Mom- 1940s-1950s- Part 1

With Grandma

with Grandma

with Grandma and Aunt Al

Mom doesn't really have that many photos from her childhood. The condition of some of them is not that good too, but I am just grateful that she still has them.

 

Our Grandparents-Part 2

Grandma-at-the-Farm

Mike and I always thought of mom’s mother as Grandma-at-the-Farm even when she moved to the house in Bordentown in the early 80s. The land owners had only given her and her brother Charlie either a month or 6 weeks to move. They wanted to redo that house for a relative – their son? She had moved in with her 2 brothers after letting Mom and Dad have her apartment in our town after they were married in 1968.

   I really wish that we had gotten the chance to see her and Aunt Ann’s family more. We’d go to her house for Thanksgiving and to Aunt Ann’s place for our second Christmas. Sometimes we’d visit them all in the summertime. They didn’t visit us that much mainly because Dad didn’t like them doing so. That is just so heartless and unfair.

   Grandma (and also Aunt Ann) tried teaching me to crochet. She even got me a set of hooks in the early 80s. I still have them. I could only do the single loop stitch. I made a little blanket for my stuffed animals.  I didn’t stick with this for that long, however. Mom tried teaching me to knit but I could never get the hang of it. I guess that I didn’t inherit their crafting abilities.

   I still have the 2 latch hook rugs- spring/summer and fall trees- and the blanket and pillow set that Grandma made for me. She did the latter for Mike too. I could never get rid of these and the other handmade items from her and Aunt Ann.

   She prepared nearly the entire Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious, esp. the pumpkin and apple pies. I remember how much she used to like English muffins with strawberry jam which I do also. There were always mini York Peppermint Patties in the candy dish at her house. I think that she liked Fritos too. I have a vague memory of that, as well as her canning vegetables and fruits in Ball jars.

   She got me into 2 mystery authors that she greatly enjoyed – Earle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason) and Agatha Christie. I always preferred that authors’ detective Poirot over Miss Marple. Aunt Ann introduced me to others of that genre- Martha Grimes, Margaret Truman, PD James, Elizabeth George, Reginald Hill, and Lillian Jackson Braun.

   Grandma had very beautiful Christmas cactuses. I am pretty sure that Aunt Ann got these after she died. She gave me a cactus but I accidentally killed it by over watering it which I felt very bad about.

   She helped me study my state capitals in 4^thgrade one of the few times that she was visiting us for a few days. This really helped me to remember them even more than if I had done so on my own.

   Her favorite perfume was Jean Nate and she collected cardinals, some of which mom has now.  We would get her both these as gifts. We have a few of her kitchen items too, like a cast iron skillet.

    I found the photo albums of her pictures of Germany when I was looking through mom’s totes a couple of years ago. I can’t believe that I had never seen them before this. Maybe I had but it was a long time ago and I forgot.

   She used to go bowling with her brothers. I was talking to mom about this one day and she told me that her sister, sister-in-law, nephew and even mom would also go with them sometimes. They had a pool table at their house. I remember her brothers playing this but not her but mom said that she did too.

   Mom and I both used to like playing the card game Solitaire and also doing those circle- a- word puzzles just as Grandma used to do. I wish that I could recall more about Grandma-at-the-Farm; maybe if Dad had let us visit her more then I’d have more vivid memories of her now.

 

                                                             1986- 80th Birthday Party

                                            
                                                                   Crochet hook set
                                                
                                                                   My Doll Blanket
                                    

 

                                                               Handmade Snowmen

                                                                Christmas Cactuses

                                                                      Poinsettia

                                                                  Germany-1960s

 

                
                                                  

                                                
                                     
   
                                       
                                                        

 

 

 

My Two Grandmas - 1983

The top photo is of my father's mother , our grandma next door. Mom married the boy next door. They moved into my mom's mother's apartment and she moved onto the farm with her brothers. We got to see Grandma Wancea practically everyday. That's our cousin Sal in back of my brother. He's the son of Aunt Dorothy, my dad's sister who recently passed away. We did not get to see our grandma at the farm that much, just 3 - 5 times a year. It's not like she lived that far, just about an hour away. Dad didn't seem to like going there which isn't fair. Cousin Mary is in the picture with Mark, Grandma Wrunski and I. This must've been about the time of our return trip from Florida. We always though of her as grandma at the farm even when she moved to a house closer to Aunt Al. She died in 1986 a few months after her 80th birthday.

Thanksgiving Memories

My parents, brother and I would spend Thanksgiving at our grandma at the farm's house in the 70s and early 80s. She lived about an hour away and I always enjoyed the drive down there. She moved in with her brothers at the farm after my parents got married and she let them have her apartment. We didn't get to see her much - 3 or 4 times a year. It's not fair that Dad didn't want us going to visit her but we got to see his mom everyday. I wish that we had more photos of the farm but this is it. I can't remember being there any other time than Thanksgiving. We'd see her at Aunt Al's house at Christmas and she'd come up here one or two times. We might've seen more of her when we were younger.

There was a box of toys that she kept in a room that we never went into - or was it just a closet. There was a Pillsbury Dough Boy that I liked playing with and a car attached to a string that my brother pulled around. In another room was a pool table. I was only upstairs in her bedroom once. In the yard near the house was a tree with a swing hanging from a big branch. We would sometimes sit under the dining room table and watch TV. I remember a Hanna Barbera cartoon - The Blue Falcon being on once . My cousin Gene David was taking pictures of the farm one day - it might've been for a class project. We did look at the farm animals sometimes but those memories are hazy.

I can still smell all the good food in my memory. I never tried the turnips or mincemeat pie though. She made excellent apple and pumkin pies. There was about 16 - 20 people at these special dinners. I was upset when the people who owned the land told her that she had to move because they were redoing the house and giving it to their son - I think that's who got the place. They didn't give her much time to find a new house, maybe 2 or 3 months. She moved to Bordentown and was closer to my Aunt Al. My brother and I always thought of her as Grandma at the farm though. We had a few Thanksgivings there but in 1985 it was at my Aunt's house and unfortunatley in 1986 my grandma passed away in early November. We went to a friend of the family's grandmas house that year. It's sad that our family tradition was over.

My grandma made those two snowmen on top of the TV. She did alot of crafts. She taught me how to do a basic crochet stitch and even got me a set of hooks that I still have. My Aunt Al also tried teaching me more about crochet but I was never any good at crafts and gave up on it after making just a blanket and a scarf for my stuffed animals. Maybe if I had tried harder I could've gotten better at it, but I doubt it - I definitely did not inherit the craft genes.