The last two weekends, I drove up to my grandma’s house and helped get it ready for the new renters to move in. By help, I mean I wiped down the kitchen cabinets and cleaned some windows in the basement and brought my kids to add to the chaos. My “help” was a drop in the bucket and to be honest, I just wanted be in that house one more time.
The house was empty except for a few cousins running around, a couple aunts cleaning the inside, and an uncle working on overgrown landscape. It was kind of just like “back in the day” (that seems to be my favorite phrase lately. My kids even use it and think that I am super cool because I was there “ back in the day.”). Growing up, when we went to Grandma’s house, we went to help. Yes, we did play, and yes, we ate hot dogs on bread with Grandma’s chili sauce instead of ketchup, but there was always a chore we were there to do. I remember planting potatoes, doing basil, stirring a huge caldron of chili sauce over a fire in the driveway, cleaning the gizzards of a chicken on butchering day, carrying wood, and of course, cleaning up after lunch. There was always a few extra cousins there to make it fun and visits to Grandma’s were not treaded.
As I was wiping down the kitchen cabinets, M&M came trodding down the steps like little bunnies. I looked over to where Grandma’s rocker would have sat beside the wood burner and visioned for just a second that they were hopping over to give her a hug. I wish she was there. I wish she had met them. She would love them just like she loved all of her grandchildren. So I stopped wiping those cabinet doors and grabbed my camera to capture the memories that were being made.
The kids were playing “hotel” and pretending to make calls on the wall-hanging phone. They helped gather sticks and made a little fire for some hot dog consumption (notice: when feeding a bunch of people, hot dogs seem involved). When we left that evening, my girls wanted to know when they could go back. “I love Grandma Cox’s house! Why can’t we live there!?!!”
So we went back the next Saturday. A different set of cousins were there to play and explore with (also like when I was younger. There are over 30 Cox cousins, so there was always a different set of cousins there.). They held ballet lessons on the hardwood floors of the living room. They earned a dollar by wiping down the shelves in the fruit cellar. And they continued the tradition of going to Grandma’s and loving it.
Though things are different, a lot has stayed the same. So many memories in that empty house and so many were made those Saturdays. Grandma would have loved it. I loved it. Cousins laughing and playing and a little bit of working. All the stuff that makes us a family.
We were never allowed up the stairs to the bedrooms upstairs. Did you see that adorable wallpaper!?!
And hot dogs and a little camp fire. Traditions at Grandma’s house.
Dancing in the living room. Lilly & Lucy would always perform for Grandma when they were little. She thought one of them will be a star some day. Who knows.
This swing was built by PapPap. It has been there for as long as I can remember and there have been many pictures of cousins filling it up over the years.
Did you notice that one side is higher than the other? PapPap was much taller than Grandma so he hung it so they both could enjoy it. What a guy.