How do we get to be who we are????

Breakfast anyone?

After posting about Dave going to the Malheim reunion I received some e-mails from siblings.  It seems Grandma and Grandpa Lee were big in our life--FOR SURE.  Here are a few of the things I remember about growing up about 2 miles from them.  They lived on a farm and many of my memories are of that but really for me many are also of Grandma when she lived in town.  Shortly after they moved to Cayuga Grandpa died. Grandma's brother, Henry, lived with her most of that time.  Most of my school days in Cayuga and then in high school at Sargent Central Grandma lived in town.  Here goes but I warn anyone who many read this it perhaps is interesting only to me but really the "who" I am today very much is related to the grandma (and grandpa too until he died when I was in the 6th grade) in my life when I was growing up.  Memories come do not come in chronological order!!

• We went to see grandma as she lie dying in the hospital in Veblen, SD.  I was a senior in HS and in my last good-bye she pressed a $20 into my hand as a graduation gift.  Back then I "may" get $20 if I helped cousin Russel haul bales for 2 days so to me it was a lot of money.
• The skunk in their basement on the farm.  O my so bad and grandma and grandpa were so calm.
• Grandma seemed to have every kind of berry in the world.  Everything from currents to gooseberries to strawberries to raspberries to pretty much everything.  They were oh so good.
• Grandpa would go through the garden in the fall with his one bottom plow and then we would pick potatoes until our backs hurt. (well maybe they did not hurt way back then!)  We would fill burlap sacks with potatoes and they would go into the basement.
• Grandma always had cookies and they were always for the taking.  Mother would always tell us before the car stopped in their yard, "Now don't you go asking for cookies."  Of course all we had to do is look at grandma and she would ask us if we were hungry for a cookie--but we always were able to have more than one.
• In high school many many nights I would get back to Cayuga after a game and it would be midnight or later.  If dad was not waiting for me, and that was often, I would walk the block to grandma's and sleep there.  That is what happened one late late night in October of 1964.  Our football team had played an away game which meant I would get back to Cayuga maybe by midnight.  Dad was not there so I walked to grandma's and to my surprise she was up.  She said my brother Ronald was taken to the Fargo hospital (that was maybe 200 miles or so from Kulm) and it was serious.  The next morning grandma said I could use her car to drive home.  About noon mother and dad came home to say Ronald had died.  A time that remains fresh in my mind.
• Dave and I would walk and walk in the pasture, hills, behind grandpa and grandma's farm.  I am not sure what we would see but I do know at the far end was a tiny old empty building that we would usually end up at. 
• We would pick horseradish in the trees north of their farm and then grandma would grind it.  If you smelled it too close you may pass out!!!
• They had fruit trees.  It seemed like a 100 of them but of course not.  I know apples, plums and even a pear tree.
• Grandpa had the best laugh in the world.  It seemed to start at his toes, go through his body and come out so all the world could hear and enjoy.  In a little smaller scale he passed that down to my dad.
• Have to mention grandma's black dog whitey named so nobody would guess the name and steal it
• I hated grandma's oatmeal but could never get myself to say that so always would eat it.  Once I told her how good it was and I should have known a second helping would then come which of course I had to eat too!
• I remember butchering on the farm and grandma making sure we saved the blood so she could make blood sausage :( :( :(--well I never did get the courage to taste it.
• I know grandma was the one who would get aunt Ragna to send HUGE boxes of clothes from CA and I would eagerly go through to see if anything would fit me.  It seemed that was the source of clothes for some time.
• I can still picture grandpa on his tractor.  It seemed like the tractor was so tiny or maybe he was so gangly but it was funny. 
• One can not forget going to grandma grandpa's in the winter and falling asleep on their bed before the adults were finished with their card games.  Of course one would always fall asleep on a full stomach.  Then we would have to wake up, get into a cold car and feel some slight warmth just as we would pull into our driveway.
• For sure grandma made wonderful birthday cakes and then one birthday she made me a huge cookie for my birthday and I was so so happy.
• The memories, they can not be taken away.  The farm burned, grandpa and grandma died long ago, mother and dad are gone to but the mind is so powerful and memories never fade.

Yes, grandma and grandpa were special.  They were loving, they were fun, they made us feel needed and I know that some of whom I am today is because of them.  Growing up with little money, an outdoor three holer, no indoor bathroom, no sink to do dishes in and a "girls room" and a "boys room" for six kids it some how seemed that life was good, full and the "mush-eggs-venison and thick cream that we had in abundance was all one needed to be satisfied.
No, the paint brush is restless, the french press is gone, Terry and I have finished an hour walk so time to get on with the day.