Grandmother's House

Some of my first memories are of getting acorn pricklies in my feet while playing in my Grandmother Kathryn's yard on Allen Road.  We roamed the street, it seems now as toddlers, my baby sister and I.  We would visit with the neighbors and no one ever wondered if we were safe or not, being a nuisance maybe, but we were in the care of family.  Herman and Mary lived next door to my Grandmother and spoiled us as we were their own.  They had a really neat garden and Herman would take us out and show us where his squash and tomatoes were almost ready to harvest.  I remember once he made chili with peppers from his garden and I tasted it, I had to be less than five-years-old, I thought my tongue was going to fall off so I scrubbed it with a napkin, that only made it worse.  We would also visit with Guy and Jo, they had trees that produced the sweetest peaches you ever dreamed of.  I don't think they even grow like that anymore.  

 Grandmother  had an incredible back yard with a real playhouse, not one of those plastic things you have today-I mean it had a screen door.  It was my mother's then my big sister's and everything was worn but the toys were still there as if one child stopped playing and left them for the next.  I can still remember the musty smell and how I hated it as we began to outgrow it.  There was also a huge patch of violets that I would pick for my Grandmother, purple is her favorite color and at the time mine as well.

After playing outside all day we would come in for either an RC cola or a YooHoo and hopefully head to the movie store (at this time there was a brand new video shop on the corner of Bankhead and Cooper Lake in a little yellow house).  We would rent the Huga Bunch movie for the five millionth time and go home for dinner and a bubble bath. 

 Now, I am not sure what is happening in this world today but have you tried to buy bubble bath lately?  It doesn't exist.  I remember mountains of bubbles that barried us in foam.  She always had Avon's bubble bath and to this day the smell gives me warm and comfy feelings.  But, it wasn't only the bubbles it was the whole experience of bathtime at Grandmother's, looking fabulous in our bubble baubles and when we had been sufficiently water logged we would dry off with the warmest, softest, fluffiest, most wonderful smellinest towels in the whole world and I swear it was like  wrapping up in love, everything was right in the world.  I can remember Grandmother teaching me the proper way to dry off once we were to big to scoop, "You take one foot and dry it off and then step out with that foot, then the other then work your way up and it keeps the floor dry."   I thought she was a genious.  I use her method to this day!

After bath time we would go and pick out our pjs from Grandmother's drawer.  She would let us wear one of her silky night shirts or pajama tops and boy we thought we were something special.  I had a favorite it was purple and satiny and  I always wore it, she gave it to me when I was about 12, it is still one of my favorites. 

As I get older, I will always be that little girl when I go to Grandmother's house.  She moved to Villa Rica about 13 years ago, but somethings remain the same: I have to take a bubble bath, I have to have some silky pjs, and she has got the best shoe collection of anyone I know.

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This page is dedicated with Love and Affection to my wonderful grandmother, Kathryn Vincent.