What is something that reminds you of your Grandma?

I was just cleaning out my storage and found old dovetail wooden boxes, old wooden bowls of all sizes, antique picture frames, Old enameled buckets and wash pails. calico aprons, antique kitchen tools, ; wonderful PRIMATIVE antiques; all which remind me of my Grandma on the plaines of Montana! She homesteaded, built her own cabin and dug her own 50 foot well! She turned a horse ranch into a wheat farm by herself because her husband died and left her with five small children to feed.
I have her potato masher and a few of her old kitchen tools which I cherish.
She made the best cinnamon rolls in the world!
I adore primitive antiques because they all remind me of what an incredible woman my Grandma was, and IS, where ever she may be!
 

I only had one living grandparent when I was born. My paternal grandma. She lived across the street. My main memory is her sitting by the bay window. She died when I was about 4, so I do not remember her well. But my mom told me once that grandma liked looking out the window and watching me play in the front yard. Plus I had one of those bouncy horses, and grandma said she could see me bouncing on it in our living room. Actually what she saw was my head bouncing up and down while I bounced/ :p:
 
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The only memory I have of my Mother's Mom was she passed away before I turned 5yrs old. She was in bed all the time on and off oxygen all the time. My Dad's Mom hated our family and I only received one gift from her on my Wedding shower. She gave me the Last Rites Cross. It had holy water in it and candles for a priest to light when he Blessed you after you died. She passed away a few weeks before my wedding.
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I never knew my paternal grandmother. She died when my dad was a baby. But what reminds me of my maternal grandmother is a
jar of snuff. She and Pa both dipped a little snuff.
 
Things I remember about my maternal grandmother:

1) Her cooking.

2) She taught me how to sew.

3) She would drag me along to go visit her church friends and we'd stay out late. I'd fall asleep on a sofa.

4) Her love for her grandchildren was very strong.

5) Her cute, flowery homemade dresses.

6) She always wore an apron while cleaning and/or cooking.

7) She was quite immaculate.
 
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Paternal grandma: the smell of mothballs and the smell of roses. Both are very comforting to me as they remind me of how much she loved me and I loved her and how much fun I had at her house.

Maternal grandma: the smell of Ponds Cold Cream. She'd slather her face with it every night before bed and when she'd kiss me, some of it would rub off. I'd rub it in and feel grownup. Also the aroma of all the flowers growing in her yard, especially the gardenias.
 
Sassycakes said:
The only memory I have of my Mother's Mom was she passed away before I turned 5yrs old. She was in bed all the time on and off oxygen all the time. My Dad's Mom hated our family and I only received one gift from her on my Wedding shower. She gave me the Last Rites Cross. It had holy water in it and candles for a priest to light when he Blessed you after you died. She passed away a few weeks before my wedding.
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That's kind of creepy but maybe her thought behind it wasn't what I'm thinking.
 
I remember my grandma's lemon meringue pie during family gatherings. We'd get completely stuffed until we couldn't eat any more, but then out came the pie that was so good, it could not be refused no matter how stuffed we were. Afterwards, it was off to the couch to watch football.

Her fried chicken was even better than KFC, which is what I thought when I was a teenager and KFC was like the greatest restaurant food in the world. One time when I was maybe 15 years old and was visiting for a few days, I asked her how she made it — not that I had any intention of cooking it myself; I was just curious. She told me it was just flour and salt and pepper. No, that wasn't all it was. It was that plus her magic, or maybe it was the love she added to the mix.
 
I never knew my paternal grandmother as she died when my father was a teenager. My maternal grandmother lived hundreds of miles away in another state, died when I was ten, and I only got to see her a handful of times. She always sent me a birthday card with a few dollars in it. I’m reminded of her by a wooden chair of hers that I asked to have, and have retained over the decades to this day...
 
My maternal grandmother lived around the corner from us but she only visited about twice...simply because she didn't want to be a mother, she'd sent all her girls to live in orphanages when they were toddlers.. and kept the boys who were worked and beaten.. but my mum always held onto the hope that her mother would love her but the never did, nor did she giive a care about us kids her grandchildren......:mad:

My paternal granny was the opposite, she couldn't get enough of us... and @Marie mentioning the bay window, I remember my granny would come to visit every Wednesday afternoon.. and she wouldn't sit on the sofa or armchairs, always insisted on sitting on a dining chair next to the fold down dining table in the Bay window... .I can see her so clearly to this day. My mum died when I was 18 but I still had my granny until I was 27...
 
Murrmurr said:
That's kind of creepy but maybe her thought behind it wasn't what I'm thinking.
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She also told my cousins that they were forbidden to talk to me or my sister. I remember one year she told us they were having a picnic on Father's day at a park. We went to the park and no one was there. She just wanted to make sure we didn't visit at her house. I remember how upset my Dad was over that. She hated the fact my Dad got married young because she needed his pay. He had to quit school at 13 yrs old to help support the family.He was the oldest of 7 children.
 
So many things remind me of my grandmothers.

I'm fortunate to have several small items in my apartment that belonged to my grandmothers.

I have the only mixing bowl that my country grandmother ever had from the day she was married until the day that she died. It is a big old ironstone bowl that was given to her at a shower hosted by family and friends. In her world, the showers were homely affairs where friends and neighbors made things or cleaned out cupboards and attics to help young people get a start in life.

I have a small shawl that my city grandmother made from scraps of yarn hanging on the back of a chair in my sitting room.

It makes me sad to think that when I die those things and many others will lose the magic that they hold for me and will become stuff or junk to the people that are tasked with cleaning up after me.

‘O quam cito transit gloria mundi [Oh how quickly the glory of the world passes away]’
 
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Oddly enough, The Statue of Liberty.
She was an immigrant and it held special significance to her, she too, had a very meager pension but she would take a couple of us grands every summer to visit.
This was my maternal grandmother, my Dads mom was gone before I was born and mentioned very little.
 
Never knew either grandmother...my mom's mother and father were divorced when she was 4 and her professor father had custody - (long hill country Virginia story) and she was raised in boarding schools...my dad was 16 yrs older then my mom and his mother had passed away before I was born.
 
Sassycakes said:
She also told my cousins that they were forbidden to talk to me or my sister. I remember one year she told us they were having a picnic on Father's day at a park. We went to the park and no one was there. She just wanted to make sure we didn't visit at her house. I remember how upset my Dad was over that. She hated the fact my Dad got married young because she needed his pay. He had to quit school at 13 yrs old to help support the family.He was the oldest of 7 children.
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Ooohhh...I get it. Totally get it. My dad was in sort of the same situation; went to work at 17 to help put his sister through college. His mom got mad when he joined the navy a year later. But she got over it. And she didn't like it when he got married to my mom, but she never sent her any freakin voodoo stuff.

The park thing was a rotten thing to do, btw.
 
Murrmurr said:
Ooohhh...I get it. Totally get it. My dad was in sort of the same situation; went to work at 17 to help put his sister through college. His mom got mad when he joined the navy a year later. But she got over it. And she didn't like it when he got married to my mom, but she never sent her any freakin voodoo stuff.

The park thing was a rotten thing to do, btw.
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I could write a list of all the awful things she did to my parents and me and my sister and brother, but it would take pages. We were never invited to dinner and on Christmas when we visited her all the other Grandchildren were given presents from her except us. We even had to hand them her gifts,and not get anything. They were crazy times.
 
i never knew my grandmothers. They both were deceased when I was born. The first letters of both my first and middle names is the same as their first names. I have several photos of each of them.

My paternal grandmother had a heart condition since birth and was not considered "good marriage material" in her small Eastern European town. So she wound up marrying her first cousin, a quiet and shy man. She was known to be a fabulous baker, and lived to be in her eighties!

Mom's mom died relatively young at 52. She was a sweet and gentle woman who was very devoted to family and took in boarders (my grandpa's many relatives) as they came to America from the old country.
 
Sassycakes said:
I could write a list of all the awful things she did to my parents and me and my sister and brother, but it would take pages. We were never invited to dinner and on Christmas when we visited her all the other Grandchildren were given presents from her except us. We even had to hand them her gifts,and not get anything. They were crazy times.
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It's sad your parents put you through that. But the up-side is that you got to know your grandmother for who she was. Plus, you learned how not to "Grandma".
 

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