A Friday Night Surprise

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Almost 6 years have passed since I wrote about “My Pink Grandma and My Not-Pink Grandma.” I was giddy with excitement last fall when one of the editors of the Country Sampler group of magazines sent me an email, telling me that her editor had read that blog post and might like to include an excerpt and a photo or two in an upcoming magazine. I replied quickly with my permission and a couple of high resolution photos of my two grandmothers.

Then I waited. It was my understanding that if the magazine staff did indeed decide to use the photos, they would come out in the December 24 issue about farmhouse kitchens. I remembered the possibility a time or two during the Christmas holidays, but when December 24 came and went, I thought they must have decided not to include my grandmothers.

Last Friday night I ran into our local Dollar General® store to pick up a few items. A small display of magazines caught my eye. When I saw a copy of Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Kitchens, I thought, “Hmmm. That may be that magazine.” I opened it up and there on the last page before the back cover were my pink grandma and my not-pink grandma with her oldest granddaughter — me.

I was so excited. Of course, I purchased an issue and looked forward to sharing my news with Ray when I got home! If you are out shopping and see a display of magazines in the next few weeks, open up the January issue of Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Kitchens and rejoice with me! (If you decide to do this, it will help to know that the words Farmhouse and Kitchens are large at the top of the front cover and the other words in the magazine title are quite small.)

The day after my trip to Dollar General®, I received a letter from the Country Sampler group, along with a complimentary copy of the January 2020 issue; but I was thankful that my first sight of Mama Sue and Granny were in the aisle at Dollar General®. What a sweet and fun surprise!

And now, here’s what I wrote about my grandmothers back in 2014, including the two photos in the magazine. I have highlighted the excerpt the magazine included.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

My Pink Grandma and My Not-Pink Grandma

My two grandmothers both grew up in rural Robertson County, Tennessee. Though their girlhoods had many things in common, their adulthoods seemed as different as night and day in my young mind.

Mama Sue’s bedroom carpet was pink. Her bathroom tile was pink. Her bathroom sinks were pink. Even the toilet was pink. And, I kid you not, her cookware was aluminum on the inside and, you guessed it, pink on the outside.

Granny was not pink. I realized recently that most of my memories of Granny are in shades of gray. She was sweet and had a pretty smile and I do remember one or two dresses in pretty shades of blue, but otherwise, my memories of Granny are drab.

When I was a girl, my two grandmothers lived thirteen miles apart. Granny lived in town, but it felt like the country. Mama Sue lived in the country, but she was quite uptown. Milk at Mama Sue’s came from a carton brought home from Daddy Leland’s grocery store. Milk at Granny’s came from the cow Granddaddy milked in the barn across the street from their tiny home. Mama Sue grew beautiful flowers and mimosa trees in her backyard. Granny’s backyard had vegetables and chickens.

Mama Sue had every modern convenience. Her kitchen cabinets were custom-made knotty pine. Her countertops were pink, of course. Her stand-up mixer sat on a shelf that swung up to countertop height when in use and stayed tucked away behind a cabinet door when it was not. Mama Sue must have been one of the first women in our county to have a microwave.

Granny’s kitchen had a cabinet that held her sink and a tall, white, wooden cabinet with one drawer and two sets of doors. She cooked in a hodgepodge of thin metal pots and pans. Her silverware stood upright in a jar on the kitchen table. Her trash can was an empty Quaker Oats box which sat on the floor.

When we dropped in at Mama Sue’s, she fed us peanut butter cornflake candy and chess pie. At Christmas we had fruit cake cookies, fresh coconut cake, jam cake with caramel frosting, and boiled custard dipped from a beautiful cranberry and clear crystal punch bowl and served in matching punch cups. Oh, yum! Could Mama Sue ever cook!

When my family dropped in at Granny’s, I ate biscuits left over from breakfast. The only dessert I remember was yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting. I thought both were delicious.

Both of my grandmothers worked very hard. Mama Sue hosted her children, her grandchildren, and her siblings and siblings-in-law often. She loved and served her parents. She worked part-time in Daddy Leland’s Store. Granny took care of elderly people in their homes, what we used to call “sitting up” with people.

Both of my grandmothers believed in saving. Granny must have squirreled away a large percentage of what she earned. Her bank gave her a place setting of china every time she deposited a certain amount; she gave each of her granddaughters an eight-place setting when we graduated from high school. Both of my grandmothers left an inheritance to their children.

Each of my grandmothers left me an example of seeking God, and they left me with precious memories. Two favorites are when Granny helped me catch a bird by putting salt on its tail and when Mama Sue tied bread bags on my feet because I brought no boots but wanted to play in the snow.

My parents taught me a respect for my grandparents that was based on love, family, and relationships and not on things external–an important lesson for little children.

The rich and the poor have a common bond,
The Lord is the maker of them all.
Proverbs 22:2

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And now on the second day of January in 2020, I’ll add two more memories, first of Granny and then of Mama Sue. Granny wrote me a letter when Ray and I were in our twenties. She told me that she prayed for me. What a comfort it was to read that.

Mama Sue spent her last few months very happily in an assisted living back in Robertson County. When my aunt Emily and I packed up her things after she died, I found a New Testament I had given her when I was three years old. I took it home and read what she had highlighted, desiring to know what she wanted especially to remember and touched that among the few possessions she had moved into the assisted living was that New Testament from me.

Her children rise up and bless her.
Proverbs 31:28

 

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