink of choice up there. They don't make it anymore, but it was good. They lived on a river and we would set out limb lines every morning, and I would check them throughout the day. We ate a lot of catfish. We froze a lot, too. I could clean and fillet a catfish when I was about 12 years old. I also learned to drive up there on the land, starting at age 9. Great memories.

I am so glad that Braden and Cara-Lee are spending time with their grandparents. They are doing nothing special, but these are special times. One day they will have great memories.

4 Comments:

Blogger Bar L. said...

Thanks for sharing those memories! I could amlost feel myself back in my Grandmother's kitchen or helping my Grandpa in his garden. I was very blessed like your two children, I spent quite a bit of time at their house because it was close by. Your kids will have a richer life because of it...there's nothing quite like the love of a grandparent!

My son and I live with my mother so his granparent memories are a bit different. I tell him all the time that he better make me a Grandma someday :)

5:20 PM  
Blogger Danny Sims said...

The "ice chest out of the back seat" is a classic memory for me. Thanks.

6:34 AM  
Blogger Travis Crow said...

Yeah, can't you just see the old metal Coleman ice chest back there?

6:38 AM  
Blogger Danny Sims said...

I think we did upgrade to the plastic cooler when it came out in the 70's, but before that it was the "destined to get broken" styrofoam model in our backseat, just waiting for one of us to sit on it or lean on it, or put the lid back on wrong... The sound of the lid scrapping along the top of the cooler is one step from fingernails on the chalkboard!

7:16 AM  

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