Sometime last year Alison and I went down and took grams out to dinner. At one point we were talking about living on her own and I asked her if she thought a place where other people were around to play cards, chat with, and interact with would be fun. I was saying this primarily because I think an assisted living place would be absolutely awesome, even for someone my age. Come home, say hi to the gang, play some cards, go to the cafe for some food, watch movies, chit-chat; it would be like college without the obligation of actually doing anything. Anyways, she wasn’t buying it. As we were chatting she said something that summed her up: “What… and hang around old people? I hate old people, I would much rather be around kids and babies then a bunch of old fogies.” I’ll always remember her for her young spirit and for how much she absolutely cherished her time with her grandkids and their kids. Oh, so many great memories. Like most of us she used to babysit me regularly and would always have a couple pranks to pull. Her favorite one to do on me was with some nail clippers and a lamp on her bedside table. She would convince me that a UFO had gotten into the room and was flying around by reflecting the lamplight off of her nail clippers. And I would totally buy it! She would have me running all over the room trying to catch the UFO as she cracked up. Yes, she used to treat me like a cat with a laser pointer. But, anytime with grandma was always the best time. When I was young I wouldn’t threaten my parents with running away, I would threaten to move in and live with grams. Unlike Phoebe, I freaking hated strawberries! Grandma took us strawberry picking once and I thought it would be the end of me. I was probably 8 and felt that it was the cruelest of all tortures. My hands would be sticky, knees dirty, sun beating down on me. But the Moore kids would love it. They would absolutely love it - happily snacking on the strawberries as I toiled away filling my bucket. Strawberries, yuck - it was the worst. From then on whenever I would be acting up she would threated to take me strawberry picking the next time I came over. She definitely had my number; that was her trump card. One time we went for a drive and she didn’t tell me where we were going. When we pulled in she told me we were going strawberry picking and I completely lost my shit. That type of thing would crack her up, she was eventually able to coax me out of the car and she then pulled two fishing poles out of her trunk and walked me down to the lake for a day of fishing. Those were great times. I’m not sure if it was just to piss my dad off or what, but one day grandma and I were out running errands and I talked her into stopping into a pet store to look at the cute animals. I asked her if I could get a rabbit and she actually bought me the rabbit! She didn’t ask my parents, didn’t feel a need to check with anyone, just bought me the rabbit. Now that is how grandparents are supposed to operate! Seems so strange how big of a deal it was to me, but that was my first pet. It was like a boy and his dog, but for me it was a boy and his rabbit. I loved that damn rabbit. Thanks grams. There wasn’t anything better then being in on a prank that grams was about to pull. If she pulled you in to her inner circle and needed your assistance on an op, you were golden, and some poor sucker was about to get it! Might be snipe hunting, maybe the ol’ charcoal plate trick, or maybe she would have conjured up something completely new for this evening and we were all in for a treat. I have no idea where this brilliance came from, but she seemed to have a never-ending bucket of it. One of my favorites was when we were up in Caseville and she tied a fishing line on to aunt LaDonna’s bed sheet. She then discreetly ran it along the floor and out under the bedroom door. Once LaDonna and Walt went to bed grams would start to slowly pull the string and pull the sheet off of them. “STOP pulling the sheet off” … “I’m not pulling the SHEET OFF!” … “What the hell! There are gremlins in here I swear it I’m not pulling the sheet!!” She had some real masterpieces. But, what I’ll remember most about grams is how she used to sing me Amazing Grace. There isn’t ever a time that I hear that song and don’t think of you grandma. You were a great influence on all of us, thank you.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 05:27:47 +0000
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