grandparents are great. i think it's because they have developed a reputation for spoilage. kids like that kind of thing. though two of my grandparents passed away before i was born, i still managed to acquire a good collection of them. in honor of grandparents day, these are the ones i was lucky enough to know...
grandma williams
edna williams was my dad's mom. i was only three when she passed away, so i don't have a lot of memories of her. she lived in bartlesville, oklahoma, which is where my dad grew up. for some reason what i do remember is that she always had bananas on her kitchen counter, which is a weird thing for me to remember because i don't even like bananas. also, she was quite a small lady so i got to play dress up with her clothes and costume jewelry, which i liked a lot.
grandpa harry
harry meinhardt was my mom's dad. i'm not sure if you're allowed to pick a favorite grandparent, but i'm going to anyway. i pick him. it probably didn't hurt that i was the only grandchild for a long time and i was the apple of his eye. [those are my own words, but i'm pretty sure they are true] i remember that grandpa was very funny. he made trumpet noises with his mouth, which i found quite entertaining. on sundays my mom taught sunday school and both my parents sang in the choir, so my grandpa always picked me up from my class and every week he brought me a safety pop from shoney's. one week he brought me a shoney's teddy bear. that was an extra good week. speaking of church, the man sat in the same pew, in the same seat, every week. legend has it that when he felt like the sermon had been going on too long, he would make a big show of bringing his arm up to pointedly check his watch. his spot was down front so it was nice and noticeable. i remember his plaid christmas pants, playing at his apartment, and his extensive stash of toilet paper [a roll of which still makes the rounds at christmas from time to time]. he also had a really cool adding machine and one of those cork pencil holders shaped like a ball.
lee & pauline yardley
these two fall under the category of 'acquired' grandparents. the short version is that i adopted them when i was in college. most of my memories involve spending all afternoon at their house playing cards, my favorite was hand & foot, but we went on our share of adventures too. one time when we were out pauline shut her finger in the car door. they were both convinced that the obvious remedy was to stick her finger in gasoline, so we drove out to someones farm to get a cup of it. long story short, we ended up at the hospital where the doctor gave them a stern lecture about how sticking fingers in gasoline is not medicinal and gave me what i perceived to be a disapproving look for letting them proceed with their 'treatment'. not especially funny at the time, but it's pretty funny now. they were also avid sbu lady bearcat basketball fans [pauline played back in the day at southwest baptist college] and i always knew right where to find them in the stands during a home game. lee passed away in 2005 and pauline followed last summer. i miss getting to visit them and chat on the phone, but i managed to squeeze in almost fifteen extra grandparent years, and i'd say that's a good thing.
