Feeling Nostalgic

This next series of posts will be completely boring for most, but it's a collection of memories I have in my head that I don't want to be lost.

Every Saturday morning for the first 10 years of my life my Grandma would come pick me up and take me out for breakfast and go on what she called "rounds" After a yummy breakfast we would go all over town, Consumers Distributing, Simpsons, Eatons, where ever my Grandma had errands. I remember going into a department store and she let me help pick out a new chair. We picked out a beautiful pink chair and its still in her front bedroom at her house today.

After growing up with a brother and having only sons, she was thrilled to have a girl in the family. That's why my middle name is Catharine. She likes to tell me what a happy time it was for her when I was born, and how she bought me ridiculously beautiful clothes and $80 rain boots.

My Grandma was always so well dressed, hair done and heels on. She had dozens and dozens of scarves and shoes and her closet was so well organized, with everything on racks and stacks of beautiful boxes. She was a career woman who was very put together. I loved sleeping over at her house in the "white bedroom" with my very own Hello Kitty cup and toothbrush holder (also still at her house today) She was a smoker, and I know this is probably so wrong to admit, but I found it so glamours then, and still do. Watching Don Draper smoke a cigarette is one of the most lovely things I can think of. I can still picture her ashtrays filled with lipstick covered cigarette butts, thinking it was such a grown-up, fancy thing to do.

For a women so sophisticated, she was VERY domestic. She was a lover of food, always had been. Her dad had always brought her fancy food home from the club he worked at when they lived in Montreal. She had a taste for all the finer things in life, but especially good food. We would have cooking lessons on Saturday morning when she moved to Bradford. She lived at the bottom of street and I would go over there and cook things like pumpkin cheesecake, apple clafloutti and bunt cakes. Afterwards we would watch cooking shows on TLC like Biba's Italian Kitchen and Cooking with Capril. My Uncle Rob would come down and visit with us. I thought it was so cool he could sleep till noon and order Swiss Chalet and eat it in his room. He and my Dad would always make my Grandma mad by having pillow fights with her special little throw pillows. She taught me to eat apple pie with real cream and old cheddar cheese.Whenever my mum would make soup (my most "hatefulest food" as I called it) for dinner, I would walk down to her house and eat what she was having. She always had grape Bubalicious gum for me and pink Bubalicious bubble gum for Char. Her peanut butter was always in a glass jar shaped like a bear. She was and is an avid sports fan, especially CFL and baseball. When the Argos won the Grey Cup this year, it is the happiest and most emotional I have ever seen her. She used to take us to Baskin Robbins to get ice cream sundaes that came in little plastic baseball caps with different team logos on the front. She loved to collect things like that,  the pretty sets of glasses you used to get the gas station, the Muppet Babies figurines from McDonalds, Smurf figurines, Classic Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix Potter books too.

The first time I shaved my legs I cut myself badly. I knew my mum would be mad and I wasn't quite sure what to do. Then I instantly thought I could run down to Grandma's house. She would know what to do. And she did. We talked about becoming a woman, she gave me a band-aid and an orange pop and sent me on my way. When my friends and I would be out for a bike ride, we could always stop by Grandma's and grab and orange pop too. I remember falling asleep in her bedroom in her giant bed listening to her 50th surprise birthday party go on downstairs and wishing I was old enough to stay up as late as the grown ups. I remember wishing all those people would go home so I could have my Grandma all to myself. That's why I was never sad I didn't I have any first cousins on either side, it was hard enough sharing my grandparents with my siblings, never mind other kids!

She had the most beautiful living room in that house that was painted a deep plum colour. Off of it was a dining room with gorgeous crystal glasses and After Eight chocolates on the buffet. We would listen to Ray Charles and Tony Bennett records. We would barbecue on their deck and eat homemade hamburgers on paper plates that sat inside straw plates. We drank PC ginger ale from glasses that were chilled in the freezer.  My 2nd cousins would come from Ottawa and we would play in the backyard, eat grapes and cherry tomatoes that grew in their garden. My Grandma and Grandpa had incredible green thumbs and could grow anything they set their mind to. Their flowers and vegetables were amazing. My Grandma always had tons of herbs in the food dehydrator. They are the proudest Canadians I know. They are smart, educated and love to read. They have hundreds of books and have always loved the library.

My Grandpa would take me in his truck (that had the most wonderful smell, kind of a mix of lumber and tabacco, he smoked a pipe for years) to his mother's house in Markdale. We would get water from the well to bring back to Bradford and pick cucumbers. He would tape Fairy Tale Theatre on TVO for us and we would watch those VHS tapes over and over again, along with 42nd Street and Oliver. He was a teacher for years, and did a stage production of Oliver at Markham High School, along with coaching the girls soccer team. We would play checkers, go fish and a Sesame Street memory game for hours. We would colour with big fat crayons that sat in a a brown, clown covered container. I would pretend to help mark his papers. He showed me how to use his Commodore 64 to play games like Shamus, Family Feud and Wheel of Fortune. He tells the same half a dozen jokes over and over again. He always had a jar of peanuts in the cupboard to share with us. The smell of his workshop is my favourite smell ever. I wish I could bottle it. His handy work is all over my house, he has made my kitchen table, side tables, coffee table, a doll house for Chloe, a rocking horse and a barn for Carter. He is quick to cry, especially at Christmas time. And at South Pacific. He would always make me mix cassette tapes labeled "Heather's Tunes"with everything on them from Annie, to Micheal Jackson to Ann Murray. Every year we'd go back to school shopping Labour Day weekend in Owen Sound for a new backpack and supplies.

Once they retired and built a beautiful house in Markdale, we would go up for there for days at a time. Thanksgiving was the best, going to the orchard for apples, walking through the leaves, but one of my other favourite times was New Year's Eve. We would make a ton of food (Grandma's famous dill dip for sure) and watch This Hour has 22 Minutes and toast with fake champagne. It always made me feel very grown up.  We would bake and craft every Christmas. When my sister and I would go up by ourselves we would stay up till 2 or 3am watching Pretty in Pink, Little Man Tate or Sixteen Candles, then sleep till noon and have homemade pumpkin pancakes with applesauce. One hot summer night we were watching Saturday Night Live and it was interrupted because of Princess Diana's death, and I remember us all being very sad.

There was no shortage of things to do on the farm or time to be bored. I remember they were the first people I knew with Bell Express View, but we didn't need TV there. There was always entertainment in the country. We could watch Grandpa chase a porcupine out of the garage, or look out back at the raccoon trying to kill the frogs we'd caught and put in the wading pool. We all had a good laugh when Char's boyfriend hit a wild turkey on the way home from the orchard in his mom's new car.

How lucky I am to still have these two amazing people in my life on a regular basis. We watch Mad Men. We still eat really good food. We bake. We talk politics. We laugh.

How will I ever get along without them? How will I make gravy without picking up the phone to call Grandma or make jam without calling Grandpa? I don't like to think about it. So I won't.