Grandma

I have so many memories of Grandma Barker and the longer I sit here the more the older memories come to mind and the further away her recent days with Alzheimer's get. Grandma lived close to the school so I can remember many times walking to her house after school and hanging out with her until my mom came to get me. She would usually be outside in her yard working but if she wasn't there I had the garage combo and we knew we were welcome there. First stop when arriving to grandma's after school was the garage fridge for a pop or capri sun. She was always the go to place if I was sick and my mom wasn't around. She took good care of me and would let me snuggle up on her couch with her hot pad or if that didn't do the trick it was always a fun treat to get to take a bath at grandmas so we could use her "jetted tub" but really it was some contraption you hooked to the side of the tub that swirled the water around. And her tub had a bath pillow. She thought those were so neat she would give them away as gifts. I remember sleeping over at grandmas quite a bit. If you were the only one sleeping over you got to sleep with her. After your baths she usually would roll your hair up with curlers for school the next day. In the mornings we would always wake up to breakfast. We would either have pancakes or honey nut cheerios, canned pears and fresh squoze orange juice. The Price is Right would ALWAYS be on during breakfast. Grandma loved the Price is Right and I bet she had seen almost every episode. I don't know if she loved it because Bob's last name was Barker or if she really liked the show either way I don't remember a morning sleeping over at grandmas without the Price is Right. You could always count on your sack lunch from grandma having dried pears in it, a wheat bread ham and cheese sandwich (I hated the wheat bread) and some homemade cookies or vanilla cookies from the drawer and a capri sun. I loved grandma's dried pears and canned pears. Sundays were tradition at grandmas. I remember asking my parents a lot if it was time to go to grandmas yet. She would always be waiting for us out front on her porch in her blue chairs with a Pepsi and the paper in hand, or if it was winter she would be inside in her house robe in the green chair reading the paper, watching basketball, or reading grandpa's old scriptures because they had the large print. I always thought those scriptures were neat when I was little because they were Jumbo. Sundays we would always visit, eat mini candy bars from the cupboard under the TV, drink pop out of the fridge, and in the summers ice cream from the schwans man. Sometimes on Sundays she would have the kitchen table full of old pictures and she would sit and tell stories about all of them. I really wish I was older so I could remember all of those stories or that she were still here to tell me some of those stories again to write down. Grandma knew so much about her genealogy and family and I wish we had more of it written down to pass on. I remember grandma loving cards, especially hearts. I remember her playing rummy cub and us kids playing Poly-Anna and Chinese Checkers in the basement. She kept a roll of yarn and a crochet hook in her hall closet that the grand kids could practice crocheting on. That is were learned the basics and eventually she helped me make a hot pad. Later on we played Uno and Jenga on Sundays at grandma's. She always hung a key on her switch by her door inside and after we would leave on Sundays she would lock the gate. At grandma's we played with the red bricks and built things and always dumped out the barn to play with the farm stuff. Summer time I remember playing Annie I over and kick the can with the cousins. Grandma would always let us have a big new years party and cut up more confetti than they probably sell in the stores.... I am sure she would vacuum up confetti for years after we threw it all over the basement. Grandma had a green thumb and she could often be found kneeling on her gardening pad or on her green cart weeding her flower beds. She grew beautiful pink petunias and tulips in the spring. She grew sweet peas and I remember picking pansies and strawberries from her strawberry patch. I remember cutting tulips and taking them to the cemetery to grandpa's and great grandma and grandpa's graves on quite a few occasions. She didn't let us help much in the yard but it was always the job of the grand kids to uses the grass clippers to clip around the sprinkler heads. I remember picking grass and feeding it to the lambs that were usually in the front field. Grandma always did her irrigating and would let us play in it out on the far lawn next to the lilac trees in the summer. Grandma always cut the lilacs and would have a vase of them on her table. She like eating at the bowling alley and later on really started to love junior bacon cheeseburgers and and would always get kids meals and save the toys for the great grand kids. Holidays were always fun with grandma. I remember trick or treating to her house and getting balls of Carmel popcorn and getting dollar bills rolled up with candy for valentines day. Grandma would take us to Provo to the Hale theater to plays and I remember grocery shopping with grandma at Macyes on the way home and getting 10 cent Ice cream cones and everyone in the store stopping to ask her if she was Barbara Bush. Grandma always would save us a seat for the parade at central school for fair days. She was always really early and patiently waiting for us to get there. I am going to miss her and remembering back makes it hard to see her go, but I am so thankful she is at peace now and free from that horrible disease. I am happy that I have all these memories to remember her good times and forget about her rough times. I am thankful for god's plan and the peace I have knowing I will see her again in a much better place. I LOVE YOU GRANDMA!