Things I Learned From My Grandparents

[Wilma]

Everybody knows what their parents taught them and are thankful for it.  But what did you learn from your grandparents?  For example, I learned to not walk barefoot on a bare floor.  Not because of the splinters, but because of the hayfever my grandmother and I both suffered from.  She also taught me to not sleep in an open window, both of which I am careful not to do now.

Janet tells me that her grandfather, my father, taught her how to drive across railroad tracks with the least amount of roughness.  He taught me the same thing.

How about you?  What did you learn from your grandparents?

[flo]

my grandparents raised me so guess everything I learned I learned from them.

[W. Gray]

Wilma, we saw our grandparents only for short stretches at a time about once a year. We had a set of city grandparents and a set of country grandparents in Howard and Elk County.

At a very young age my country Grandmother tried to teach me to milk a cow. I never did get the hang of it.

As I got older, my grandmother taught me how to saddle a horse and run and clean a separator. My grandfather was usually very busy but he did teach me how to hitch a team and fork hay. I also made some mental notes about the fine art of tobacco spitting.

[Wilma]

Yea, Flo.  I remember your grandmother.  She was a lady.  I could say something else, but I am not going to.

Waldo, my grandfather worked with teams of horses, too, but somehow I never learned to harness or hitch them.  I feel as if my education is sadly lacking.  Or drive them.

[W. Gray]

Ah, that was another thing my grandfather taught me: how to hold the reins and drive the horses, usually while we were standing up front on an empty hay wagon, which rolled on four automobile tires.

I had an Uncle in Elk County and he let me drive his team. (He always ran a three workhorse team).

We went out on section roads in a zig zag manner about three miles from his place to a rented pasture to deliver hay or something. The uncle made a comment that once I started the horses, I did not need to drive any longer because they would leave the pasture by themselves and would go home without any further intervention.

I allowed as to how that was impossible for those dumb animals to find anything. So he had me get them going and then he took the reins and tied them to the front of the wagon. The horses made all the necessary turns and got home on their own.

[Catwoman]

From my grandparents, I learned to appreciate beauty...The value of perseverance and hard work...Unconditional love...That in some cases, to be respected is better than to be loved...The finite quantity that is life...To look to the future and plan for those that come after you.

[momof 2boys]

My Grandma Lillian taught me to ride a horse at a very young age.  She also gave me the love of nature and love of animals.  My Grandpa Harold taught me the importance of laughter in life, he was always joking around.  I miss those two people so very much!!!

[Tobina+1]

I learned to sew from one of my Grandma's.  I still call her for advice.  Her husband, my grandfather, died at a young age (50's) so I was pretty young.  I do remember I learned that 5- $1 bills was the same as 1- $5 bill.
I learned about all sorts of farm-related things from my other grandparents.

[sixdogsmom]

My grandma taught me to play books with real cards, she also taught me that you got thumped on the head with a thimble when you misbehaved.  She also taught me that the birds and flowers were pretty special. My other grandma taught me to sew quilt blocks and to use a treadle sewing machine. She also taught me how wonderful an old trunk could be for a child to go through with all kind of special things. She also allowed me to draw up water from her kitchen pitcher pump into her special cobalt blue glass. She made us French crepes rolled in powdered sugar and filled with homemade jelly. Pretty special memories indeed!

[Jo McDonald]

I knew my maternal Grandparents and Grandpa taught me how to fish - and I guess Grandma taught me how to sit quietly and live up to the saying, Children should be seen, not heard.  She was always so wonderful to hold me on her lap and I  loved her kitchen,  it smelled good- my paternal Grandpa died 2 years before I was born, but Grandma Workman lived with us 13 years, and was such a part of my life - she always told us--do your work, then you can play.  Sometimes that made sense, some times it didn't, but she was a firm believer in that statement.  I learned to shock corn and karir corn, milk cows, harness a team, saddle a horse, run a cultivator and a disc harrow and a plow, bale hay, ride bare back, catch our mare in the pasture and ride as long as I wanted to without a bridle, just holding on to her mane -draw water, teach a weaning calf to drink from a bucket. catch, kill, scald and dress a chicken, make a meal from very little...on and on and on,  learning it from my loving parents.  Life was good --- and still is, even if it was pretty shy as far as dollars was/is concerned.  But the main thing I learned was the golden rule -- the most important thing of all.  Daddy always said, " It is not what you think of yourself that counts, it is what other think of you."  I still believe that.