Yesterday we gathered at GGs to celebrate my birthday and JDubs. We chose a variety of small desserts so there were different options for everyone. Since we had a tiny cake, GG decided to limit the number of candles to two and chose to display our combined ages. How depressing.

It was a fun day. TDub played hide-and-seek with S and performed charades. I think papaw was a lot more worn out than Tdub by the time we left. On the drive there yesterday I had the best memory of Grandma Walters. I did mention it yesterday while we were all together, but I wanted to write it down too lest anyone forget how much fun she was.

When I was kid, I LOVED going to her house. This didn’t change when I was a teenager. I can can still vividly remember spending the night at her house regularly when I was 15. I wasn’t able to do that very often after I turned 16, but not because of lack of interest. It was because I always had a job.

So I have no recollection of how this happened, but one weekend when I was 15, we were shopping and I saw the dual cassette (If anyone ever reads this and thinks, “What the hell is a cassette, look it up) Hot Rocks by the Rolling Stones. I though the Stones were so cool, even then. Keep in mind, this was the 80’s so the songs I’m talking about were already “Classic Rock”. She bought it for me and I remember playing cards with her and George that night and playing those cassettes at the table. I suspect they hated every minute of that, but they put up with it for me. She was the absolute best. I miss her. I am so thankful that JDub was able to spend so much time with her as a child so that she also has strong memories of time with her. Going to the natural history museum was something we both shared with her. Here are some other things about her that I remember.

• She loved gardening. Her yard was stunning every year. She built her own pond out back behind the sunroom. She had beautiful roses and taught me a lot about caring for roses.
• She was a good cook, but favored a lot of meat, potato and vegetable dinners which I suspect was very common for that generation.
• She loved animals. When I was little, she kept parakeets.
• She played the piano and taught me to play a little. She said I had a pianist’s hands. I wish I had put some effort into really learning how to play.
• She loved reading. After she was widowed, she probably read a book a day.
• She taught me how to play pinochle and eucher.
• She had a deck of tarot cards, and she was interested in astrology.
• She was very artistic. She used to come up with some of the most fun and creative activities for us. I think JDub gets her “craftiness” from Grandma.
• She liked the soaps. We used to watch Young and the Restless and Guiding Light together. Sometimes we would talk on the phone after a particularly good episode.
• She loved ice cream. We used to make ice cream floats all the time.
• She loved beer. She wasn’t a big drinker or anything, but she did like to drink a beer. There was always beer in the fridge.
• When someone was driving too slowly in front of her, she liked to say “Citizen’s Arrest!”
• She worked as a cleaning lady at the union hall when I was a kid to earn extra spending money.

XOXO