Grandma - Cultivating "Home"

I say "Grandma's house," but it was really "Grandma and Grandpa's house."  In my mind, I think of it more as Grandma's house because she was a more active part of my childhood. My grandpa was around until I was 15 (first at the house, then at a nursing home), but by the time my memories started, his health was already declining due to Parkinson's. I think he was a fairly quiet man even in full health, but I hardly remember him saying much of anything my whole childhood. He took halting steps and spent most of his time around the table on Sunday nights or in his lift chair watching TV (I was always a bit self-conscious about the shows we were watching when he was in the room).

As I mentioned earlier, the majority of my memories of my grandma revolve around her house. Last night, I looked through old pictures trying to piece together in my mind what the house looked like. These little snapshots jogged so many long-forgotten memories about the furnishings of the home. It really was like walking back in time (green carpet, anyone? orange and green velvety couches?).

I always loved this silly picture. We always took a family picture at Christmas Eve of all the cousins together and each individual family unit. I'm over there on the right with my awesome red sweatshirt and sweatpants. Beth and Troy were probably newly married at that point, and Josh and Emily were little and fun to play with! Note the wooden door with the diamond window. This let out the front door, but we never used this door. We always came in through the side.

Another picture I loved of me and Chris. We always enjoyed playing together on Sunday nights and holidays.

Here we are one Easter. Grandma always had Easter baskets for us. I guess I'm about to throw an egg here. Above that couch was a huge picture of Jesus.

This is the view from the family room into the piano area and then the kitchen. There were several of those cut-away holes between rooms. To the left was an old-fashioned record player in the chest.  I'm not sure what all those trophies were from. Grandma had several nativities out at Christmas time.  Uncle Dennis is eyeing the piano. He used to play every Sunday night once people started to leave.

On to the kitchen. At this age, I often had my mouth open like that. This picture doesn't show much of the kitchen, but behind that chair was the old-fashioned (convection?) oven built into the cabinets. The stovetop was separate and between the counter and the sink.

This shows a bit of the Sunday night food spread, the counter-top stove, and the yellow curtains. 

We've got some lovely fashions here. There's a brown refrigerator with a Garfield magnet that said "Diets Stink." Garfield was pretty popular back then and the cartoonist is a fellow Hoosier.  Steph is standing at the "squeeze through" spot where the person sitting there would have to scoot up for us to be able to go from one end of the house to the other. The wooden door there leads to the room they built on the end of the house before I was born.

This was Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom, where the older cousins would watch TV when we could no longer agree on the same show. The window behind the bed used to lead outside but with the added room, it leads to another room! We always thought this was so cool and would climb through it, especially for a quick hide-and-seek getaway.  Eventually, Grandpa needed more of a hospital bed with better handles, so my last memories of this bedroom were of two beds in this room.

That door was the door that we would always use. Grandpa is sitting in his power-lift chair. The table had those flaps that would fold up. One of the little frames on the wall said, "Do not walk in front of me. I may not follow. Do not walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."  (or something like that!). I don't know why I still remember that, but I always loved looking at her pictures and collages and knickknacks. 

This was the main hangout spot on Sunday nights. Note the couch, lamp, ceiling-to-floor curtains, tiny TV. What was so normal back then now seems so...old! Does that make me old?

While I haven't rummaged through all the pictures, I realized that there are many angles and rooms that I do not have pictures of.  At the time, it didn't seem important to take a picture of the rotary phone in the wooden box or the pantry with the pull-string light. Plus, this was before the digital camera age, so every picture had to be printed and paid for. I have to rely on my memories for images of...

• the middle bedroom with the accordion doors, game closet, pull-down desk, sewing machine table
• the back bedroom with the cedar chest and mostly a storage room during my childhood
• the bathroom with a power dish that smelled like Grandma
• the basement (which was really like a cellar) with the rickety steps, metal pipe handrail, washer and dryer, pull-string lights, and extra canned good storage behind the curtained-off area. This area always gave me the creeps.
• the large garage that hosted many family garage sales over the years. We'd always eat ham and beans on those hot summer days. Grandma had an extra freezer out there with ever-ready popsicles!
• the old climbing tree and swing in the yard. There was a lilac bush, and that smell still reminds me of Grandma.

I still prioritize people in pictures, but this reflection has also prompted me to capture images of the lesser-photographed areas of my own home. For example, I don't know that I have a single picture of our laundry room! I wonder what my own boys will remember of our home. What are the things that seem normal now that will look "old-fashioned" decades down the road?  

Another wall hanging on one of the walls was "Home is where you hang your heart." Grandma cultivated a sense of "home" for us.  While I never actually lived at 130 N. 23rd, it definitely holds pieces of my heart!