One Of My First Memories

In 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, I think I must have been 4 and half, my Grannie (my dad's Mom) lived down the lane from us and I was always hanging out down there. I love my Grannie more than anyone else at that time I think. That day Grannie said Nellie if those Japes get as far as Texas you just come on down here, and we'll hide under the feather bed. Looking back I have to laugh, my little grandmother thought she could stop the bombs from falling on us if we were under her feather bed, and that is really a laughable situation. There are lots of things the bed was good for namely sleeping and taking naps, which Grannie did every single day at one o'clock and they lasted 30 minutes. You could set a clock by her naps. She often let me play with a small wooden bucket that she had packed water from the spring when she was a little tyke, which she had filled with buttons and other stuff, an old perfume bottle which still had the smell of the blue waltz in it though it was years old. The little bottle came with a glass stopper and had a small silk bag for holding it. I loved sitting on the floor and playing with it and the buttons for hours, while Grannie pieced a quilt top. She had lots and lots of small pieces of fabric, that she made string quilts which she later quilted by hand. Grannie had long gray hair that she wore in a top knot on her head, with plastic combs and hairpins. She let me brush it for her and put it up for her after I was around six. She had the patience of Job as I am sure I sometimes tangled it up for her, but she never complained. If she was going outside into the Texas sun she would put on her bonnet. I wore them also, more about that later. She had quite a few of them, as my mom often mad new ones for her. She loved to do a lot of things but the most important thing she did that I remember was to do the quilts. I think she made a few house dresses as she called them. She dried the peaches from her tree under the Sun, I don't remember how she keep the flies off, but somehow, she had some sort of screen that she put over them and the flies try as they might never got to them. She loved to make fried pies from the peaches, seasoned with a little lemon. They were very good! I think that is where I got my love of cooking is from her, as I would watch her by the hours doing cooking. I am sure she was a fair cook, but the food she dished up was plain fare. I do know this she made a mean biscuitand to this day, I still love biscuts. She was a lot of fun. One time when I was six or seven she took me to the dime store which I think was Woolworth's she bought me a dish of vanilla ice cream. It came in a sundae dish and was 3 scoops, and I ate every bite of that ice cream. Price was a dime. She loved uce cream and was fond of telling you so. My Grannie was funny about a lot of things but she loved going to that dime store and buying things. I have a string of glass beads she got from the dime store. I always thought if I grew up I would take up fishing so I could el free to do as I please. More about Grannie later, I need to go to bed. I am sitting at the computer and fighting sleep.