We are very lucky to live close enough to one set of great-grandparents (my mom's folks) to be able to visit them weekly. In fact, I think I've gone every week we haven't been sick/out of town since I left work for maternity leave, in 2005!Ernie loves her time there- she and Grandma sit together in Grandma's room and watch cartoons or movies, and Ernie snacks on pretzels or Grandpa's nut stash until lunch time. I chat with Grandma and tell her all about our little goings-on- she wants to know about the garden, the flowers, Wonder Daddy's tests, Ernie's doctor appointments, and everything most people don't have time to sit still and hear about. I think I say more at one time at Grandma's house than I do anywhere else.
I help Grandpa make lunch and clear the dishes, and we talk about the best way to make a pot roast (Betty Crocker knows everything, he says!), prune a tree, or raise a child. Then we talk about how to fix all the crazy things that need fixing- the man knows everything! He fixes cars, Kitchen Aids, radios, and overgrown bushes. He makes gadgets for everything he needs, using epoxy putty, rubber bands, and old leather belts.
When they met, he was a boy from Idaho recently returned from a stint as an airplane mechanic in the Korean War. She was a girl from rural Alabama, far from home and working as a secretary in a military office. Now, over 50 years later, they're parents to 3, grandparents to 10, and great-grandparents to 2 going on 4.
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