Having extended family together these last few weeks has given me cause to reflect on our ancestors, and what strange and/or wonderful traits we may have inherited.
So let me go back and consider the first generation that we knew first hand, our grandparents.
On my side of the family, my maternal grandparents were Harry and Madella (Della) Lininger. Grandpa Lininger died when I was 7 or 8, so I never really got to know him well. But Grandma L. was one of my very favorite people when I was growing up.
She was a tiny, pretty lady, standing about 4'10" tall. I only knew her with snow white hair, but her early pictures showed a very pretty young lady with brown hair.
Grandma was always busy and walked wherever she went, probably because she never learned to drive, and didn't have a car after Grandpa died. She would even walk the
12 or 13 blocks to downtown to shop and pay her bills, then walk back home again. That was when she was in her late seventies. Even when she was sitting or watching TV, her hands were always busy with crocheting. She was always crocheting. She made each of her children and grandchildren an afghan for a wedding gift. I still have the one she made for us.
She was a feisty lady. She always said she would "box your ears" if you misbehaved.
Actually, that was a threat she made jokingly to my brothers when they teased her. I don't think she ever threatened me with a "boxing." After Grandpa died, the grandkids would often spend the night with Grandma to keep her company. I loved to stay with Grandma. She let me wear her silky nightgowns. As I was falling asleep, she would ask what I wanted for breakfast in the morning, naming all the options. I didn't have to choose, and I knew it, because she always fixed everything she mentioned anyway.
What I remember about Grandpa Lininger was that he was always smoking a cigar, and the living room would be blue with a smoky haze. I know Grandma hated it because the next year after Grandpa died, she re-wallpapered the house, and bought new living room furniture. Grandpa never said much, except when we ate Sunday dinner there after church, my dad and Grandpa discussed politics. They were both staunch conservative Republicans, and they really disliked FDR. Grandpa had a fishing cottage on the river, and he called his outhouse the Roosevelt. Once, when we were getting ready to go home, he slipped a silver dollar into my hand! The most exciting gift I ever received as a child, because Grandpa NEVER paid us much attention. He did have some quirky habits. If he got tired and company hadn't left, he would just get up, go bathe, and go to bed. AND, he would put on his clean white shirt, tie, with pencils in the shirt pocket, and wear them to bed. I guess he was already to get up and start the next day.
My paternal grandparents were George and Lydia Green. George died before I was born.
In fact he died long before my folks were married. He was a lot older than Grandma Lydia. She was his second wife, his being a widower with two daughters when she married him. Grandpa Green was a Methodist minister, who spent most of his career traveling and establishing new Methodist churches. That is how he met Lydia. She was a young woman teaching school near Muncie, Indiana, when Grandpa came to town to help establish the church. They met, he wooed her, and they were married. They went on to have three children of their own. So Grandma helped raise his two daughters, Oma and Dietta, and her three: Rosa, Alice, and my dad, Mark.
After George's death Grandma lived parts of each year with her various children. When Grandma stayed with us, I thought her very old. But she was a most kind and sweet lady. She always had to use some aid, a cane or walker, to get around. And she had very poor eyesight for which she wore very, very thick glasses. She spent her days reading (she read every word of the daily newspaper), and writing letters.
She wrote beautiful letters, and maintained correspondence with many, many relatives.
I think I must have inherited a lot of my traits from the Green side, although folks always say that I look just like my mother. In the face, I do, with my dad's smile and dimples. But in build I am definitely a Green, much taller than my mother, and broader, too! Grandma Green couldn't benefit from the hip replacement surgery that is saving me from a cane or walker, at least at this time. And she did not benefit from the eye surgeries that are helping my vision problems. And, oh yes, I do like to write and I did teach school. Do we see a pattern here? And, I promise, I will never walk to town or crochet an afghan, though I might "box your ears!"
I think that is enough for tonight. Tomorrow I shall consider Don's Grandparents.
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