Genes and Whatnot

I have always been smaller than most everybody I have known. I can think of one exception. I stand an inch or two taller than A.M. But only if she isn't wearing those stack-heeled shoes. I got my physique from my grandmother, and a lot of my face, too. I'm just thankful I didn't quite get her nose.

Apart from genetic makeup, we may have shared some other traits. She enjoyed gardening and had a talent for crafting things.

But that may have been the extent of the similarities.

We had a special relationship there for a while. I would write her letters about my cat, and she would write back about the stray cat she fed. But she was a little too excited to have a granddaughter after having two grandson, and herself only raising one son.

My mother tells me she was very classy. Loved to dress up, and I imagine she was a flapper. So she tried to dress me up. I regularly got girlie outfits for birthdays and Christmas. And she sent me dolls. Being quite young at the time, I think those things were easily overlooked and forgotten. But then it happened.

One day she was visiting from Montana, and my parents must have stepped out to run an errand, leaving Gramma to watch us kids for a while. My friend was over, and we had gotten these small,red, vinyl mattresses out to play with. There were two things we used them for: 1. to run into each other at full speed. 2. to slide down the stairs on them. We were using them for stair sleds this time, and when Gramma found out what we were doing, "STOP THAT. You'll get HURT!" Or something along those lines.

What in the world? I thought this was the lady I heard used to ride on the back of Grampa Joe's motorcycle... Anyway, I don't remember if I blatantly ignored her, or if we stopped our fun, but I do know that is when I realized she didn't understand me at all.