Special memories Back in Granddad/Grandma’s day.

Only one grandparent still alive when I was born, she died when I was 3, so no memories of my own grandparents sadly.

I remember all four Grandparents my maternal GM used to work in a shop and she made glass animals using a small blow torch and sticks of coloured glass they were amazing sadly we don’t have any of her creations. My paternal GM used to let us kids wind up her record player one of those with the huge ones with the metal horn. One GD was always in the garden growing veg. Lovely memories.

Tea at paternal GM’s house - she didn’t live near so it wasn’t often. Penguin biscuits! Dairylea triangles! Two things my mother never bought.

And there was always orange jelly with mandarin oranges in. After she died I took the glass dish the jelly was always in - not very beautiful, but sentimental value. Was so upset when dh broke it.
Also when she was once visiting, I picked some little flowers, put them in an empty fish paste jar (!), wrapped a paper napkin round it and wrote Granny on it.
She kept the empty jar with napkin on her mantelpiece at home for ages.

I stayed with my paternal grandparents at weekends when I was little. I still remember the big double bed I shared with my grandmother. I was a spoilt madam and demanded rice crispies with hot milk for breakfast. Apparently I wouldn't get out of bed til I had breakfast. When my dad found out, he put a stop to it as I was becoming thoroughly unpleasant. My grandmother took me to Ireland by boat when I was four. She visited relatives where I developed measles. All I would eat was salmon and I would only drink ribena. I have vague memories of that.

I knew only one gran who I mostly saw at her house where she always sat in the same chair by the fire. or as an occasional treat she took me shopping with her for groceries.
Fast forward and I sit here struggling to think of interesting things to do with my g/c who are coming tomorrow for a couple of days and think of my Nan who never took me anywhere other than the local grocer shop, yet I loved and remember her with affection.
The difference is that we were expected to fit in with whatever the adults, were doing and now children’s needs are foremost and I am feeling stressed!

All so lucky to have those memories. All four of my GP had died before I was born . My Mum was a wonderful GM and I follow her example with my GC and hope they will have lovely memories of me !

All my grandparents and one great-grandmother were alive when I was born and into my childhood. Both my grandmothers lived into my adulthood, my maternal grandmother until my sons were teenagers. When I was a kid, we saw the matenals weekly, as they were only 30 miles away, and the paternals for holidays, as they were in Wales. As an adult, I saw my grandmothers more often, as I could drive (my parents and grandparents couldn’t). So lots and lots of memories.

My maternal GM died when mum was 8, but maternal GF lived with us until I was around 7. Paternal GP's we only saw very occasionally. They lived in London and I do remember their kitchen, a glowing fire with a grid front.

I am blessed to have known all my grandparents. We all lived in the same town. We visited paternal grandparents every Saturday afternoon for tea, a marshmallow wafer was a treat.
We used to pick buttercups and daisies in the park and take them for my maternal grandmother. She had a china log with an opening along the top to put them in.
Lovely childhood memories.

Never met them. Never knew their names. They lived in Ireland.

I knew all four and my paternal great-grandmother when I was small.
Both families were very different a bit like the Katie Morag Stories of today. I had Granny sea side who cooked lots of fish and knew all about the beach. The other was granny country. She cooked with herbs she had collected herself and my memory is sitting down to some unusual meat and being told it was a pigeon. My grandad showed pigeons and he had been culling them, I couldn't eat them and cried. They never gave me it again.
My paternal granddad told me all about the countries he had visited in WW1 , luckily he had been in the same regiment as my other and they were friends. Lucky because my other never mentioned WW1
My great gran is a distant memory of an old woman dressed in a long black dress like Queen Victoria she was kind when we visited and she always gave me half a crown.

Some lovely memories here. Funny someone should mention fish paste jars as I remember visiting my Great Aunt Queen and drinking from what I thought were dolls house glasses. When I reminisced years later mum told me they were fish paste jars as Aunt Queen didn't trust children with her nice glassware.

My paternal grandfather and I were devoted to each other. He was a builder and I used to be his (entirely useless) little helper.

silverlining48

I knew only one gran who I mostly saw at her house where she always sat in the same chair by the fire. or as an occasional treat she took me shopping with her for groceries.
Fast forward and I sit here struggling to think of interesting things to do with my g/c who are coming tomorrow for a couple of days and think of my Nan who never took me anywhere other than the local grocer shop, yet I loved and remember her with affection.
The difference is that we were expected to fit in with whatever the adults, were doing and now children’s needs are foremost and I am feeling stressed!

I too have similar memories and Gran took me to market to get shopping done. She had an old pack of playing cards and we played various games with them, or I was allowed to feed the five hens that she kept.I think what I valued most was being listened to, and also hearing her stories too.
That is what we can still do for any grandchildren or great grandchildren, give them our time and listen to them.

Never met paternal grandparents they died young has did my dad ,maternal gran an grandad live 3 buses away so didn't see them much ,my memory of grandma who was tall and well build was her warming her back of legs in front of fire ,they didn't take us anywhere or play with us .I hope my grandchildren remember the times they spent with us with happiness thoughts.

Oh yes I remember we also played a lot of card games. Trying to think of the names

My Nan had a piano in her living room, no TV then. I used to try to play it and learned chopsticks later. Apart from rummy and snap wish I could remember all the card games.

I remember holding my granddad's hand as he took me to the sweet shop for a little triangular shaped bag of my favourite sweets. He used to buy his Woodbines at the same time.

I had both sets of grandparents right through childhood, I was married when my my first grandad died. I also had a maternal great Grandma until I was 17, she had been widowed young & lived on her own in London so we didn’t see her very often. She would send us big parcels which we loved opening to see what treasures were inside.

Many happy memories of them all, they were all very different, my mums parents were much younger and more modern, they had a nice car and a caravan and were always heading off to Cornwall or Pembrokeshire, sometimes taking us with them. Sometimes we’d all go to a nice pub with them on summer weekends and sit outside in the garden with a bottle of pop & a straw, my Grandma loved a Guinness & liked to dress up & wore makeup & lovely clip on earrings, my Grandad was quiet but lovely, very hardworking and also had a massive garden & an allotment so never sat down much.
My dads parents were much older, quite strict but very kind, they lived a more simple life but I adored them. Grandad taught us how to play dominoes, chess and numerous card games including patience. Grandma taught us how to bake & used to tell us lots of stories about her life, she had been in service as a girl before training as a nurse. She lost four of her brothers in WW1 & a son in WW2 and she talked about them all with such fondness but also sadness.
Both sets of grandparents had wonderful gardens, full of lovely fruit & veg, we used to love picking gooseberries, raspberries, peas, beans etc. Happy Days, still miss them all.

Lived in Manchester, near my dads parents till I was about 6. I remember standing at their gate waiting for the ice cream van, with a dish that he put the ice-cream in, it always had raspberry sauce.
Also their budgie, Joey.
Grandma made a great hotpot with a pie crust on top, but the rest of her cooking was dreadful - cabbage boiled for hours with bacon ribs and served with the cooking water and bread to mop it up with. Another speciality was bread with dripping and salt!!

It is very true as others have said, we never did anything special, it was a treat to go to the market with grandma on the bus, but I loved her dearly, she gave unconditional love. Don't remember my grandad nearly so well, even though he lived till I was in my late teens, he was always a mostly silent presence and I hated the smell of his pipe.

I don’t remember my paternal grandparents but my abiding memories of my maternal grandparents is grandpa sitting puffing on his pipe at the side of the fire and granny snatching the News of the World out of my hands and sitting on it declaring it was “grannies bible” and giving me the Sunday Post instead.

Oh yes News of the World was on the saucy side wasn’t it.

I could write a book of memories on my maternal grandparents. Mostly all warm and happy ones.

Why don’t you yogi tree.
I have just re read my stories about my life including my grandmother, lives which are unrecognisable by my children never mind grandchildren.