I found this poem when I was looking through a picture album my Grandpa gave me a while back. I wrote this after my freshman year in college -- my mom, Leo, Harley, and I took a trip to Nebraska and weaved our way back to Utah through Sturgis and Yellowstone (you have to love family trips to Sturgis!). Anyway, I wanted to share it because it basically says it all about the summers I spent in West Point, Nebraska, with Grandma and Grandpa.
Ahhh...vacation. A vacation to Grandma's house is like no other. Someone at work asked me why: “Because it's Grandma's, duh," I said. Some people just don't understand.
Grandma's is fried chicken and mashed potatoes, peach pie, and favorite desserts. It's frozen chocolate chip cookies dipped in morning-old java and all-you-can-eat french toast feasts. At Grandma's, the scale is hidden in the bathroom cupboard and the pounds you gain are laughed at and not cared about.
Grandma's is crisp clean sheets and falling asleep to chirping crickets after a nighttime bath. It's patio picnics and Grandpa's flowers and crimson radishes from his garden. With Grandma's comes West Point and brick-lined Main Street, Smitty's, and Graybeals. It's the essence of small-town life and the idea that gold is wrapped in a green husk.
jro 7/25/96
2 comments:
This is so sweet. I never had a grandma and always felt kind of jipped. I guess I will make up for that when I am a grandma, huh?
Jenny, I loved reading about your grandma. She loved you so and was so very very proud of the person you are. As I read of your vacations to her home I can only pray that I can be half the grandma that she was. I'm sorry to say instead of the yummy food you remember my grandkids will probably say...remember how many times we went to McDonalds??? I love having the kids here and we are making memories, I hope your kids will look back at our home with the same warm feelings as you do.
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