Monday, October 27, 2008

Flashback Mondays

I am copying a friend of mine, hopefully she wont mind. She shouldn't she got the idea from someone else herself. The idea is to post something each Friday of something you have thought about from your past during the week.I'm going to change mine and post on Monday. Just to be a little crazy and live on the wild side. My friend had posted about her Grandma's and a photo of them where they have their arms around each other. I found that so sweet. It got me thinking of my Grandma Scott. I was 16 when she passed away and I have a lot of great memories of her. I was 3 when my Grandma Parrish passed away and she lived in West Virginia so I never lived by her to even try to form the tiniest of memory with her. My Grandma Donna Scott was fun though. Flaming red hair, great smile, tons of energy and amazing cook. Oh, and did I mention funny. As my friend posted about her Grandmas I too am going to list five tangible things that made me "flashback" and think about my Grandma. This is fun.

1.Horlicks Malties(which are chocolate flavored malt type lozenges, kind of hard to explain). My Grandma had these up in a cupboard in her kitchen. They were always too high for me to reach but if I were good she would get it down and let me get some. I loved them and this was the beginning of my addiction to Malt. I still love malt balls and malt shakes( caramel cashew shakes make the best malts,in my opinion).
It was our little secret though and my brother's didn't get them. I'm sure they got something else but this was my treat with Grandma and that's all the mattered to me.



2. Fresca. My Grandma was not big on Carbonation. She rarely had soda's in her house, it was mostly milk, juice or water. If we went up in the mountains for a picnic or had a family reunion at their house or somewhere else she would buy soda's and her soda was always Fresca. I would always ask my Grandma for a sip of her drink. I probably could've had my own but I loved to ask my Grandma for some of hers. They only had one flavor then, none of these extra ones like blackberry fresca or orange fresca. It was more simple. What I loved about my Grandma though was her having a Fresca was her living on the edge, when she pulled out the Fresca she was relaxing and chillin'. She was too cute.


3. Peanut and Butter Sandwiches. One year my Grandma stayed at our house while my parents when on their anniversary trip(and I will never ever forget this). I remember having a great time with my Grandma. My Grandpa stayed at home because he had to take care of the farm. They had a wheat farm and also some cattle. I must have asked my Grandma to make me a peanut butter and jam sandwich for school because she gave me one to take with my lunch. I can still remember biting into that sandwich and getting not just peanut butter and jam but peanut butter, butter and jam. It stuck so bad to the roof of my mouth. I asked her when I got home why she did that and she said "well you asked for a peanut butter sandwich." I've never forgotten that. I don't think I ever will. It made me laugh so hard. I started noticing that older people did that, put butter on their sandwiches. Now my own parents do that but they didn't do it when I was younger. It's only been in the past 10 years. That was a good one though. She said it so seriously.


4. HUGS! I'm sure all Grandma's give great hugs, how could they not. My Grandma's hugs have been on my mind this past week. Her hugs always came with a big smile and she had a warm and welcoming one. I know a lot of people who still have their Grandparents around. My own kids had their Great-Grandparents around up until last year. That's pretty lucky. I'm trying to pull on memories back from when I was 16, which I know isn't forever ago but I'm not a youngster anymore either. I miss my Grandma. She was sweet. I'm sad that she passed away when I was at that age in my life when you don't want to visit "those old people." I was going through my selfish stage. I didn't visit her as much. I can't do the what if game though. I just hope she knew how much I loved her and how much I loved her hugs. Oh and her hugs came with a smell that every once in a while I will get a whiff of, just out of the blue. I will be somewhere and take a deep breath and there it is, my Grandma and then I sigh and have a memory of Grandma Donna Scott. I put this photo up of my mom and Miles because I can't find one of my Grandma hugging me. Plus it's Miles Birthday next week and I can't believe 5 years have gone by that fast.

5. Deer Hunting weekend (though I'm anti hunting). Now they call this time in Utah UEA weekend. When I was younger I think they actually gave it a name that had to do with deer hunting. I could be wrong. What this weekend meant to me though was fun, fun, fun. I stayed far away from the boys and my dad if they shot a deer. My parents would come pick me up at school, in the car with the trailer behind. The trailer would be loaded with all the fixin's and things you need to keep you happy and warm while camping. It was an old camper. It had a table that folded out into a bed, a tiny kitchen, a closet, a couch that folded out into a bed and then a bunk bed above it. My Grandparents would go with us in their trailer and our neighbors the Wrights (which I've mentioned before)would go as well. The next day (after getting up to our favorite spot up Logan Canyon)the guys would leave really early and it would be just us gals left back at camp. My mom and I would sleep in, eat some breakfast and then go to join the other gals. I would run over to my Grandma's trailer as soon as I could.Her trailer was always warm and toasty. We would play card games, go on walks, find treasures, take naps, eat goodies. The guys would come back (hopefully without shooting a deer)and then it would be more fun with everyone all together. The best though and what my best memories are of are the daytimes with my Grandma and my mom. I will always associate fall and the mountains with my Grandma. She is probably the first one that taught me to appreciate and love the mountains, then my dad(her son). BTW this trailer looks exactly like my Grandparents.

My Grandma passed away in her sleep with a smile on her face. She smiled all the time while alive it seems right she would pass away smiling. I'm never sad when I think about her. Only good memories and happiness. I have to smile myself when thinking about her. I will also put up a pic of my Grandma later today. I've got to find this really cute one of her with her flaming red hair(most likely clariol) and her funky 70's shirt. It's great.

5 comments:

Heath694 said...

You're very lucky to have known your Grandma. I've never known either of mine. They both passed away before I was 5.

staceygriff said...

I'm very sorry Heather. That would be very hard. If I had one around I would definitely share.

Brenda Dickerson Lassabe said...

I love this! My grandparents had a trailer a little bigger than that one and it had a green stripe. I love deer hunting season! My dad would take us girls and we loved it. I do like to eat deer but don't hate me for it :)

I was very lucky to have one set of grandparents live on block below me and the other set live one block above me and they were friends! It was awesome. Thank you for posting this. I miss my grandparents. I had great ones too.

Anonymous said...

Love this post. Grandparents are so special and have such an impact on our lives. I lost one grandpa when I was about 11 but I'm lucky because the rest are still living. Hard to see them get older and more frail but it's comforting to know that they will live on through us and the lessons/love that they've shared. Great story about the treats from the cupboard and how your brothers didn't get any...it's amazing how grandparents can make each child feel like they're the favorite.

I love Flashback Monday already, thanks for sharing. (and sorry for the super long comment!)

Anonymous said...

My grandma loved malt too. When we would visit me and my mom would get a cup of milk and mix malt into it..YUM but mine was always more malt and I had to eat it with a spoon at the end. I can't buy malt to this day because I'll just eat it all myself. Thanks for bringing back that memory with your memory...