Don't Fall Down and Go Boom

See those steps? Those are the steps that I used to think were almost too high to climb. This is my Granny's old house. It is colorless now, but inside it used to be filled with color. My granny had to love color......I realize that now. I did not know it when I was little. Every time we left her house, she said......"don't fall down and go boom!"
This house is on what we all called the 'bypass'. When I was little, we lived in a house just one down from her.
I will take you for a tour. To the right of the house was her driveway. In it used to be parked an old brown car. It was kind of round. I'm sure it would be some kind of a collector's item today. I remember she had an old Plymouth.....the kind that had push buttons to shift.
Right in front of the steps by the sidewalk (which you cannot see) there used to be a yellow rose-bush. It was kind of a waterfall type and grew right where you had to walk to get into the house. How I would love to have a little bit of that bush, today.
I'm pretty sure she used to have a real screen door. Inside the door was a little porch, I don't really remember what she had inside it, but I do know that my parents lived in this house with her for a while and it was their bedroom? (a tiny bedroom!!!)
boom boom boom
stomp stomp stomp
rattle rattle rattle
This house was not on a slab, it was on bricks and it would shake when granny walked around. It wasn't necessarily because she was huge, it was just the way she walked.
In her frontroom was a little wot-not shelf. It was like a bookshelf with sliding glass windows. Nothing was off limits to us. She always let us play with her glass things and touch them and do more than 'just look.' She had all sorts of things to touch. She had huge glass vases filled with plastic flowers. There used to be a time when there were no silk flowers. Her TV usually had on a game show, when her heater was not in use.....the kleenex 'container' sit on top of it. She layered her kleenexes in different colors. Plain white would not work for my granny. I remember sitting in front of her water cooler getting spit in the face as it went round and round. She always had lots of pens in a cup or a cigar box. Her couch had crocheted pillows, more than one afghan and always had something on the arms. Usually washrags somebody had put tassles on! Her rocking chair was always in the same corner, behind it was a lamp, and there granny sat.......tearing up old shirts and crocheting them into rag rugs. I can make rag rugs but nothing like granny could make. Hers always laid down flat....mine are wobbly. She was always surrounded by some kind of yarn.....I remember her hands. She had long fingers and hard fingernails. I don't ever remember my granny's hands being dirty.
Her house always smelled like meat frying. I can still smell it.......sometimes I will be in a situation and can close my eyes and almost think I'm in her house. I don't think she ever used her kitchen table...she always ate in the frontroom. I didn't get around her cook stove much, but I can remember her refrigerator. It ALWAYS had a bowl of red jello in it! She had aluminum cups to drink out of that made water taste funny. She had two candy tins. She didn't buy a big variety of candy....orange slices, those pink mints with the XXX's on them, Juicy Fruit gum and maybe Doublemint. We ALWAYS could get candy. She never said no. I love her sink, it was the kind with the high back and just one drain. She had a door in her kitchen that went out to the clothesline and a patch of Shasta Daisies. I have NEVER been able to get any of mine to grow. I'd like to have some just because of my granny.
She had a tiny bedroom.......but we could play in it! She had drawers full of scarves and boxes full of jewelery. She had music boxes she let us play with and nightgowns to put on!
Her bathroom was painted purple and she had naked mermaids on her wall...you know, the ones with the bubbles. She had a REAL bathtub and there was powder on everything. Granny must have loved powder. I remember her lavender plastic bathroom set......one for cotton balls....another piece for kleenexes. It had white roses on it.
She moved to the 'high rise' once, but moved back into her little house that was probably hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
She let us set on her lap, she pulled our noses and said "soop soop dah henja". She wore scarves and double knit pant suits. She also had her hair 'done'. We called her Granny Moosh Mosh. She was a great granny.
Who mowed her yard? Did she ever eat anything except fried chicken, angel food cake or red jello? Did she ever want a puppy? Who taught her how to crochet? Did her mom love color?
I wish I could hug her just one more time.