What Reminds You Of Your Grandma?

Oats-n-Honey Granola Bars

Blackberry Brandy and coffee after 9PM.

fruit punch...she always made a big bowl on her birthday (without alcohol)

Nature paintings

Pigs feet (her favorite snack) and whiskey (She always kept a bottle hidden behind the chair in her bedroom.)

Love, pure love

Her paintings on my walls.

Moth balls and Fizzies.

....

African violets, Xanax, and roast beef so overcooked that it shreds into strings.

Those tins of Danish butter cookies - she lived on them.

R11 My grandma had those tins too, but they were always filled with buttons.

pickles in the bathtub

Lack of communication during holidays.

Nothing, really. I remember her but nothing really puts me in the mind of her.

The taste of my mom's pussy juice on my dad's dick.

Racist remarks.

Tea and toast. She made that for me every morning when I went to stay with her during the summer holidays,

The Guiding Light - on her TV every day without fail for decades.

Gaudy jewellery, high heels (which she insisted on wearing even though she had two operations for bunions), floral dresses and the insufferable, performative fakeness with which she tried to conceal that she had an icy heart. She was a horrible bitch and, to this day, I hate people who appear to always be "on" and behave as if they were characters in a play.

My other grandmother is still alive. People who behave inappropriately for their age and try to dress like they're in their early twenties, remind me of her. I particularly hate leggings, mule heels and winged eyeliner, because it is what the pathetic old slag wears in order to be "seductive" and show off her "teen-like figure", even though she is a decrepit 83-year-old with a bad hip.

Needless to say, I've never liked either one of my grandmothers.

April Violets, the smell of burnt toast (how she liked it) and menthol cigarettes.

Beautiful plants. My grandmother had quite the green thumb, and my grandparents' acre of land was a garden of flowers and vegetables that was like a fairyland to me as a child.

I only wish I had her talent. I've killed more plants than I've ever grown.

Gumdrops that she used as poke chips when she taught us to play poker. Sadly, cigarette smoke, the smell of hairspray. Delicious, crips buttery tollhouse cookies that she kept in a cookie jar bought with green stamps.

Neatness. Never any dishes in her sink or on her kitchen counters. Her house was always tidy and clean and sunny.

We loved her and we cherish our memories of her.

I never knew mine so...nothing.

Rothmans, Crown Royal and Days of Our Lives.

Cinnamon rolls, quilting, and pottery. ❤️

Sweet Potato Pie

Shalimar

As The World Turns

Runaway reindeer

And this.

For my dad's mom (whom I adored):

Chocolate chip cookies made with lard instead of butter (delicious!)

Extremely salty fried chicken (ditto)

White Shoulders

West Highland Terriers

For my mom's mom (whom i loved but did not adore):

Rhubarb pie

Jergen's Almond Hand Lotion

Boiled beef and noodles (incredibly nasty Depression-era dish)

Siamese cats

Grilled cheese in the fry pan

Gray pubes

The smell of a gas stove. Everyone else in the extended family had electric stoves, so when I smell cooking gas, I think of her. And also the smell of cooking pasta.

Halitosis that could melt your face. Oh, and the large wooden spoon she would wallop our heads with if we even breathed wrong. And if you cried....that was another wallop.

She was a wonderful woman.

My 4 year old niece. My grandma would have really loved her. She died a year before my niece was born.

Really loved my grandma. Think of her everyday.

Maternal grandma: self-centered. Used us grandkids like personal Sherpas. Told us negative things about ourselves as small children.

Paternal grandma: rarely saw her. She was nice, though. I was so used to my other grandma that I couldn't believe this grandma was really nice. I felt like at any moment, she could turn her head 360 degrees like Linda Blair in the Exorcist and change into my other grandma.

The Yankees, B'nai B'rith and gambling...she was NOT warm and fuzzy....

Pies, but never pumpkin pie. She made excellent cherry and apple pies, and I have hardly ever tasted crust as good as hers. I didn't learn that pumpkin pie was a Thanksgiving tradition until I was an adult. She always made panna cotta for me for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or something called grape snow, which I think was a combination of Welch's grape juice, egg whites, and gelatin. She served it with Crème Anglaise.

Squirrels. Death.

Like most people, I had two of them, OP.

Were you parthenogenetically bred, OP?

ARE YOU A CLONE?!?!?

Avon

she made my birthday cake every year

lemon pound cake with glazed icing

her huge garden in the back yard

snapping beans with her on the porch

her collection of bird feathers

my other grandmother

PTL on the tv

cheese toast

church

her little poodle

This song by Bill Withers always makes me think of my grandmother—who I honestly thought was a walking angel.

My Irish grandmother’s favorite song

My black grandmothers favorite song

Candling eggs after dinner. Playing Yahtzee and croquet and lovely soft Iced shortbread cookies.

Hummels - My grandmother had a rather large collection that were displayed over the fireplace. I think you for whenever I see one.

Homemade chocolate chip cookies

All My Children

Doilies

My Grandma made lots of Italian food, but not desserts. She would always have those crunchy chocolate chip cookies they make at the grocery store bakery. I still eat them because they remind me of her.

Pure unconditional love and oreo cookies :)

Chenille bed spreads

R1 are we related? Me too! My grandma used to keep them in the snack cupboard next to the sink.

Quilted Blankets

Random rants about anything, likely things that are misunderstood. My grandmother was the original Emily Litella

This...

Vanilla

Aunt Clara from Bewitched

Nazis, Europeans, Catholics/Catholic churches, Jew-hating scum. Both my grandmother and my great-grandmother were murdered in the Holocaust.

Bubble lights! She had multicolored strands. My tree is decorated in orange, metallic gold, olive green, and cranberry. So I chose the gold glitter variety from Vickerman (get them on Amazon). I had to paint the bases (surrounding the lamp) opaque metallic gold, because the lamp was so bright, it distracted from the light of the bubble tube. They're just as gorgeous off, as when they're on.

I DO have a three stem candolier w/ multicolored bubble lights for my bedroom window. Anyway...bubble lights.

Chanel No. 5

I'm one of the school kids who had a number one hit in the UK with 'There's No One Quite Like Grandma'.

The binder with nothing but pictures of sunsets and flowers. My grandpa dug a pond for her in the shape of a butterfly. A beautiful willow tree flanked one of the wings. She would stay up all night playing cards with here brothers/cousins, and never drink a drop. Always got the men to work and the kids to school. Also, a member of the Sweet Adelines. She could sing, play piano, and always said I had a silver tongue. Thankfully, I got the gift of gab from her.

Fear of silverfish on the kitchen floor, playing gin rummy for loose change, seeing her as the kindest person in the entire world.

Seeing silverfish anytime, feels like the first time.

A shot gun.

Shit

Moth balls

Another memory- the whole family went to my granny’s house on Hogmanay. She had tables heaving with food,sandwiches, soup, steak pie, Madeira cake, cherry cake, scones, black bun, home made shortbread. The full Scottish traditional spread for New Year. She was teetotal, so any alcohol was consumed surreptitiously. Anyone who was caught was thrown out by my four foot eleven granny. Everyone had to “do a turn” by singing, reciting a poem or a monologue, even telling a joke. There were no exceptions, even for those who were terrible singers.

I don’t know of anyone who has this kind of party any more. It’s a pity really.

My MomMom always saved the leftover morning coffee in a mug. She would add Hershey's chocolate syrup, sugar and milk and the pour that into freezer pop molds. Us kids would have the most delicious frozen popsicles in the afternoon. This was the mid '80s; I think my MomMom was ahead of the times.

Rose-colored nailpolish

Mohair wool

Pink bathroom tiles

Utz potato chips and boiled hot dogs

Lawrence Welk

Gender stereotypes

Stereotypes of the aged.

My grandmother's favorite soap opera was Days Of Our Lives. She also liked Little House On The Prairie ( her favorite character on that show was Mrs. Oleson) and Grizzly Adams.

My maternal grandmother was my best friend ever. She was the loveliest lady I ever knew— I miss her dearly.

She would tell me a lot of stories regarding the Great Depression, very ‘little house’-type tales. Including needing cardboard in their shoes. She was a wonderful bayou ‘creole country’ cook. Although when I came around, she wasn’t really doing the cooking like she used to. We talked about everything. Family, Catholicism, music, food. We shared a similar love for the nice things in life. When I was little, she would pop a bag of popcorn in the early afternoon, after lunch, so we could have a ‘popcorn party’. Lots of sweet cornbread muffins too! We would watch old Tom & Jerry cartoons and just have a ball. Little did I know at the time, things like these would be my best memories. She also loved the tin butter cookies — around the holidays my aunt would send my mother a box of Queen Anne cherries to my grandmothers house, a tradition we still kind of do. My mother thankfully inherited my grandmother’s wonderful cooking, so I also have been educated in her cooking style. I miss my best friend constantly, she’s been gone almost nine years now. I think she knew I was different than the rest of the grandchildren, and she loved me for it regardless. True unconditional love.

Avon's "Here's my Heart!" scented body powder, face cream, and perfume. She loved it.

She was not a very nice person. Judgmental. Self-centered. She always called the scent "Here's to my Heart!" It was Freudian. Turning a statement that described a romantic gift into a narcissistic reference to herself. But that was my granny.

Marrying a man with homoshexshual tendencshiesh. Remindsh me of Mama, too.

Corgi poo

Fall colors. She loved when the leaves would change colors and would ride around with my grandpa and look at all the beautiful colors. Green apples also remind me of her. She'd always cut me a green apple.

I also get reminded of her when I smell certain scents. They aren't scents I can pin down. I'll just be going for a walk, a breeze will come in, and I'll get a whiff of something that'll make me a little teary eyed because it reminds me of her. I sometimes think that's her saying "hi."

A Maxwell House can full of buttons, Lawrence Welk on TV, putting a glass baking dish full of water on the registers when it got too dry in winter time, a lot more. Wonderful woman.

Masses of big purple irises and the best chicken noodle soup.

[quote]What Reminds You Of Your Grandma?

The family insanity we all inherited from her (and her line).

Lilac Bushes, irises, L’eggs pantyhose containers (the white plastic egg-shaped containers the pantyhose came in) containing jellybeans and a matchbox. She would present these to me when I visited. She called them ‘cutes’.

Afghan blankets.

The AC being set at 78 or above.

Long explanations, exemplified by readings of from Goether and Schiller, demonstrating that German, indeed, is the most beautiful and expressive language on Earth.

Martinis

My grandmother was like a Norman Rockwell painting with her cooking, sewing and knitting, but going through some old family photos I realized that grandma never had a picture taken without a two-olive martini in her hand. No wonder she was always so pleasant and easy-going, the old lady was stone-drunk

Paternal grandma: pancakes, sodabread and going to the beach. She had five sons and no daughters so paid little attention to her grandsons and completely doted on her granddaughters to the point of being overbearing. She was an Irish immigrant widowed at a young age and no interest in remarrying.

Maternal grandma: I loved going there on Sundays for dinner. Her whole house smelled so good and her kitchen was always hot and humid from the gigantic pot of boiling water for the pasta. Everything also had a faint smell of Ivory soap. Her kitchen was a very comforting sensory environment.

Sunday drives

Canned green beans

Peach cobbler

Hymns

Love

[quote]Like most people, I had two of them, OP.

I never met my paternal grandmother (or grandfather), even though they lived in my city until their deaths in the last 10 years. They disowned my dad because he married out of their religion. My maternal grandma more than made up for their absence – she was the most wonderful woman.

Her racism. She was a sweet old lady and devoted to her sons but the n word was her preferred usage. This always prompted a lesson from my Dad out if her earshot whenever she used the word. She really thought blacks were inferior beings.

I have an old ceramic dog’s head that holds eyeglasses. They belonged to my mom’s mom. I asked my mother if I could have it when she died. I still have it and have used it every day since. I put my glasses on it when I go to sleep. It has a crack from moving once, but is otherwise in very good shape. My grandmother will have been dead 40 years this December 7. Wonderful woman.

NYC. Saturdays we would take the bus from NJ to go shopping & go to Radio City Music Hall, lunch at the automat. She hated the automat, I later found out, but knew we kids loved it, so automat it was, umm creamed spinach, I can almost taste it as I write this.. She would say your job today is to pick out anything you want. She wasn't shy of a few bob, even though she was a Russian gypsy who drank hot tea in a glass w. a sugar cube held in her teeth. She was a keen, crafty, formidable business woman.

One week we saw Love Me or Leave Me at Radio City, with Cagney & Doris. I was totally impressed w. DorisD's feather fan. We saw some feathers in a window at a department store. I pointed & said I wanted those. She never batted an eye. Never said why would you want those,. Didn't seem shocked or appalled at me showing at such an early age great taste as a young gay fledgling. She just asked for the manage & hectored him into trying to get me those feathers. She kept at it, relentlessly, till we got them. I lost them down the line in one of my many moves. But I've still got the memory of my darling babushka, aka baba who loved me so much.

Sanka coffee.

Pastina.

Sofa covered in plastic.

Peeled and sliced fresh peaches in a big bowl with Anisette liqueur poured over them.

When someone was being an idiot she would call them a "chooch" (donkey, jackass in Italian).

tab.

[quote]Her racism. She was a sweet old lady...She really thought blacks were inferior beings.

If she was racist, then she wasn't a sweet old lady.

Cuppa tea with lemon.

Fenton hobnail milk glass, macadamia nuts, Hummel figurines, burned toast (I see mine wasn’t the only one), lilac guest soaps (don’t you dare USE them!) the dropped and added “r”s of a Bostonian.

My paternal grandmother is STILL alive at age 95, but across an ocean. Ugly afghans, tiny glasses of scorching slivovitz and BO.

Kreplach

Handmade pajamas with rockets and planets on them. I was always excited to bathe, change into these special PJ’s and climb into bed where she would read to me, when we went to visit. She had the kindest laugh.

Thigh-high vinyl boots, corduroy newsboy caps, and pleather handbags.

R73 and R90 - your posts made me cry.

Miss mine everyday too. Unconditional love like I’ve never known since she died.

We were lucky to know them.

Mink stole, alligator bag and shoes, red Ford Galaxie convertible, boyfriend 20 years younger than her, and everything I wanted every year for Christmas.

Maternal:

M&Ms in a glass candy dish Kool menthols Her deep and abiding love of air conditioning, politics, basketball and soap operas Great southern food Generosity She was always so excited to see me. I was always so excited to see her.

Paternal: Dyed black hair Mr. T gold jewelry Spangly sweaters Seasonal decor Delicious Italian food She and I got along fine, but my brother was her favorite.

I miss both of them.

[quote] L’eggs pantyhose containers (the white plastic egg-shaped containers the pantyhose came in) containing jellybeans and a matchbox. She would present these to me when I visited. She called them ‘cutes’.

I love that. Mine would hand us dimes or quarters (in the 90s) like she was handing out $100 bills. She was such a sweet lady. My uncle said at her funeral that she maintained a childlike sense of happiness about life throughout, and he was right.

Bingo dabbers.

Maternal: handwritten letters, young Elizabeth II in profile postage stamps, anything crocheted, ham sandwiches on white rolls with butter instead of mayonnaise, butter tarts, televised curling, Danny Kaye movies

Paternal: popcorn balls, Watergate salad, ruby red depression glass, polyester pants

Always had a dish of Humbug candies on her coffee table and Welch's grape juice in the fridge.

Paternal Grandmother ( a wonderful person who treated everyone the same)

England (very proud of her English heritage)

Canada Dry Ginger Ale in a glass, green bottle

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream

Red Skelton (was a fan; used to drag my poor dad to see all of his movies)

Wire hangers for the abortions she did in the basement

The smell of bingo halls were she spent her abortion money

The sound of a church choir where she sang and tithed her abortion money

A white apron with stains, just like the ones she wore in the basement

The college degree that the trust fund she left me paid for from you guessed it, those wire hangers

True story

My paternal grandmother lived with us, or rather, we lived with her. She was my best friend and my partner in crime, so to speak. She was one of a kind, always beautifully dressed, a trained singer with a lovely soprano voice.

When she died, I was living in my own place, and I moved her china cabinet over to my house, as well as a large, framed oval portrait of her. They're both in my dining room now, with her portrait hung over a bookcase. One of my cats, Cinder, habitually lies on the bookcase beneath her portrait, and I like to imagine that they commune with each other. Gram loved her cats.

Love. The type of love that is a privilege for any being to experience at any time in a life. There’s an empty space and a void now in my soul ever since 2010, when she passed. My life is purposely experienced as ‘before’ and ‘after’ the year 2010. Some good things had taken place after…..but not much. I miss my Grandma and all of its entailments each day. God Bless her soul.

Desiderata

Mulberries

Recliners

Those plastic holders you attach to the bottom of a toothpaste tube in order to squeeze out the very last drop

Macaroni cheese

Cricket

The Gettysburg Address. On her deathbed, she sat bolt upright, recited the whole thing from nemory and then dropped dead. Yes, she was from Gettysburg.

She was the original Hyacinth Bucket, so Keeping Up Appearances also brings her to mind.

The smell of coffee and apples. Watching Bewitched reruns after school. And this picture, which hung in the living room.

My maternal grandma: Tab (same as R92), angel food cake, waffles, and mashed potatoes. Paternal grandma: full-length mink coat.

Speeding. My grandma didn't learn to drive until she was in her 40's in the late 70's. She was a total lead foot and didn't give af.

Yellowing foundation garments; thin, pendulous breasts; thighs with a cottage-cheese texture.

Thomas Kinkade paintings

McCall's

Albondigas soup, fresh bread made in an adobe oven, had made tortillas.

Oreo cookies and milk

R109. I think I was trying to say that my life ended in February 2010. That which has been left has been suffering ever since. I keep on because my mother and father and son are with me still. However, my immediate presence is not vital to any of them.

My maternal grandmother -

Manners.

Dressing up to go downtown.

Shopping at Eaton's and the Bay.

Bridge (the card game)

Going to church teas.

Watching Agatha Christie and Mystery! on PBS

Home made baking

Certain Christmas decorations

Crossword puzzles

Reading

Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding

Her love for all of her children and grandchildren.

My paternal grandmother -

Her baking and home cooked meals.

Spending time with her at our family cottage.

Going for walks and short hikes in the wilderness.

Her endless love of nature, animals, and her grandchildren.

The value of education - my grandma was a Mennonite who escaped Russia before WW2 (I can't remember the exact year). Her family had been wealthy, but, with what was happening in "the old country" my grandmother had to quit school at a young age. Although she never had the chance to further her education (formally), she had a great love of learning and stressed to us the importance of an education. I think she always regretted not being able to finish her schooling, she used to tell me how lucky I was to live in Canada where I could go to school. I was a sullen teen and would roll my eyes sometimes, but I knew she was right.

No 4711 Cologne, Thanksgiving, Lemon Meringue Pies, Spaetzle, Pocketbooks, the Chiclets she always had in her Pocketbooks, bobby pins, cuckoo clocks, her picture that hangs in our guest room, her Noritake China that we use, her Vanity Bench that I recovered, and her Jade Green Bakelite Vanity Set in our guest room.

If I want my house to smell like my grandmother's, I fry bacon and cook onions in the grease. Voila!

I miss her singing. She used to tuck me in at night and sing the lullaby from Wozzeck.

Piss pads

For my paternal grandma: Tabu. Her favorite perfume. The original, not that crap they sell now.

I never knew my maternal grandma as she died before I was born.

Selfish old bitch

Dataloungers

A certain perfume my grandmother wore called Jungle Gardenia. I detect is very rarely anymore, but on the off occasion I do I automatically think of my Grand Mattie.

I never had a real conversion with my grandmother, language barrier. She was born in the US descendants of Native American and Spanish. She forced her kids to learn English so they would have a better chance in the world. Well they did, but at the time they saw no value of being bilingual. So, by the time I came along my parents didn't even bother to teach me Spanish. My mother always just played interpreter.

The smell of Fairy dishwashing liquid in a sun-bathed kitchen in southwest England. That kitchen was always spotless, smelling clean and homey, and I remember the way the air in the pantry, where I would go in search of biscuits, was always very still and quiet. Sherbet lemons at the local sweet shop. I didn't know my grandmothers well, my parents moved us to another country when we were very small and all I knew of them was visits to the UK.

My other (paternal) granny was odd but not uninterested in us. I remember she didn't hug, it was always a handshake - including with her own son, my dad. I remember finding a letter from him to her that he had written as a child. It addresses her as 'Mrs. Lastname.' Neither side of my family talk about anything emotional or personal but I always wondered why my paternal granny was that way. My dad never knew how to deal with or experience strong emotions either and it all makes me feel very sad.

Was born from "older" Mom and Dad. All grandparents were deceased by the time of my eminent (ha!) arrival. But my dear Aunt Olive and Uncle Howie, while I did not realize it at the time, probably more than made up for never knowing actual grandparents. They had a much newer and nicer car than my parents had, and gave my sister and I so much positive attention ( not that our parents did not, but it is my understanding that grandparents provide a whole additional thing of feeling loved).

That is all I can come up with to respond to this thread, and I ended up feeling like I should do so.

Violet candies, jelly jar glasses for our milk, a metal tin full of hard store-bought oatmeal cookies, half-completed crossword puzzles.

My grandma watched the televangelists every morning, she would gleefully say "These people are hideous" or these people are horrible. She would have been a true Datalounger, she loved to hate religion.

Maternal Grandmother:

Aluminum drinking cups in all different colors. Kept all drinks really cold, especially the Yoohoo she kept for us,

Rock candy in the living room drawer

Homemade chewy chocolate chip cookies and stuffed cabbage.

Moth balls in all the drawers and plastic covers on the living room couches.

Little packs of Kleenex in her purse to spit on and wipe the 'schmutz" off our faces. HATED that, but loved her.

Always had on a housecoat and-or apron

Paternal Grandmother (wealthy):

NYC

Gigantic penthouse apartment with a grand hallway that led to the living room.

Pearls, fancy dresses, heels and makeup every day.

Chanel no 5

Best chicken soup with egg yolk dumplings (Eyerlekh)

Eloquent speaking voice. Snooty, but in a non-offensive way.

R135 here. Loved my paternal grandma too. Forgot to add that.

Lilacs, her favorite scent.

R136, Was your paternal grandmother Lauren Bacall?

R139 LOL, bur she actually knew her briefly through 4 degrees of separation!

Roses, hasselback potatoes, "Carefully Taught" from South Pacific

I thought soaps in various shapes would be mentioned more

This song.

Her ceramic Christmas village which she made and painter herself. Even the reindeer which in real life would be 13 feet tall. I have it and it goes up every year… Once up, I have to leave the room for a few minutes and recompose myself. Love… Her unconditional love…

I’ve been thwarted so far in finding a specific gun to use once my parents are gone. Fuck it that I live in a state with no regards to the 2nd amendment and the right to bear arms! Still, I can still take a flight to some state with no gun regulations and follow through there! Forcing people to live is the same as illegalisation of abortion!

^Huh?

Whiskey and cigars. Seriously.

Sweetest woman in the world with lots of love and money to shower her grandchildren with.

She wasn't a pushover though, she wouldn't take shit from anyone not my grandfather, not my dad, and not us misbehaving.