Old & New

I was counting the other day in my head - as we drove in the rain to pick the kids up from Grandma Barbara's - I was counting grandparents. We had a lazy rainy movie day at the theater down the street from our house. Two movies sandwiched around a quick lunch with my Grandma Lola had me thinking about grandparents. We've got so many grandparents you couldn't throw a stick 10 ft without hitting one...but that would be mean.

Elle & Park have eight grandparents and five great-grandparents. (Two of them they have never met as they live in Washington state but they are more than thoughtful with their long distance cards and gifts.) And three of the great-grandmas live right here in town. Eliana calls Great-Grandma Doris and Great-Grandma Lola "The Girls" as they live in the same building and generally show up together at events, go on trips with us, and she must just think they laugh like girls. And great-grandma Mary lives just up the road in Greeley. She makes Ellie laugh with her stories about me when I was a girl and I think Ellie can hardly believe that they are true. Mommies were never little girls...

In the last few weeks I inherited a bunch of Grandma Lola's linens. This is a big deal. I'm obsessed with tea towels. And real napkins. I love them. So I got to pick through baskets of tea towels she embroidered herself 60 years ago. And napkins and tablecloths she made for teas and luncheons and bridge and other things that I know nothing about. It's a little piece of history I can use everyday.

And I've been asked to write my Grandma Mary's story. Interview her - not a challenge as I could talk to her for hours - and write it down in a book for all of time and history and (okay...more realistically) our little family to enjoy forever. I only hope I can do her justice.

And then tonight, when Mr. Pope came home from getting a haircut and straight shave, Ellie told him he looked "Brand New!!" He hadn't shaved for a month. He was a hairy old beast.

And now he's new.