There is really a lot that I don’t know about Grandmother but there are several things that I remember about her and I hope you can interpret it all. I’m not much on public speaking or writing or anything.
I can recall that Grandma always wore her homemade aprons, insisted on dinner at 12:00 and told stories with her eyes closed.. She knew all the birthdays of children and grandchildren.
Probably the first time I do remember her, I thought she was a bossy lady in an apron but she was a hard working ole gal.
I guess I was her seventh grandchild, her third granddaughter and I had her first great granddaughter.
I believe she really loved her family, grandkids and great grandkids. She had a hard time showing it sometimes but I think the older she got the more she showed it.
Grandma told me one time that she did have more time for her great grandkids than she did with her grandkids. She said she was still trying to make a living when her grandkids started coming along.
I remember going to her house and a lot of us would have dinner there and enjoy a good meal. We would have time to play afterwards and the women would sit and talk. The men would play horseshoes and sit outside and talk. Grandma kind of kept everything going and one of her things was “Don’t slam that screen door. Don’t slam the door, now”
Grandma was a neat person. She kept her house clean and she kept her yard clean. She took pride in that. I remember when we lived down by Prosperity and I wasn’t very big. I can’t remember all these years when things happened. I was probably about five years old and the boys would walk to her house and I went one time and I was so tired. She couldn’t believe that mother would let me come with them. Then mother came to pick us up but I wanted to stay all night but I didn’t get to stay all night. She (Grandma) let the boys, that’s Ray and A.G…seems like at times I thought she kind of liked them more than she did me. But they were big enough to help her and I probably was just an onery kid in the way but then when I got older I remember staying with her and helping her pick green beans and snap green beans. I always enjoyed it but she would kinda get after me and tell me to stay busy.
When I got ready to go into high school, I stayed with her about one week and she helped me make some skirts and she taught me how to hem. She showed me how she did it and it was a really fast way to hem. She enjoyed sewing and she was a good seamstress.
When my dad got sick and had surgery, when Jackie was a baby, we had to stay with her and I remember one night we were sitting down to the table eating, and Granddad was still alive, too. Ward Cates drove up in the yard and Grandma was the first to see him come in because we were all sitting at the table and she was in the kitchen. She hollered there is someone there and Ward hit the door and all the boys jumped up and I remember the conversation was something about my dad but I didn’t know what was going on. They all hurriedly left and I was kinda standing in the corner and Grandma said, “Come get ready for bed, Carol” and I didn’t want to and I finally got up enough nerve and I said, “Well where did they all go?” and she said, “Well your dad had got sick and they had to go give him blood” and I remember being scared all night. The next morning Granddad told me he was going to be alright and that everything would be alright.
Grandma called her dad, Pa and I remember her bringing him by to see us when he got older before they put him in the nursing home in Pawnee.
When granddad was sick one time during the springtime, he was laying in the bed and there was a fan going. It hadn’t got real hot yet. He stuck his toe in that fan and Grandma got so upset at him.
I always enjoyed going down there. It seems that Thanksgiving was the really big day even when my children came along and we would go down there.
I remember one time when Grandma was so upset when Aunt Lee had a car wreck. Seems like that was the first time I remember her showing her emotions.
And then she came by and told us Uncle Fred and Aunt Marilyn got married and I think she was kind of excited about that and I remember when Wilbur and Leona got married. I can remember going with her to Ponca City to the hospital when Aunt Wilma and Uncle Gene had their wreck and we went to see Aunt Wilma. She drove pretty fast but she herded that little Chevy right along.
Her telephone system went in and it was five minutes. But that was all right, though. She thought that if you couldn’t say what you needed to say in five minutes, you didn’t need to talk on the phone no longer.
David (Carol’s brother) was five or six years old when he painted a paint-by-number picture and he gave it to Grandmother. She was so proud of it and she hung it up on the wall and she had Francis’ (Hazel’s oldest) hand on the wall that she had made of plaster of paris.
When Grandma and Mrs. Farris milked cows over at Wilbur and Leona’s. They seemed to really enjoy that milking time. I can remember kinda of standing down at the barn and listening as they would just visit and milk them cows. It just seemed like it was their duty and they just had to do it. And they seemed to both enjoy doing it.
My mother use to always called her Mrs. Robinson and Dad called her Mom. Some of the kids called her Iva Dee after they got older. As she got older I think she kinda wanted to have attention like everybody else. She always talked about how much puss was on her kidneys. And those trips when she had to go to the doctor. It seemed like it just became an outing for her, just to get to go to the doctor.
Grandma was at my wedding and it meant a lot of me. She came when Lee and I got married. It was a real windy day that day but she showed up. I got a picture of her. A.G. was suppose to bring the camera and take pictures but he forgot it but one of the neighbors went home and got a camera. We got a few snapshots. They were not anything great. But I was glad that Grandma came to our wedding.
I remember at one of the dinners at her house and everybody was gathering around the table and Grandma said, “Well Carol, where is Lee?” and I said, “Oh, he’s right around there on the other side of the table” and she said “Well I couldn’t see him then amongst all these big Robinson guys.” She was proud of her family.
Lee and Grandma would swap stories when we would drop in at her house. They were quite visitors and one Sunday we were down there after all the company had gone and she got to talking about her car. She said it wouldn’t start and Lee said, “Well, I will go out there and look at it” and he came in and he told me while she had gone to the bathroom (she had got indoor plumbing at that time) so he said the battery cable was off. I said, “Well someone did that on purpose. Don’t you tell her. Don’t say nothing about it.” When she came back into the room he told her he couldn’t find out what was wrong with it. She thought she would just call Brad Moss in the morning and have him bring me down a new car. She kind of chucked about it and she didn’t do it. Then it wasn’t too many years until she went to Oklahoma City to stay. She always missed her home but I guess she knew that was where she needed to be. And her and Uncle Stan became good friends. They had never really had time to get acquainted but that changed.
When her great grandkids began coming along she made each a pajama bag. I still have Sharon and Jeanie’s. They were rabbits.
My girls remember that she always knew when they did something in 4-H or in school. She kept up with them in the Pawnee Chief. Sharon said her house always smelt good. Jeanie said she remember that Grandma always had something to eat. Dale said that he remembered going there and eating upstairs. Seemed like he never got to be in the kitchen very much. He didn’t know if it was off limits or what. He remembered the upstairs and the rest of the house. Lee Bryant thought Grandma was always an old woman. He remembered how cold the upstairs was always cold. He had fun playing up there. He said that all he remembered saying to her was Hi and her saying Hi to him and How are you? When I asked Lee about Grandma he said, “Well she was a good old woman that drove too fast.”
I remember being at Grandmas and she sent me to the chicken house to get the eggs and I got down there and I felt something cold in the hen’s nest and I thought, “Oh my, that’s a snake.” So I went running back to the house and got Grandma and she came down there and got the shovel and beat on it until she killed it. Uncle Wilbur’s Ford tractor was sitting there so she got the snake. She got to laughing and chuckling and we were having the best time talking about what Uncle Wilbur would do. We laid that snake right across the fender and kind of in the floorboard of that tractor. When he got on there, he didn’t make a whole lot of commotion except at first. He knew that she had done it but I couldn’t help but go out there and watch. She said, “Now Carol, don’t let him know that you are watching or he will figure out that there is something going on” but she was looking out the window herself to see his reaction.
I learned to really love Grandma. One time in 1960, Francis (Hazel’s oldest) was going to have a New Years Eve party and Grandma said that she could have it at her house. So we went over there in the afternoon. We helped her clean up the house and Francis invited most of the kids from school and we were so excited and Grandma seemed excited too. After cleaning up, Lee came to pick me up but we later returned and we had a real good time. I talked to Francis about it later. Francis enjoyed it and thought that Grandma had fun. Francis and I wanted to ask her about when she dated and things like that but I never got up enough nerve and I never knew if Francis did or not.
Grandma always wanted to get to a funeral on time. She never wanted to be late. She had Uncle Wilbur take her one time and I think they were an hour early and they had to sit there and be still. Uncle Wilbur said that he didn’t think that she would be late to her own funeral.
Grandma was excited about getting to go to Boston. She talked about that an awful lot and I was really tickled that she got to go do a little bit of traveling. She was happy about the first oil well. I could remember about visiting with her a little bit about her childhood but not a whole lot. She told us where she was born and it seemed like that all she could remember was having to work.
Grandma loved her country too. She was proud of all her sons and daughter that had served in the service. She would vote too. She was proud of her church. I can remember that after she got the dog, I can’t recall that dog’s name that she was proud of that dog and it would watch out for her. Every once in a while people would steal gas from her car right off the highway but I don’t guess that she was ever scared because she lived alone for several years.
Grandma took her a home in Pawnee and cooked at the hospital. She shared it with Grandma Farris (Leona Robinson’s mother) and I thought that was something at her age. I think she enjoyed it. I remember going to that house and she would tell us of some of her experiences. But I can’t recall them. Seemed like that by then I was thinking about my own life.
I think that sometimes she got peeved at her daughter-in-laws and son-in-laws, maybe at her kids too! And grandkids probably. I think she loved them all and had something special to say about everybody. I think she was proud of her accomplishment of having 11 children and all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was proud of us.
I can remember Grandma and Granddad had an old International pickup and it was green. I loved to ride with her for some reason. I can just remember feeling so proud, climbing in beside her, just her and I. We would go to the pasture to check the cattle and stuff. We would just go someplace in it. It was always fun. She liked to talk to her vehicles when she was driving them or starting them just like they were one of the kids.
I always thought it was kind of neat to be over there at milking time even though it was hectic. I help run the cows in and help separate the milk. She hated the flies. She didn’t like the flies at all being on the cattle and out in her milk barn.
I remember her telling us one time she went from horse and buggy days to airplane days. She had seen a lot in her lifetime, how the country and world had changed. She said that she wouldn’t go back to them good ole days for nothing. They were talking about antiques one time and she said that she had broke a lot of antique dishes and stuff but she never did want to buy antiques. She wanted new stuff.
One time her boys were teasing her about getting a new boyfriend. Uncle Fred had a friend that was an elderly gentleman walking on a cane. He came to see Grandma by stopping by Fred”s. She was laughing about it. She told him, “If they wanted to bring me a boyfriend then he had better not be old. I wasn’t about to wait on him. I would want a younger feller that could take care of me”.
I know Grandma is in heaven. She talked to me about it quite a bit. After Francis died we visited. I said that we both loved Francis so much. It’s a shock. She was the first one after I was grown that we had lost out of our family. Grandma said, “I know Francis is in heaven. I’ll see her one day.”
And one of these days I believe that I will see both of them too and all the other loved ones.
Grandma liked listening to KRMG and she liked reading her mail. I can remember afternoon she would lay down for a little while and nobody better disturb her. But she was up and going the rest of the time until she got older.
She would turn that fire up and she would be asleep and it was be as hot as it could be in her house.
Grandma would work out in the garden with her sunbonnet on and with her dresses. I never did see her in anything but a dress. She liked to go to the beauty shop after she got older which was good. That was good that she could go.
I can’t talk about Grandma without thinking of my aunts and uncles and my aunts-in-law and uncles-in-laws and cousins. I have special memories about everybody. Seems like Grandma Farris ( Leona Robinson’s mother), was almost like a Grandma and Mr. And Mrs. Cathers (Marilyn Robinson’s parents) was part of the family. And Grandma always talked about the Behrens and the Pratts (neighbors). They were special people to her.
Grandma had a water well in her back yard when I was little. I thought that was something because we always had to carry our water. I can remember her cozy kitchen and the big wood stove in the dining room.
Grandma’s word was always good. You could believe everything she ever said. I believe that she was an honest person. She was a real modest person.
Everyone was concerned when they were talking about Grandma and her diabetes. But she seemed to handle it pretty well. She would give herself those shots. She would leave a blue spot. I don’t know if she was rough of if her skin was just tender. But it didn’t seem to bother her. She had varicose veins in her legs that were pretty bad. When I first remembered her, she was a little heavier but as the years went by she got a little thinner and more wrinkles but she said that she had EARNED EVERY ONE OF THOSE WRINKLES!
When we were visiting one time, I said, “Boy I sure did have big feet”. She said, “Well Carol, as big as you are, you would look funny with little bitty feet. Besides, that is the Fowler foundation.” It didn’t bother me too much after that. Grandma talked about Grandpa Fowler’s great grandkids that were left-handed.
Grandma fixed the best blackberry cobbler that I ever ate.
I loved grandma’s oval bathtub. I thought it was the neat. I took a bath in it one time. I could lay down in it and turn over. We just had a little round tub at our house.
They had a neat outhouse. It had concrete floor and the stool was concrete. It was pretty unique in those days. She had a laundry house back behind the house that was fun to play in. They used it for storage. We liked to play on the cellar. Down in the cellar was off limits. I guess she didn’t want us to be breaking her food as we played. All that hard work that she did. We always were tempted to go down there and play but we never did.
I never fully understood why Grandma let my dad stay with her when he was drinking. I know you stand by your kids. But I felt that she should have said, “Hey, straighten up your act”. I felt sorry for her because he was a big mess when he was drinking. I never understood why he went to drinking. I guess we all live to see things that we don’t want to see. I guess that was one thing that Grandma didn’t want to see, her oldest son drinking out on the street. But that was on thing she handled pretty well.
It was always a pleasure to go to Grandma and Granddad Robinson’s house to see them and our aunts, uncles and cousins.
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