Things you remember vividly from your childhood regarding grandparents (don’t think about them, just write them down as they pop into your head…ready…GO!):
My Maternal Grandparents:
Candy in a hidden bag that we’d have to find on Friday nights.
Coffee, shining shoes, washing cars and mowing grass on Saturday mornings.
The whole family, cousins and all, eating free and undisturbed in a back room at Joy Young’s Chinese Restaurant because he was good friends with the owner.
An enclosed garage converted into a bar and gameroom, and Uncle Jack avoiding adults there with us kids at every Thanksgiving dinner.
Uncle Irl walking in the house on Christmas with his scotch, dentures, and smelling like cigars.
Catching crawfish in the creek in front of the house.
Going to college football games with the entire family.
Driving to Nashville and Decatur with them when I was little.
Charlie Mae the family maid who was really part of the family.
Individual oil portraits of me and my cousins in the family room, and oil bridal portraits of my mom and aunts in living room.

My paternal grandparents:
The tax business in Bessemer, with framed pictures my cousins and I drew in crayon when we were 4 as the office artwork.
Ski boat, fishing boat and long weekends with the family at the river cabin.
Drinking the 8-ounce Cokes from the wooden crate on her laundry porch and then having long talks on the couch with Nana.
Rain on the aluminum roof of their house and two gardens they cultivated.
A mortgage burning party for a home that had monthly payments of $28 per month for 30 years, and a 40th anniversary celebration in that same house.
My grandmother losing 7 fingers in a “Rosie the Riverter” war effort who fished every summer day and took watercolor lessons at age 80.
A grandfather who always had money in his pockets for us, but never gave it to us until his wife ordered him to.
The torture of waiting to open Christmas stockings on Christmas Eve.
Rocking chairs on the porch that got used an awful lot.
Uncle Jimmy and my cousin Rob singing songs they’d written on ukeleles.