Gram

Today my person of interest is going to be my paternal grandmother, my Gram.

Anna Mary Phillips Richwine, my Gram, turned 94 back in April of this year. She was born in Pennsylvania and spent her adult life moving back and forth from there, California, Oregon and Tennessee. She has moved more times that I can count to be near different family members. She has moving down to an art. Currently, she is living with my aunt in Southern California. She isn't doing much traveling these days, and with two small children, we haven't ventured out West in a long time. I hope my children will get to meet her one day soon, but for now we rely on phone calls and pictures.

I was actually born in California during a time when Gram lived there, too. We moved to Tennessee when I was 1 to be closer to my mom's home place. Gram and Popper (my paternal grandfather) moved to Tennessee to be closer to us around the time I began school. They lived just across town for 7 years. I loved it. I loved their house. It was out in the country on a fairly quiet road. During warm months, Dad would take Johnny (my brother) and me over to their house every Saturday so he could help Popper mow the grass. (They had a large yard and field behind their house.) Johnny and I would do all kinds of things at their house from practicing softball/baseball to painting their fence to helping with outside chores. One of our favorite things to do was just walk down the road and pick up aluminum cans and trash. I remember Gram would hold my hand and always squeeze it 3 times in a row. That meant "I love you."

I love Gram's voice. Being raised in the South, I am surrounded by Southern drawls, twangs or whatever you want to call them. Being raised in Pennsylvania gave Gram a totally different speech. It also means the words she uses are different. I think my vocabulary has been strengthened by this. Plus, she never baby talked me or talked down to me. I always appreciated that.

Gram often called me "Sarah Jane" or "Lovey." I would spend the night at her house more often than at my other grandparents. She made up little scavenger hunts for us to play because she knew I loved it so much. I would always sleep in her bed when I spent the night and her room was always so relaxing. The sheets always crisp and fresh. She is the one who told me to sprinkle baby powder on my sheets in between washings to keep them fresh. (A practice I continue to this day.) We would always talk before going to sleep and eventually she would say, "Ok, now I have to say my prayers." Her bed was under a window, and when the weather was good, she would open it at night to let the fresh air in. There was just something about listening to the crickets at night and waking up to fresh morning air that always made me feel good.

The things in her home were neat. She had all kinds of antiques and other things from Pennsylvania that I didn't see in other people's homes in Tennessee. And she let us play with them! She had an old balance scale with metal weights that we loved to play with. (Johnny is now the proud owner of that piece of history.) I remember pressing things with antique irons and crimping paper with an antique fluter/collar crimper. One of the things we loved best was her German coo-coo clock. It had metal pine cones that would descend during the day and would have to be pulled back to the top when they reached near the floor. We would take turns pulling the chains slowly and making them ascend again.

Perhaps the thing that sticks in my mind most was Gram let me drink Diet Pepsi from her wine glasses. I always felt so fancy. I guess I felt more grown up because she trusted me enough not to break them. I think she just liked that I enjoyed it so much and would pretend I was fancy.

Gram made the best apple pies. She always cooked them inside a brown paper bag inside the oven. It gave off a distinct aroma so you knew when she was baking one. I love that smell. We always made cookies at Christmas at Gram's house. She taught me how to make Snickerdoodles before the rest of the South knew what a Snickerdoodle was. We would always make peanut butter cookies and press a Hershey's kiss in the middle immediately after taking them from the oven because they were Dad's favorite. We made SO many different kinds of cookies every year.

Gram loved to decorate the house for Christmas, too, and she had it down to a science. Everything was always so beautiful. She made icicle lights from a regular strand of Christmas lights. Again, she was doing that years before I ever saw anyone else do it. She always made so many Christmas ornaments to put on our tree. She gave her latest creations to us every year. She is SO creative. She used anything and everything to make these. She would take and ordinary object paint it, add glitter, felt, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, etc. and make something so neat. One time she crushed Diet Pepsi cans, painted them white, added eyes, wings and and halo and made angels for our trees. The funny thing is, she would always say, "That's just something dumb I came up with." They were always SO cute, but she never acted like they were something great.

One Winter when it snowed, I remember her giving us a turkey roasting pan to use to sled down the driveway. She didn't care if it ruined that pan, she just enjoyed watching us.

My grandmother is the type of person who can just get along with people. I can't tell you how many times I heard her say, "Such and such doesn't do things the way I do, but that's ok. That's just how they do things and it's alright." It seemed like she was always teaching me that people are different and that's ok. Don't try to make them be exactly like you.

Gram was always very supportive of us. She would come to ball games and other events we were involved in. She even volunteered at our schools in the sick room and later worked in the cafeteria. I will never forget one day she was working in the sick room when I was in first grade and whoever was in charge of the yearbook came and got me out of class to take a picture with her to include that year. It just happened to be the day my mom made me wear the most horrible white pants that I hated so much. Those pants, and the fact that I had to wear them, are now immortalized in that yearbook. At least I was in the picture with Gram!

After Johnny graduated from high school, we flew back out to California with her to visit. My 80 year old grandmother drove down the freeway (while sitting on her pillow to make her taller) and pulled over if she got a call on her cell phone. At the time, she lived in a retirement community and called other residents every morning to check on them to make sure they were ok. She has never been one to "act her age." I sure hope to have that spunk when I'm in my 80's and 90's.

I am very thankful for the impact she has had on my life, and I can't wait to teach Sassy Pants to drink Diet Pepsi from wine glasses she gets a little older.