V3 - Very Good Grandparents, Indeed

Don really only knew one set of Grandparents in his life - his maternal grandparents.
But he knew them very well. His maternal grandparents were Walter and Grace Brizendine. I was only privileged to meet Walter one time right after we started dating. He died soon after, that summer after our senior year in high school. But Don has good stories and memories of his "Papaw." In fact, the whole family remembers him as a wonderful man. Don's mother, Madge, ALWAYS says, "Now, I loved my mother, but she was always strict. But I really loved my daddy!"

From all the family stories, I believe that he was just a quiet, steady man, a really honest person that was always to be trusted. He was a red head without the red head's temper. By the time I met him, he had had one leg amputated because of his diabetes, so he was confined to a wheel chair.

Don grew up in his grandparents' home, because his mom and dad were divorced when he was a baby, and his mother had to work. So, even though he was an only child, he actually grew up with his Uncles Jack, Bobby, and Max. And I have heard plenty of stories about their shenanigans. They were the younger three of Grace and Walter's children, having been born several years later than the older three. The older children were Loren, Madge, and Madonna. Walter and Grace raised and sold chickens.
Then they bought a property in the "Acre" , a neighborhood in South part of Anderson.
Their house was large, and after the children were grown, they divided into three apartments. In fact, several of the children started married life in one or another of the apartments. The large house was surrounded by several tiny houses, barely three roomed affairs. These they rented out also, mostly to folks coming to Anderson from the South to get work at General Motors plants.

And, I take it, that "Mamaw" ruled the roost ---- in a nice way. She cooked lots of chicken, lots of rice, lots of tomato soup, fried bread, and apple pie for all that showed up at meal times, be they family or friend. She shared her phone, her newspapers, her listening ear, her compassion, and her advice with her renters, her family, and her friends alike. I remember that she bought us a mattress and box springs when we got married, and with an ornery chuckle, said that is what newlyweds really needed. And she was always sending me a home made apple pie. I guess that for some time, she and Walter managed the old Colonial Theatre at 29th and Columbus Ave. And all the children had to work there doing whatever had to be done - mostly cleaning up.

And, even though Don tells hair-raising stories of their boyish exploits: hitching rides on moving trains, hanging on to the back bumpers of buses and sliding on the icy streets - all the Brizendine children grew up to be some of the most hard-working, successful citizens any parents could want. All of them, and that includes granson Don, have been abolutely honest and reliable. I think they are a real credit to the kind of people and parents that Walter and Grace tried to be.