4. Nanny and Grandpa

Nanny and Grandpa (or sometimes Papa) are my mom's parents.

As I mentioned previously, we would go out to visit them every summer, and occasionally in the winter.  They came out to California a handful of times as well.  Because of the distance we were never as close as they were with the rest of my cousins (who all lived in a 20 mile radius).

(I think about this with Bertie and my mom.  She gets to see him quarterly, which is pretty good, especially for living 3000 miles away.  I have a dream that when she's old, she'll move back and live near me).

I think I'm just going to list miscellaneous memories.  (It's more difficult than I thought it would be to write about relationships in one blog post).

• We would watch Price is Right everyday.  And, for a while, there was a radio station that also had it on.  Which is odd, when I think about it.
• When we drove around we would often listen to a Kenny Rogers cassette.  
• Grandpa smoked all his life (and was likely a factor in his death).  I never liked the smell of cigarette smoke.  But every now and then, I'll get a whiff that must have been his brand.  Smell memories (is that a thing?) are really powerful.
• Nanny always made (and still does) the best tuna salad.  I'm not sure what she does, because I know how she makes it, and still, it never tastes quite right.
• They always had a decent size garden.  I would go out with Grandpa and help him pick corn, green beans, lima beans and tomatoes.  Then we would sit at their big wooden kitchen table and shell them (or pull the ends off the green beans).
• When my cousins came to visit the farm, Grandpa would drive us all around in the back on his pick up truck; out into the woods, to the red clay canyon, the pond, and the abandoned house in the woods.  
• When it was just me and my sisters, he would take us on the pond (I say pond, but it was more like a lake(I just looked it up, it's called Shirley Millpond.)) and we would get in the little boat and go fishing.
• Nanny is a great cook.  She doesn't cook as much anymore, since it's just her most of the time.  
• They had a timeshare in Myrtle Beach for a long time.  We went with them a handful of times and stayed there for a week.  It was wonderful.  Especially when you compare the ocean temperatures between here and there.
• We used to play 500 Rummy quite a bit, then Rumicube. Grandpa would play solitaire a lot too.  I wish I could remember the kind he played.  (Mom, do you know?)
• On the farm, there was a huge clothesline.  I was usually too short to help hang clothes, but I liked running through the sheet and towels drying on the line.

That's all I've got for now.  As usual, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.  But it's a start.