My Grandma & Grandpa about 1940, looking very American Gothic
Today, Lynn showed us a lovely little red girl piece in in her post, "Red Rover, Let the Joy Come Over." And I've just got to say that I've been just flooded with the best kind of childhood nostagia all day. Red Rover was a game we played as children all the time. And the little girl piece reminded me of my dear gramma (or Oma as we called her). Gramma used to make us yards and yards of paper dolls from newspaper, that we then cut apart and decorated. I spent a lot of time with my gramma. She lived only just a block away from us and was there every morning to help get us ready for school. She'd be there every afternoon when we came home.
After reading Lynn's post I spent a great deal of the afternoon, thinking about my childhood with gramma. A lot of who I am now is connected with who my gramma was. She raised 8 children during the depression and got by all of her life bringing in a little extra money by sewing for other people. I spent countless hours in her sewing room making clothes for my stuffed animals. Gramma was very generous with her time, her scraps, and her buttons. It struck me as quite ironic how much influence she had on me and what I do. You see this afternoon, I made about a million buttons!
Gramma has been gone for a long time now but at least today my childhood memories were fresh. For me, she was one of those people in my life that I've had the good fortune to love. One of those people who showed me how to be kind, generous, and live with a gentler spirit. I think we've all got someone special like that. At least I hope we do.
And Lynn, just many, many thanks for being at the start of my little journey down memory lane. Isn't it just lovely when one little piece of art can take another person so far?
