Hi Suz, What a wonderful idea. I think you’ve tried to get us to do this before and we haven’t been very responsive. Sorry about that. Sometimes, it is difficult to take the time to sit down and write about stuff for many reasons.

I love your memories! Mick and I spent many summers living with Nana and Gramps while our mother was ill. I think that started when I was about 4 and Mick was 3. We slept in the extra bed in Gramps’ bedroom. I remember asking Nana about why they had separate bedrooms once. Her response was that he snored too much and drooled on his pillow so they decided to have separate rooms. I guess it worked for them.

The cherry tree out front was of the Queen Anne variety, my favorite. I remember being instructed in the proper technique of picking the cherries. Gramps was good at getting Mick and I to do many chores for him. Mowing the lawn and it had to be just so. Two rounds in one direction and then one round in the other direction. We then had to rake all the grass up and spread it just so in his garden out back. Edging the lawn every summer was a pain. It had to be just so too.

I remember their house before the back was added on. Dad actually added on the back of the house that you remember. Originally, there was nothing beyond the kitchen out that way. So, there was the living room, the kitchen, two bedrooms and that small bathroom. When I was a young teenager, Dad built on the entire back of the house which probably at least doubled the size of the house for them. He loved to build.

Gramps’ office wasn’t actually downstairs, but was in what would have been the garage on most houses. You did have to go out the back of the house and then turn left to get to the office. It was old and funny smelling for sure. He had those old leather adjustment tables that always reminded me of medieval torture racks or something. I received many adjustments there. I loved to hang out there sometimes with Gramps and ask him questions about Chiropractics. He was fascinating and had some really interesting concepts. There used to be an actual human spine hanging in his office there too.

Gramps used to sit in his chair there by the front door where he would read the paper, listen to the radio and watch TV all at the same time. If Mick or I tried to change the TV channel so we could watch something we were interested in, Gramps would drop the newspaper down a couple of inches and tell us he was watching that as he peered over the paper.

Heck, I’m so old that I can remember when the started building the original Cottonwood Hospital across the street. Several times a week, Gramps would take Mick and I across the street after the workers had gone home so that we could see what progress they had made. I remember looking at the footings and then the foundations and walls as they went up. When they started doing the electrical work, Gramps would collect the little plugs they knocked out of the electrical boxes. We watched them build that place. Amazing.

Nana was wonderful. She would read to us and we’d sit next to her on that green couch when she did. She was a wonderful cook, except that she insisted that we eat prunes – I still hate them to this day!!

I learned at a very young age to answer her questions in very particular ways. I remember once being asked about my last bowel movement. When I couldn’t remember (what kid would?), I learned quickly why an enema bag always hung in the shower! After that, if I was ever asked about a BM again, I answered with a very quick “last night” or “this morning.”

We used to sit on the porch and blow bubbles through wooden thread spools using dish soap. Buying bubbles was a luxury otherwise.

Nana taught me how to hand stitch. She would do mending on her old treadle Singer Sewing machine and I would hand stitch scraps of cloth she would give me. I still do hand stitching sometimes and often remember her teaching me how.

Wow, what memories you have stirred. Thanks!

Jim