Memories of Grandpa's house...

I was wondering if anybody else would like to share memories of Grandpa's house.

I remember Grandpa's house as a little bit worn out, but always a warm and happy place. It was just the two rooms downstairs, a living room and a kitchen. But it was all he needed. Really it was all any of us would need. I would go back now and I'm sure I would love it as much today as I did when I was little.

He had a swivel chair with cracked brown vinyl upholstery that he couldn't part with even after his children bought him a new chair. I remember the white stuffing coming out of the arms. Is my memory correct that he held the upholstery of that chair together with duct tape?

The floor in the kitchen was old wrinkled linoleum with a pattern of light gray and green -- I can still picture it vividly and touch it in my mind. (When you're little you spend a lot of time on floors). And I can still hear the percolator on the stove and smell the coffee, Grandpa's strong coffee. I think he drank Bokar Coffee from A&P. Here we are forty years later and we love the same kind of coffee.

What was important to Grandpa was the simple things. He loved his U.S. News and World Report, and his tape recorder. He loved grandchildren sitting at his table eating soft-boiled eggs with vinegar. Or tasting his wonderful warm sugared doughnuts. I learned to love Canada Mints from Grandpa. And Opera Fudge.

He took great pleasure in whatever we had to tell him. I can picture him with his eyes magnified behind those thick glasses, really paying attention to us. He was a very literate man and I think he loved words and ideas.

For a few years in the late 60s - early 70s, my brother Larry, and sister Susan, and I spent Thursday nights with Grandpa and Grandma while Mom and Dad went to choir practice at the Cornwall United Methodist Church.

Sometimes there were Saturday nights when Mom and Dad had a date. We would play some games, watch a lot of TV. A detective series with Raymond Burr in a wheelchair. Sometimes a movie of the week. A lot of Lawrence Welk. Sometimes hockey -- Grandpa liked hockey.

Grandma usually spent the early evening lying on the sofa and then Grandpa would help her get to bed early.

She was ill, suffering from tremors that we later learned were probably caused by medicine the doctors had given her years earlier. She didn't speak much, and must have been in some pain but she never ever complained. Grandma always greeted us with a big smile, with so such warmth and love. We never really got to know Grandma the way our parents did, but we did feel her love very much.