Thursday Thirteen

On our trip last week we were able to make a side trip to Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. My grandmother passed away about 15 years ago, but this is where she lived. I spent many summers deep in the holler, as they call it. A lot of happy times were spent here!

13 Memories of my Grandma!

1. Waking up every morning to the smell of homemade biscuits and gravy and anything else you could possibly imagine.

2. Grandma always reminded me of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies. She was tiny and had a lot of spunk! Go, go, go. She could outrace any of us!

3. Her beautiful white hair. It wasn't gray and yucky looking like some older people get. It was as white and as clean as fresh fallen snow.

4. Her Singer sewing machine. The old kind with the manual foot peddle. I have several things like pillows and wall hangings that she made for me on that very machine. And one summer she even taught me how to sew on it! What a treat that was!

5. Grandma didn't own a set of measuring cups. Her hands were used to measure out flour and sugar. I was always amazed too how she never used a cookbook either. And everything she made was delicious and perfect.

6. She always made me a couple of fried apple pies for the road! Let's just say they never made it very far.

7. She believed a girl should dress modestly. I was not allowed to wear shorts or tank tops. But I didn't mind. I usually wore a little cotton dress and went barefoot!

8. In the pantry she kept a few cardboard fans with pictures of a church or Jesus on them. Since she had no air conditioning we were allowed to use them as much as we wanted. Simple things like that always made me happy.

9. One of my favorite times was sitting on the swing on the front porch with her and watching the cars go by. Sure there may have been only two that went by, but during that time she would tell stories from when she was a little girl. I sat in awe and hung on to every word she ever spoke.

10. As much as my mother would hate me telling this I just have to. I think this is disgusting now, but when you are five years old it looked pretty cool. My grandma dipped snuff and could spit between her two fingers farther than I had ever seen! I thought she was the coolest ever!

11. I always left her house with some kind of treasure. A small quilt for my dolls, a necklace made from pumpkin seeds, or a little wooden box she knew I would like to keep my things in.

12. She loved my dad very much. My father was always building her a set of stairs or fixing the barn, anything he could do to help her out. Now mind you grandma had her sons that lived right there with her and my dad always spent his vacation working at her house. She knew what a special man he was too and it pleased me that she acknowledged that fact!

13. She loved Christ even more. And one sweet day I will meet up with her again!