Events that happened the year she was born (1904)........
-The U.S. bought the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.
-The first tunnel was completed under the Hudson River.
-Longacre Square in New York City was renamed Times Square in honor of the New York Times newspaper.
-6 days before my grandmother was born, Cy Young threw the first ever perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
-The ice cream cone was invented at the World's Fair in St. Louis.
-The first line of the New York City subway was opened.
-Theodore Roosevelt beat Alton B. Parker to become the President of the United States.
-'Madame Butterfly' and 'Peter Pan' both premiered, with both of them receiving lukewarm reviews. Both eventually became successful and are still popular today.
Some things I remember about my grandmother........
-Wonderful cook. We always got to have great meals when we headed down to her house
-The pool table in her basement. They actually put the table in before they built the rest of the house as it was too big to fit down the stairs. Someone will have to bust it into pieces to get it out of there. The grand kids would go down and beat up that pool table at every family gathering.
-The storm shelter in her house. The home she lived in was actually built with a storm shelter that was actually underground in-between her home and the neighbor home. You could actually go into the neighbor's basement through the storm shelter. Needless to say, homes aren't built that way anymore.
-Very good Pitch player. For those that don't know, that's a card game that the family played.
-Her old car. She had it for years and never put many miles on it. The one car garage was barely big enough to hold it. It was a monstrous vehicle.
-Afghan blankets which she crocheted herself. Later, when she was older (late 90's), she scaled back and made pot-holders instead of blankets. We still use those pot-holders all the time. They're mismatched and sometimes are split into multiple colors because she ran out of one color halfway through the process. She'd just switch to a different color and keep on going.
-Costume jewelry Christmas trees. She had tons of cheap jewelry that she would mount on a board and them in a frame and create Christmas trees out of old jewelry. They were gaudy and beautiful all at the same time.
-Candy dishes. They were everywhere in the house and always full of candy. She had one dish in the living room that always had candy that I didn't like. Thankfully, the other dishes had more than enough candy to keep me busy.
-The eye-glasses. She wore the same style of glasses for as long as I can remember. She would upgrade the prescription, but the frames would always be the same style. Her twin sister wore the same style of glasses as well.
-She loved lots of flowers and bushes. Always lots of both in her yard.
-The appetite. Even when she was 100+, she still ate pretty well and loved it when we showed up with some food from outside the nursing home. If we showed up with a pizza, she'd say that she only needed one piece and then proceed to eat half the pizza. If we showed up with a milkshake, she'd say she only wanted a taste of it and then finish off the whole milkshake.
-She's always called Wal-Mart "Wal-Marks". I'm not sure why or how that started. But I'd correct her and she'd always note it and then proceed to say "Wal-Marks" again. So I eventually didn't even bother with the correction.
-Sequins on her shoes. She'd always have some crazy shoes that she'd wear that would glitter and shine with bright colors. They were the kind of shoes that only certain people can get away with wearing.
-Her daughter's death. My grandma and great-grandma occasionally were at odds and wouldn't talk to each other at times for various reasons. My grandma died a few years ago and my great-grandma attended her funeral. When she saw her daughter in the casket, I remember her saying 'Oh baby, sweet baby!' while crying. You could tell that it was a great loss for her to lose one of her children. They obviously loved each other, but all I could think about was how much time they spent being upset at each other for small things that really aren't that important. I have no idea why that hangs with me so much, but it does for some reason. It's a good, but tough lesson. Life is too short to sweat the minor stuff in life, even when you live 103 years.
-"WOO-HOO!!!" When we went to her house, we'd always walk right in as she would have the front door unlocked. She'd never been in the front room. So we'd always yell "WOO-HOO!!!" as soon as we came in the front door. You wouldn't have to wait long to hear a "WOO-HOO!!!" reply from somewhere to let you know where she was at in the house.
-She met my wife and daughter. It's unbelievable that my wife didn't meet her until she was 90 and still was able part of our relationship and marriage for 14 years after that. My daughter was able to meet her great-great-grandmother. Usually, I would take center stage when I visited her in the nursing home. She would tell everyone that would listen that I was her grandson. But when we visited with Kali, I played second fiddle. To everyone that would listen, she would tell them that Kali was her grand-baby. It was only for a couple hours, but she couldn't have been more proud. Link to visit
