What Are Some of Your Favorite Memories With Your Grandparents? ~ Day 5

What Are Some of Your Favorite Memories With Your Grandparents? ~ Day 5

I have such great memories of my Grandparents!

I was blessed as a child to spend a lot of time with my grandparents.  But mostly with my maternal ones.

This photo was taken at my parent's wedding.

  

My Dad's parents are on the far right and my Mom's parents are the couple standing next to them. 
(You WILL have to click or tap to enlarge this microscopic photo.)

~ ~ ~ 
I will start with my Mom's parents.
~Mae and Ed Poppleton~

And that is exactly what I called them. 
Mae and Ed.
I was given the middle name Mae after my Grandma Mae.  Her real name was Evelyn Mae Sharp Poppleton, but she went by Mae.  My Grandpa's real name was Edward Castle Poppleton.

This photo was taken when we lived in Sparks Nevada and they came to visit.  

They would come and visit us quite frequently when we lived in Sparks, and Concord and Eureka California when I was little.  We moved back (much to their joy) when I was almost 8 years old.

 I spent more time with them than I did my other grandparents.  When we moved  back we lived with them for a time until we found a house.  My Grandma Mae was so much fun.  She was a little feisty and had a lot of spunk.  She had a look of mischief in her eye.  I am a lot like her in many ways.  My Grandpa Ed was a huge tease.  He was always teasing me by putting wads of paper towels in my shoes before I left or lightly touching my head and telling me I had a spider in my hair.  To this day I am freaked out by any feeling of movement on my head and I am terrified of spiders!   Mae always looked very pretty and never went without lipstick and her hair was always meticulous.  She always smelled good and had beautiful nails.  She would take me shopping almost every Saturday and then to eat lunch at the Tiffin Room at ZCMI.  I always got a hamburger and a chocolate shake.  We ate dinner at their house every Sunday and I remember what a good cook she was.  She always made a pot roast, corn, rolls, and potatoes with the best gravy on the planet.  I wasn't a big meat eater and when I couldn't eat anymore, I would throw my extra pieces of meat under the table.  I remember my Mom once saying something like, "Now where did all that meat come from that is under the table?" , and before I could be caught, my Grandma immediately covered for me and said something like, "Oh someone must think we have a dog."  She made the best orange rolls. I remember she had a bread drawer and I could always find a loaf of Wonder Bread inside it. I would squish it into a ball and slowly eat it.  I loved to get out her pots and pans because she had the most beautiful flowered ones.  I would take them into a corner in her living room and play house with them.  She had a pink bathroom.  By pink I mean the tub, toilet, and sink were all pink.  If I remember right, her kitchen appliances were pink too.  I'm surprised my favorite color isn't pink!  When we lived in Nevada, my favorite thing was getting a package from her in the mail filled with little brown bags of penny candy including chocolate licorice and ruffled underpants!  Almost every summer after we moved back to Utah, I would go with them to California during the summer.  Just me and my brother would go.  We would always stop in Las Vegas at Circus Circus and at a motel that had an outdoor pool.  We would go to Sacramento to visit my cousins Bill and Mike or to San Diego to visit my cousin Shelley.  The summer I got my driver's license, my Grandpa let me drive his nice new Cadillac almost the entire way!  I remember he told me to go 90 mph in the desert where there were no other cars. So I did.  That must explain where my lead foot came from.  After my Grandpa passed away, I would go stay with Mae because she didn't like to be alone and after she had her first stroke, I stayed with her quite a bit in the summer to help her out. I remember she had gout really bad as well.  I loved organizing her hall closet. They lived on Country Club Drive just below the golf course and I loved going up the hill to collect mini bottles with my brother. I was scared of her basement.  I would go to church with her in the 49th ward where she was the secretary of something. They raised my cousin Shelley and were both very giving and loving people.  I loved spending time with them both and I have so many great memories of them. Sadly they both passed away within two years of each other.  I was a sophomore in high school when Mae passed away.  I really miss them.

My Dad's Mom

~Grandma Helen~

I didn't get to see my Grandma Helen as much as Mae and Ed, but she was a lot of fun!  She was a very talented lady when it came to sewing and crafts.  She was always making something creative and crafty.  I loved her laugh.  It was unique but very catching.  Her and my Grandpa Ira were divorced before I was born and she remarried a couple times after that.  She lived in Salt Lake most of the time I was growing up.  I remember going to her apartment and the smell it had of a musty old building.

She became active in the church later in her life and I she asked me to go through the temple with her and I was able to witness the sealing of her to my Grandpa Ira.  I think she always loved him but after losing their son Jerry in a logging accident when he was 17, they struggled and eventually divorced.
She was always a very active and for the most part a healthy person.  She was a very positive and upbeat person and always had a great attitude no matter what was happening.  As she aged, she loved being a part of anything involving our family and tried to come and support the boys in their ventures when she could.

My Grandma Helen with my Great Grandma Nellie Stephenson

Haha, this picture makes me laugh because it looks like my Grandma Helen (on the left) is a mean old biddy. But she was anything but.   I just don't have very many good photos!  This one is priceless though because my Great Grandma Nellie (my Grandma Helen's Mother)  is in it.   I don't have many memories of my Great Grandma Nellie, but I remember her raspy voice and that she was a little spitfire.  I remember seeing the movie called "The Mailbox" in seminary in high school about an old grandma who was lonely and very sad she didn't see her grand-kids.  After watching it, I felt inspired to write her a letter.  I wrote it and the very day I got it mailed, she passed away so she never got it. I felt terrible.

My Dad's Dad

~Grandpa Ira~

 

I wish I had more memories of my Grandpa Ira, but the truth is I rarely saw him.  He lived in Nevada out in the desert in a mobile home.  I do remember when we would go out to visit him, it seemed like a very long drive.   My brother and I would catch lizards around his trailer.  I remember taking my Barbie to his house once and he had a lantern inside that singed her hair and then I singed some of my arm hairs and really hated that smell.  From what I remember about him, he was a pretty quiet guy.  I wish I had more memories of him and would have been able to get to know him better.  

My Grandpa Ira with my Uncle Jerry and my Dad.

My Great Grandparents Delwin and Violet Sharp ( on my Mom's maternal side)

 

 This is my Grandma Mae's parents.  I never got to meet my Great Grandma Violet, but I am pretty sure she is the reason I love the color purple.  If I had ever had a girl I was going to name her after her.  Possibly the first name being Violet.  How about Violet Mae?  How perfect would that be with my obsession with the color purple?  haha  I met my Great Grandpa Delwin when I was very small, but I don't remember much about him other than he was old.

I have been very blessed with a great heritage!  I look forward to meeting all of them again one day.