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Family Matters:  Memories of My Grandma... :-)  |
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Vintage Redhead
True Blue Farmgirl
233 Posts
Kaylyn
Saint Charles
IL
USA
233 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 09 2007 : 08:55:58 AM
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I'm off on a short tangent here about "simpler living" and finding these good old products at places like Soaps Gone Buy. I've known about the place for quite some time, but just passed on the link in another forum, and it got me to thinking about my grandmother, so I thought I'd share some of her wisdom with you. Some of it is funny, and some of it is "a-ha!" and some of it is very soon to just be lost in that which is new in the world. But stick with me - I hope you'll find it as interesting as I do! :-0
This starts with a link: http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/Red_Lifebuoy_Soap_p/uni1001.htm
I about spit when I found that original red Lifebouy. My grandmother, died 3 years ago at the age of 96. She had been looking for *original red Lifebouy* for the better part of 25 years. She absolutely *LOVED* the stuff. Even when she and my grandfather couldn't get out much any more, I took up the search for her. I always believed that I would find it. So when she died three years ago and I hadn't found it after about 15 years of searching, I figured original red Lifebouy was relegated to the past, never again to be found. My dad even told me that my search was over. So this year, for his 73rd birthday, he'll be getting a bar. Just for "...old times sake..." (which I can say to him since I'm not even 40 yet. And he doesn't look a day over 55.)
But it got me to thinking about the eulogy I delivered for my grandmother almost three years ago. Here is a great product that is nearly forgotten amongst all that is "New & Improved." I used to think that her language was old-fashioned. Now I wish I could hear some of it again, because in addition to this list, I know there are *hundreds* of other words I have lost. Here are some that maybe you haven't heard in a long time...or may never have heard...or haven't heard in this context.
1) A davenport was a couch.
2) A Victrola was a record player, most specifically one made by RCA/Victor, but then generically came to refer to any record player of that era just as we call most adhesive bandages "Band-Aids" whether they are that brand or not.
3) A record was an 6", 8", or 10" grooved disk onto which sound was recorded. The earlier the recording, the thicker disk, the grainier the sound, and the 8" size seemed to be standard - but I'm not certain they were made of vinyl. Later records were 10" and made of vinyl.
4) An ice box - That dates back when the apparatus was lined with tin and actually held blocks of ice to keep items cold...now we call them "refrigerator."
5) A doily was something you used to cover the wear on the arms of your davenport. They were hand-tatted with a shuttle (an art that is all but lost) and were secured with spiral pins into the wood of the daveport.
6) A coaley (sp?) or coaler was a furnace - that was how you heated your home. The family physically shoveled coal into it several times a day to keep the fire "fed." And it occasionally exploded, sending blackened coal dust throughout the entirety of the home. It meant everyone else left to go about their day and mom had to clean thick, black, coal ash off of every surface in the home just to make it liveable again.
7) A quarantine was what the city did to your house when you get the mumps, measles, chickenpox, smallpox, scarlet fever, whooping cough, or any other disease that most of my generation has never experienced. Once the red sign went up on your door, anyone outside the home stayed out and those who were inside stayed inside through the date listed on the sign. If dad was lucky enough to get to work before the sign went up, he got to keep working and stayed with friends or family. He could only bring groceries to the porch and talk to his wife and kids from the sidewalk.
8) Milk gravy was what smothered potatoes because you didn't make gravy out of a packet, couldn't buy it in a jar, and didn't eat meat every day.
9) A Dumb Dora was a woman who didn't think things through very well and couldn't be counted on to make good decisions.
10) If something was The Berries it was just *AWESOME*!
11) You put an unwrapped stick of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum in the buckle of the belt on your dress when you went out...because it was *The Thing To Do.* (And I have a photograph of my 14-year old grandmother in her flapper-mini, which went to her knees...*THE SCANDAL!*...complete with her belt, buckle, and Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum.)
12) Telephone numbers weren't always numbers. They started as 4-letter "words", a dash, and a single number. And they were party lines - no private conversations - meaning that several households all shared one line. It was common practice for neighbors to eavesdrop on one another.
Thanks for taking a stroll down memory lane with me. I miss grandma. I wish I had caught more of her language. I wish I had taken the time to learn more about her era...from her. But I'm glad I'm learning about my dad's life from him! ~ K
~ Kaylyn
(Living in Suburbia with a FARMGIRL Heart!)
My Current Cause: http://nickspavilion.blogspot.com/ |
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catscharm74
True Blue Farmgirl
4687 Posts
Heather
Texas
USA
4687 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2007 : 09:56:06 AM
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Thanks for the memories. I remember when my Nana and Papa had the "letter" phone numbers. And my other grandparents had a party line to their camp. Never knew who you would be talking to when you picked it up.
I miss my Nana's cooking most- she made simple, inexpensive meals that tasted like 5 stars. I wished I had gotten her gravy recipe. I have tried over the years to replicate it, but no luck. She used a baby jar to mix the gravy thickener in and then added it to the drippings.
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9094 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9094 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2007 : 10:28:22 AM
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I must be old because those things all sound normal to me.
NANCY JO
www.Nancy-Jo.blogspot.com |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Mar 10 2007 : 02:05:44 AM
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Kaylyn; thanks so much for the stroll down memory lane. Anybody who reads this post will miss their grandmas all over again, or hug or call her if they are lucky enough to still have her. You're the berries!! Nance
PS LOVE your chatroom name, since I'm a redhead, too! |
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Beemoosie
True Blue Farmgirl
2077 Posts
Bonnie
New York
USA
2077 Posts |
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Vintage Redhead
True Blue Farmgirl
233 Posts
Kaylyn
Saint Charles
IL
USA
233 Posts |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 09:11:14 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Nancy Gartenman
I must be old because those things all sound normal to me.
NANCY JO
Nancy:
You're not old!! You're a generation smarter! ~ K
(also: living in different parts of the country may account for why some words are still used with such high frequency.)
~ Kaylyn
(Living in Suburbia with a FARMGIRL Heart!)
My Current Cause: http://nickspavilion.blogspot.com/ |
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Miss Bee Haven
True Blue Farmgirl
4331 Posts
Janice
Louisville/Irvington
Kentucky
USA
4331 Posts |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 09:28:18 AM
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Okay, Nancy Jo. Move over and save me a seat on the davenport! LOL! When I dial the time/temperature phone number, in my head I'm saying it like I learned it when I was young: JU(for JUNIPER) 5-5961. A couple of my vintage phones still have old paper tags in the middle with old numbers. I leave them on, and whichever phone I'm using, that's the number I'm calling from! :D Thanks for those great memories.
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?" - 'Brother Dave' Gardner |
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Marybeth
True Blue Farmgirl
6418 Posts
Mary Beth
Stanwood
Wa 98292
USA
6418 Posts |
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 10:18:51 AM
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Kaylyn,
Loved the memories. My grandma called the "living room area" the parlor. You brought back a lot of memories that I need to be writing down in a journal. Thanks.
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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akcowgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
296 Posts
Valerie
Homer
Alaska
USA
296 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2007 : 8:54:54 PM
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Thank you for the little stroll and for making my remember to call my granny. I have been sick on and off all winter and have not gotten to see her since Christmas. I miss her and we live in the same town!!! I just talked to her though and told her I was sick and true to her form she says "Honey I love you but if you come here and give me what you got im gunna be mad" I told her i would come visit when I fell better.
Valerie
Yes, I live in my own little world. But that's ok they know me here.
Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
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Vintage Redhead
True Blue Farmgirl
233 Posts
Kaylyn
Saint Charles
IL
USA
233 Posts |
Posted - Mar 18 2007 : 10:27:07 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by blueroses
Loved the memories. My grandma called the "living room area" the parlor. You brought back a lot of memories that I need to be writing down in a journal. Thanks.
Aren't these fun memories?!!? And I'm with you - I need to be writing mine down in a journal. I'm trying to remember if my grandma used parlor - at least in her hometown where she lived in a more "divided" home. Hmmm...I'll have to ask my dad if he remembers.
Something I just remembered from her old house (she lived in Bloomington, IL before her and my grandfather moved north to live closer to my father in their later years) was that their garage was separate from the house. All of the garages were separate from the houses...and very small with doors that swung outward. But wow! were the porches huge!! Gone are the days of large porches and small garages, that is for certain... Sadly, what does that say about neighborhoods and families and friendships? Apparently, that vehicles are nowadays far more valued than time spend out front, advertising that we're home and available. Now our big "gathering" areas are in the back yards, around a dirty grill. Yuck! What a shame.
~ Kaylyn
(Living in Suburbia with a FARMGIRL Heart!)
My Current Cause: http://nickspavilion.blogspot.com/ |
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Family Matters: Memories of My Grandma... :-) |
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Memories of My Grandma... :-)
