Grandma Lu Gets A Visitor Late At Night

 Betty watched Grandma Lu gather cups and a small plate of cookies to the kitchen table. It seemed like she  couldn't take her eyes from her. While Grandma Lu put things on the table,  Betty took her folder of pictures and put them on the table. Grandma Lu sat down and took a sip of her coffee. "You know I will suffer for drinking this, this late at night. I used to drink it to stay awake when the kids were little. My how things change over the years."

"Let's see what you have here. She started going through some of the pictures until she got to one. The picture of her home when she was just a little girl. It was the only picture she had of it. "How did you get this picture? I have one just like this. As far as I know there aren't any others."

Betty let out a sigh of relief and wiped tears from her eyes. "I was right. I just knew that I should know you. There was something about how you told your stories and  the way you held your head. You look like pictures I have seen of her. I don't know for sure where this picture came from, but I am thinking at one time it belonged to my grandmother or some relative. People seldom wrote on the back of the pictures, so I really didn't know what I had. Here is a picture of a lady called only Margaret. I think she is a distant relative."

Grandma Lu held that picture and shook her head. "Yes, that is Margaret. My mother's closest friend and cousin. Your three times great grandmother only had one daughter and several sons when she married my great grandfather. They had only one child after they  married, and that was my grandmother. Just a minute I think I have some pictures out that I was looking at the other day."

"Betty, here is a picture of my mother. She baked for grocery stores and other folks to put my sister through nurses training. She was a really good cook."  Betty just shook her head and said, "Just look at these pictures. They could be twins!" 

The pictures were priceless in Betty's mind. Pictures of men and women she had never known. Working on a farm, posing on a porch. Who were these people? Were they nice? Were they poor or rich? She had so many questions and there was probably only one person alive that could answer any of them: Grandma Lu. But she knew it was getting late.

Betty saw the older lady yawn and apologized for stopping by so late. "I am so sorry for coming late. I should have called first. People say that I am a bit ..Grandma Lu interrupted and said "A bit like your great grandmother, Margaret?" She laughed and so did Betty. What an odd day, but as she left she thought, I just might have a whole new family. Such fun. Fun is something she hadn't had in a very long time. Thank goodness for her small son, Joey. He brought in the sunshine when she felt only the dreary day blues on some days.

A Pleasant Dream And A Knock At the Door

 "My stars it's getting so cold outside, Grandma Lu grumbled when she came in from outside. The wind is blowing fifty miles an hour I swear." She rubbed her arms and thought about when she was a young girl on the farm. My mother knew what would make us warm when the weather got colder. She would get out her sauce pan, a can of Hershey's cocoa and make us some coco (that's how I spelled it in my head when I was about eight or nine)," she grinned. She called into the living room. "Would you like a cup of hot chocolate? I'm going to make myself some." She got the answer she knew she would so she took two envelopes of hot chocolate mix and two cups of water. Heated the cups of water in the microwave, stirred in the chocolate mix and that was it. Instantly it seemed were two steaming cups of hot chocolate. She carried them into  the living room beside each chair. Then she wriggled herself into a comfy sweater and waited for the familiar feeling of home. It didn't come. She tasted the mixture again. Nope it certainly wasn't like what her mother made. It wasn't even like the hot chocolate she used to make for her children.

"When they say 'times change or it's progress', that doesn't make it automatically better." She turned and watched her husband doze after his warm drink. "That's about all this did for me; make me sleepy." 

Grandma Lu dozed off as well with sweet dreams of her childhood on the farm. She could see her mother and her old silver saucepan, a pint jar of cream, a pitcher of milk, a cannister of sugar and an old can of Hershey's cocoa. She smiled in her sleep as she relived the smells and the wonderful taste of homemade cocoa. There they all were; her little brother, her older sister, and of course, her dad. They were all waiting for the wonderful warm drink. Wait they did, because the stove had to be heated, the milk had to be just the right temperature and of course, the taste testing by her mom. Then her mother's smile, meant that it was just right. There was as always, a plate full of home made cookies to go with the warm drink.

A knock at the door woke Grandma Lu up from her wonderful dream. She shook the cobwebs out of her sleepy head and wondered who would be knocking at her door after dark. She soon found out. There stood Joey's mother, Betty.

Grandma Lu said, "Well, hello! May I help you? Betty smiled and said, "I think that you are a relative of mine. If I am wrong I apologize, but I have just had this feeling ever since I started listening to your stories at the library. May I come in?"

Grandma Lu said, "Of course, you may. Come on out to the kitchen. All I have to offer you is a cup of instant hot chocolate. Not like the old days, but it will warm you up. So what is this all about? You think you are related to me? Why is that, do you think? Oh, you brought pictures. I love pictures. Maybe we can get this sorted out. No, of course, I don't mind. Oh there's the bell on the microwave. That didn't take long did it? There you go. Okay, let's see what you have there.

A Quiet Treasure

 Grandma Lu had been so busy with her yard sale. She finally was finding time to put things in totes. Some things for her next yard sale and some things just needed to be organized and labeled in a storage cupboard. On this particular day she found a strange looking tin box. It had a handle and it was green. "This must be Fran's, she thought. I'll set this aside and show it to him. He will either want to throw it away or save it for some unknown treasures." She shook her head at her husband's uncanny ability to save things that had no value. Often things (broken tools) were saved because they could be fixed someday or mainly just because...) 

She decided to have a cookie and a cup of coffee after working a few hours. Her husband walked into the kitchen and said, "Look what I found! Pretty cool box, don't you think? Wonder what's in it." He sat down at the kitchen table while Grandma Lu fixed him a cup of coffee all the while grinning. That man of hers!

When she sat down she watched him open the box and it was full of old papers. Really old papers. He passed one to her. She was only five years old when it was printed. The paper was soft as butter. It was his mother's box that he had saved and forgotten about. In it were just two things. The Bandwagon newspaper which had all of the old song lyrics printed in it along with very strange advertisements.

The other paper was a letter to Fran's mom and dad (their name was spelled wrong) informing them of their new real estate tax for the next year. Thirty seven dollars! They both laughed at how taxes had increased over the years. In that envelope was another letter telling them that they would from now on have to buy or make a number at least 2" high and wide to put on the front of the house. It would have to be visible from the street. It was the number 9. The envelope was only addressed to them as the street, no number. This took place in 1964.

This forgotten little green box started a conversation that lasted long after their coffee was cold. What an interesting letter. How it reminded Grandma Lu of letters she still had of her mother and father's. There was no address on the envelope. Only a name and a town and state. How in the world did the mailman find them?

Also Grandma Lu and her husband talked about how the tax assessors would come to the house and look all over. At one time she could remember that the tax man said that if her parents put in wall to wall carpeting they would have to pay a tax on it. Plus they counted all the pigs, chickens and cows! My how things have changed!

Grandma Lu cleared the table while her husband made his way to a cupboard with the little green box. "So what are you going to do with that box and those papers?" He grinned and said, "Well save it, of course, the kids might like to see them someday."

Grandma Lu shook her head and thought. "We won't see that box again for years. It was fun to look at, but it will be a surprise again the next time we find it." She chuckled to herself as she fixed supper. Aah the phone is ringing. I wonder who that is. The caller ID said it was an unknown number. So she didn't answer it. "You just can't be too careful nowadays. If they want to talk to me they can leave a message."

Betty was disappointed when Grandma Lu didn't answer the phone, but wasn't ready to leave her a message yet. Maybe she would see her again at the library.

Old Friends And Sleepovers!

 Grandma Lu was asked to speak at the library again in a few weeks. Once again Joey and his mother, Betty, came to listen to her stories. Today was a little different. Grandma Lu wasn't smiling or laughing as often as she usually did. Even little Joey noticed a difference. "What do you think is wrong with that lady, Mom? She's not smiling much today is she?" 

His mother smiled and gave him a hug and answered his questions quietly. "Sometimes, grownups have things that they worry about and that makes them sad. Or maybe she just isn't feeling well. Let's wait and see what she is going to talk about today."

Grandma Lu welcomed everyone and said, Today I am going to talk about friends that we make. As we get older we make lots of friends. Some are close friends that we can tell secrets to and others are just good friends that we can do things with even travel with if we can. Family can be counted on as friends too sometimes. 

We usually make friends with our cousins when we are little if they live close by, then when we start school we make more friends. As we get older lots of times our friends move far away and we don't get to see them very often, but when we do oh what fun it is to talk about all the fun we used to have. That is called by a  big word: reminiscing. Do any of you have good friends?" Grandma Lu smiled when she saw all the hands go up. Even little Joey had his hand up. "He said, "I have a good friend in Sunday school and we see each other in pre-K too. We have fun."

Grandma Lu listened to others talk about their friends and some friends that folks hadn't seen in a long time.

She pointed at the Rondo Items book and said, "This book is all about friends. Rondo was a very small community and so many parents were friends and then the children became friends and on down the line. Some of the grandchildren were also friends. Well, today's story is about friends just like that only not in Rondo but in my hometown, Cherokee, Iowa.

My best friend was Joan. Guess what? Our mothers were friends and you won't believe this but our grandmothers were friends. I call us three generation friends. We were four when our mothers got us together."

A little girl said, "What did little girls do in the olden days?" Grandma Lu chuckled, "Well, about the same things you do with your friends. We played outside. I can remember playing under Joan's pine tree in the dirt with her play dishes and making pretend pies. If we played quietly some of the chickens would even come close by us and scratch in the dirt with us. It was hard to keep from laughing at them. If we did they would run away.

 Joey raised his hand and said, "Did you have trucks and cars?" Again Grandma Lu laughed and said, "Most often in those days girls played with dolls and played house. We also played with our dogs and cats.. Sorry, Joey, no cars or trucks."

When Joan and I got older we would have sleepovers at each others houses. I can remember one that was a disaster. I guess we were about 8-10 years old. Joan was excited to stay overnight with me. We lived quite a ways from each other. We both went to the same school, but we lived in different townships. That was how the schools divided bus routs.. I suppose about ten or fifteen miles. Well that night after supper we got our pajamas on and it seemed like soon it was time to go to bed. Well, Joan wasn't having any part of that. She came down with homesickness! Have any of you ever been homesick? Many of the grownups raised their hands and nodded their heads. Well, homesickness is a real thing. You feel for sure that if you don't go home you will just die for sure. That's just the way that Joan felt that night. My mother called her mother and Joan's mother told her that they would come and get her but that then she couldn't be able to stay overnight again. Oh that was so hard. But my mother was such a good mom and a good friend to Joan's mother. She stayed up all night and put puzzles together with her so that someday she could stay overnight again. But you know what? I don't think she ever did!

I do remember staying overnight at Joan's house for a birthday sleepover. Oh how I got teased. I talked in my sleep! How I remember that. I wonder what I talked about.

Some of the folks asked about Joan and if she ever got to see her after school was out. And of course, the answers were all over the place. Grandma Lu told about  how Joan and she got together for a high school reunion after many years Their husbands burned the steaks on the grill while they were talking. Oh how those men got teased. Thank goodness we had watermelon! Over the years telephone calls and many letters were sent. We each had children and grandchildren and had lots to talk about. 

Betty asked Grandma Lu if she had a picture of her friend. Grandma Lu said, "I sure do. This is us many years ago when Joan and her husband came to visit. They came for breakfast and I was sick. I fed them ugly looking pancakes. They really didn't taste very good either. And you know what? Good friends don't care. They came to see us not my house, not my food, but for hugs and that big word again; reminiscing!

Love you Joan