2023-07-19 at 2:16 AM UTC
Folks, it's even better than Rome.
2023-07-19 at 12:28 PM UTC
My grandmother always loved turqouis jedielery the indians made
2023-07-19 at 12:54 PM UTC
No, they lived in Upper MIchigan and because my mom had me at 35 and my grandfather had her at 32, they were already in their mid 70s by the time I began remembering them. I maybe my grandfather 5-6 times visiting him or him coming down for Christmas to Milwaukee. My grandmother and I began to get closer to but she also perished in her early 80s when I was finishing high school.
Never really got to know them because they were 6-10 hours away and I was a child and they were very old and distant. I never met my father's parents (or my father for that matter lol)
2023-07-19 at 12:59 PM UTC
I was raised 1 on 1 by a baby sitter I called Grandma Marge who taught me how to be a good person and is the only reason I have any form of humanity inside me. We would baby sit another kid on Friday who I really liked for a year or so but other than that for 5 years it was just me and grandma marge, she taught me how to walk, taught me how to be loved no matter what, took me to movies during matinee periods where it was dirt cheap and she was elderly and I was a little kid and would sneak snacks in there and use coupons or she'd ask another old lady for their pop corn and drinks when the prior movie was over. She'd take me to this park where there were tons of geese and men fishing and the geese would attack you if you had a stick in your hand but if my grandma walked infront of me she said don't worry about the geese just don't step on the shit, and we'd go to the park and she'd push me on the swings and when we got home, I had to knock my shoes over the newspaper to get the sand out before I could come in, she would let me watch cartoons on cable television as much as I wanted, and we'd feed squirrels peanuts outside her apartment patio that lived in the crab apple trees everywhere, and every holiday, her birthday, my birthday, christmas, easter, thanksgiving, everything, her and I would go get chinese food lol.
Grandma Marge was not my grandma, she was just my mom's coworker at the factory's elderly mother who enjoyed baby sitting. Closer to me in my heart when I was growing up than my own mother.
2023-07-19 at 1:05 PM UTC
She charged my mom 30$ a week, until I was about 3 and eating real food at which point she asked for 40$ and then my mom ended up paying her 50$ a week when I was 5. Grilled cheese sammiches (she microwaved them and cut half the crusts off), hotdogs she boiled really good w/ buns and ketchup, chicken nuggets and ice cream floats (Diet Coke + neopolitan ice cream) were staples at grammas house.
Everytime I eat a fig newton or even see the packaging at the supermarket I stop for a moment, close my eyes and tell her I love her, sometimes if I am kinda drunk I feel myself welling in my eyes with tears.
I have two photos of her and I have done everything in my power, scanning the images and emailing them to myself and laminating them with silicone packs at the bottom of a safe my mom keeps important paperwork in.
Sometimes I would go to her grave but I cry too much and just miss gramma marge. And she never said anything negative to me, but she did hit me sometimes when I really needed it.
2023-07-19 at 1:06 PM UTC
and folks this is my mom at a factory during the day for 9 hours a day. Gramma marge was a godsend because most places wanted 2$ an hour (in the early 90s) and gramma marge was fine with 6 a day for 9 hours.
2023-07-19 at 1:07 PM UTC
Did any inappropriate touching take place?
2023-07-19 at 1:09 PM UTC
She'd have a couple extra fruit cocktails and plastic forks in her car and a can open, so if we saw homeless people she'd teach me to never give them money, she'd open up a can of fruit cocktail, stick a fork in there and tell me to go give it to that guy cuz he doesn't have anything. One time I Told her the guy wanted money, she told me we never give them money, I said why, she said because they only need food, they just want money to buy bad food.
I figured McDonalds (Which we also went to a lot, out of her pocket no less) and didn't question it, now i kinda understand.
