If I have the story correct, Grandma and Grandpa met in their early twenties. Grandma Norah (Grandma Sackett's mom) didn't like Grandpa and managed to somehow break them up. He moved to California and married a woman and had a daughter. Grandma stayed in Washington and married a man and had a son. Grandpa's wife died. He went to Washington and collected Grandma who lived with him as a "housekeeper" ~ they married and had 5 children together. Sounds like a love story come true, right? Wrong. They argued quite a bit, and I wasn't sure they actually liked each other.
They pulled together some fun Reunions when I was growing up. Grandma was always taking pictures...they had an instamatic camera (one that spits the pictures out right away). It was one of the originals where you pulled it out, watched the clock for a period of time, ripped off a layer, and then waited as the picture appeared. It was like magic!!
Grandma had great knick-knacks. My favorite were some ceramic buddha-looking men with bobble-heads (back before bobble-heads were cool). She liked 7-up ~ a lot! I can't see it or drink it without thinking of her.
Grandpa was a funny guy! He wore dentures for as long as I remembered. And if nobody was looking, he'd slip them down and make funny faces...as soon as we'd laugh and someone else would look, he'd slip them back up and act like nothing was happening. He always wore some awful baseball hat...silly words, ads, etc. He made seagulls that would "fly" in the wind. He was also a Champion Horseshoe Thrower. He also had narcolepsy and could/would fall asleep at some interesting times.
They loved to travel ~ not flying, but driving. They had a big duely truck and a 5th wheel trailer. I am pretty sure Grandma would pack her ENTIRE home into the 5th wheel when they came to visit. She was afraid not to have something she might "need." As Grandma's alzheimer's disease started becoming evident, the family worried about them traveling...Grandpa was forgetful, too, and we thought that maybe they would pull into a rest stop, Grandma would go use the restroom and forget where she was, Grandpa would get tired of waiting for her and drive off without her. It never happened, but it still made everyone worry about them.
Grandma and Grandpa went to Church...I think. Grandpa always struggled to stop smoking; sometimes he tried harder than others. I don't think he ever gave up drinking coffee.
When Doug and I got married, they came to the Temple with us. Actually, we all had to wait for them because they forgot to set the alarm and they were an hour late for the Sealing. I was the only grandchild whose sealing they attended. This is the only picture I have with them (it was taken with Grandma's 3-D camera) from the wedding.
On a sad/odd note: I was never comfortable when they came to our home to visit. I don't know why. My mom would get weird...I can't explain why or how, but even as a young child I could feel the tension in our home when they were there. When they visited after Scott was born (1982) I couldn't wait for them to leave. But once they did leave I cried. I stopped crying after a bit, but then started again when I saw a cigarette Grandpa put out on our front walkway. And then I stopped. And then I cried again when I found Grandpa's Folger's Instant Coffee jar (we kept it in the freezer even though we knew it would be ages before we saw them again). I am not sure what those emotions were all about...maybe it was just because I was 12.
1 comment:
I lived with Grandma and Grandpa for about two months. Grandma once told me the story of how her and grandpa met. Since I had my stroke, I don't remember all of it. I think she had an apartment with a friend in California and that's where they met. She was so cute when she talked about it. So, yeah, I think they did like each other. I think they just had a hard life.
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