Remembering the good ol' days

I have started writing down my life.  I have gone back and forth on whether any one is really going to read it though.  The only way I am going to find out is to just do it.  So, I will keep writing and just see where it goes.

For the most part I have really enjoyed remembering and looking back on my life.  There have been some parts that have really hurt and brought many tears, though.  There have also been some bittersweet moments.    It has really made me miss my grandparents.  Thinking back of all the fun I had as a child and everything that they did for me has really made me wish I appreciated them more when they were here.

I have three sets of grandparents.  Which always meant three times the Christmas presents!!  Of course, my maternal and paternal sets, but I also had step grandparents.  My maternal grandparents are the only one still living.  As I have began to write things from my childhood, I have come to really appreciate my living ones more.  There names are Pappy and Gigi.  The grand-kids called them Granny and Granddad, but as the great grandchildren started coming along it changed to Pappy and Gigi.  We would go to the college, where he was president and swim in the pool, play basketball and get the coldest Cokes in town out of the little refrigerator in his office.  We would go to the student lounge and play pinball or watch TV on that gigantic screen TV set.

My paternal set lived in Covington, TN.  We called them Coo Coo and Paw.  They bred and showed TN Walking Horses and Jack Russell Terriers.  Both of those deaths were especially hard on me.  I find myself really missing them lately.  I will cook a meal or pack some food up for my dad to take home and think of how proud my grandmother would have been of me.  Or I would think that this should be her packing up our huge Sunday meal.  I miss the days of sitting in the barn with my aunt while "the men" worked the horses.  I miss the days sitting outside of a whelping box while puppies run in an out.  I miss sitting on the stool in that huge kitchen watching her make the best food I will ever put in my mouth.  I remember begging Paw to let my sister and I go coon hunting one night.  We finally talked him into it and maybe lasted 15 minutes after we got into the woods.    

My step-dads parents were Nonnie and Guydaddy.  We stayed with them a lot when we were younger.  (I keep saying we and that means my sister and I!)  She was a school teacher and he was a pharmacist that traveled around and destroyed out of date drugs.  He would leave on Monday morning and not get back until Friday afternoon.  I always looked forward to Friday when he would get home.  He would come in and say "Hey Bert!"...that is what he called Nonnie!  My sister and I had so much fun at their house, too.  We had tons of play dough and dishes.  One time we took our radio outside and put in the Vanilla Ice tape and made up a dance to Ice Ice Baby!  We practiced it all day long.  There were two basset hounds that lived next door that would always be a welcome audience.  We raised a chicken there and kept plate fulls of corn worms in the summers.  We rode bikes and helped Nonnie plant flowers every spring.  After Nonnie retired, I always looked forward to her and Guydaddy picking us up in that big Cadillac on Friday afternoon.

If there is one thing that I can teach my children it would be to appreciate growing up.  I always wanted to be older.  I couldn't wait to be a teenager, then I couldn't wait to turn 16, after that I couldn't wait to be 18, then 21.  I never slowed down enough to appreciate the age that I was.  I wish that I would have let go and laughed at Nonnie every time she would pop that plastic silverware bag at the Olympic instead of turning red with embarrassment.  I wish that I would have loved those dresses Coo Coo made for me instead of trying to figure out how I could not wear them to school.  I wish that I would have pulled Guydaddy's finger every time he told me to instead of running the other way as fast as I could.  I wish that I could tell them now how much they meant to me. 

I have started writing a letter to my only living set of grandparents.   My grandfather has been declining in health over the last year and I know that both of their time here on earth is limited.  I want them to know how much I have enjoyed being their granddaughter.

I wish that we would all slow down long enough to really enjoy the little things in life.  I wish that my kids would do this as well.  I am constantly looking for a way to tell them how to do this so that they will not regret not slowing down and appreciating every little thing when they are older.  Until next time....