Early American furniture in a hideous green, sofa, chairs, lamps, coffee table, end tables, all matching. Edited to add her bedroom and her formal dining were also part of the same furniture collection. I don't know why I objected to it so much but I have never had a matching set of anything. never.

A kitchen that smelled like heaven, with a kitty cat wall clock and an electric frying pan.

My Dad's mother used to do tatting and crafted some beautiful doilies. I remember them on all her side tables and a large scalloped one on a round coffee table. Some of them had wavy edges made by dipping them in starch & molding them.

At the time I considered them hopelessly old fashion. How I wish they'd been saved. I don't know if I'd frame them, but they would be nice to have...

I remember playing with some really elaborate dolls in my grandmother's basement. They had beautiful outfits and everything fit into a trunk for storage.

I have both of my grandmothers tatted doilies and placemats, needlepoint, painted china and figurines, furniture, etc. Some I use, some I do not. What I most remember from my grandmothers house is her huge deep seated red velvet (real) couch. How I wish I had that. I don't know what happened to it. :(

It's funny...my 30 year old daughter and husband just bought a new/old house from a lady that is in her 80's. The lady left them some beautiful antiques, some Henredon furniture, old framed prints, and some needlepoint or petit point "thingies" (that she has offered up to me. They were not her taste.) When I went to see what "thingies" she was talking about, I realized that they were bell pulls. Brought back memories of what I have stashed away from both my grandmothers and my mother. LOL

Grandma loved those small colored glass "sculptures". She had glass shelves installed in her dining room windows to display them. What a sparkly wonder to a child! We were, of course, not allowed to touch them until we got pretty well grown up.

Her house was always immaculate (I did not inherit that gene). We did "neat" things at grandma's even when we stayed with her for a week. She would never have allowed toys to be strewn about or food to be eaten in the living room. We raced around in her yard but not in her house (we didn't at home either). We always had fun at grandma's though!

She had almost all of the same furniture and artwork when she died, at the age of 102, that she had when I was a babe. Now that's someone who knows what they like!

What a neat thread kittymoonbeam!
The first thing that popped into my mind was sugar cubes! LOL Grammy B. used them her coffee. We could have coffee at her house, but it was really cream, a sugar cube and enough coffee to color it.
Gramma A's home was always full of scent of something baking. I remember watching her twirl a pie tin while making the pie crust so pretty. I was 8 when she passed, but I can still picture her perfect home and the "summer kitchen" out back.

One grandmother's house, a very cute and small rancher, had a 50s kitchen, with the classic chrome table/chairs (green linen-like plastic-ey tabletop with chrome/wood sides, green vinyl with golden sparkles on the chrome chairs -- this went to my uncle's house and who knows now where it is); she had her mother's dining set, Duncan Phyfe style with green striped padded seats. She had an organ, carved wooden fruit and glass fruit, wicker elephant end tables in the living room, a blue velvet tuxedo style sofa and loveseat, and a vibrating recliner -- that was fun!

The other grandmother lived in a huge custom 1960s (or early 70s?) modern style home with a large fountain/volcanic rock garden just inside the entry and exposed aggregate/wrought iron Z-shaped staircase to the second floor. MCM furniture. Very traditional pecan dining set. I remember the kitchen remodel that took out slab cabinets (maple or birch -- so beautiful), and replaced them with white melamine/oak 80s style. She had a round ottoman in the living room that was on casters, and it was covered in some type of orange shag fabric, we loved it! Also a very formal living room with white carpet, black lacquer piano, and display shelves with expensive knick-knacks (she collected clowns). Her house had two fireplaces!!!

lucky for you guys that you have grandmothers, and their houses, to remember! I don't.

Yeah, me neither Violet, my fathers mother passed when he was around 10 and my mothers mother lived in New York. She always came to see us on the West Coast. Still have good memories of her visits though and I am so glad my mother is able to provide those memories for her grandkids. She's a colon cancer survivor so I'm so thankful that I can say my 38 yo daughter still has her Grandma to visit, how cool is that?

My grandmother brought me up. She was a dynamo. Never did any of the "grandmother" things as she was always running out to play cards. She made amazing Thanksgiving turkeys in an oven with a broken thermostat that had only one setting -- high. Don't think it occurred to her to ever get the oven repaired. She wasn't much interested in the house or any kind of details, wasn't into guilt of any kind, and had a super sense of humor. She could turn on the glam well into her 80s. I'm told I take after her though I do pay attention to the house and don't care at all about cards. I feel blessed to have her genetics as she was amazingly healthy until the last year of her life. She wasn't a
things" person. I don't have any of her things. She was a spirit person.

I'm with you both! My maternal grandmother died when my mom was young. My dad was estranged from his mother, so I never got to know her.

It never ceases to amaze me when I think of my contemporaries who still have their parents, which of course means that their children grew up with grandparents.

My maternal grandmother's house: The cuckoo clock on the dining room wall; the candy jar on the coffee table she always kept full of gumdrops for us. It was amber glass with round bumps on it. It's still in the family somewhere. And I have my grandfather's living room chair, her husband. Still see him so clearly sitting in that chair.

My grandma had a full set of glasses (and sometimes more than one set) for every possible type of alcoholic beverage, down to the little glass demitasse cups for irish coffee. Their house had 3 upper cabinets plus the cabinets on the DR side of the peninsula entirely devoted to glassware storage, not including the everyday tumblers and things, and 2 extra sets of festive wine glasses stashed in the cupboard with the holiday dishes.

I was really suprised how much there was when we had to pack up the house after she moved into assisted living, but my mom said she thought that back in the 60's it would have been considered standard hostess gear.

I have her set of funky hand blown green glass margarita glasses.

I only had one grandmother, the other died in the Spanish flu in 1918, never met that grandfather either and the other passed before I was 5. When I was young, my Mormor would fly to the USA to visit us, and as she aged we would like back to Denmark and the island she lived on to spend time in the fall with her. Her house had a wonderful food scent, there were the cactus and geraniums smuggled from our garden and her collection of cheap American Indian trinkets from our visits to the Grand Canyon.

Every trip we took a spare suit case and filled it for the return trip. I have her china tea set, 2nds because it was war time WW1 and it was all she could get. Her tatting bobbin and the old tin the thread was kept in. I have her table cloths, photos of the farm, and even the down comforters made from the geese she raised and sold for extra money. Lots of wonderful things that stay packed in drawers far more than they should.

My dad was military, I think I saw my one gram's house twice in my lifetime. Her husband (dad's step father) worked at the telephone company so the slim line phones (the absolute latest) is what I remember most. I have more memories of smells..the coal shoot by then gone but the smell remained... just being in a home not on a military base was foreign to me. People who stay put all their lives have a lot more STUFF than I was accustomed to.

My last grandmother died when I was 12, so it's been a long time. She had owned a small grocery store, so her house had a storefront. My father's father was killed in a RR accident when he and my aunt were little, so Busia was pretty industrious. It was a fun place to play. She had some cool knicknacks and some lamps that would definitely be collectible today.

The funny thing is my mother's parents also owned a house with a storefront and grocery store which was a good thing during the depression, so when my mother met my father after WWII she thought he was full of b.s. when he said his mother owned a store, too. They were only a few streets apart but they had never met. My parents remodeled and got rid of the storefront. It was made into a sunroom or front room as they are called in the midwest. My grandmother's house was sold to someone who wanted to run a ministry out of the space.

My parents/grandparents' house still exists and looks to be in OK condition for its age, but my grandmother's was torn down some time ago and the lot is vacant.

I love this thread. So many wonderful things at my grandma's.

- Her MCM gold velvet sectional (that today lives at my house) - I remember it being super comfy and napping on it a lot but thinking it was so ugly. At 41 I love the look of that couch and find it pretty uncomfortable. Lol

- She had a terrarium with a tiny deer bunny in it that I thought was a magical.

- The clock in her living room that chimed on the hour.

- Her Flair stove that had a pull out range.

- The enema bag she always had hanging on the back of the bathroom door.

- Her makeup and things in her bathroom that I rifles through at every chance.

My grandmother on my Dads side lived with my 'maiden' aunt. My aunt was a lively lady. She was only 5 feet tall, had flaming red hair and wore shoes with 5 inch heels!

So my grandmothers house was not very grandmotherly. They had a bright red velvet sofa(covered in plastic!), a lamp with a hula girl(with a real grass skirt) and lots of other cool stuff. At Christmas, she had a silver metallic tree with a rotating color wheel that changed the color of the tree as it rotated.

She also let my sister and me try on all her heels and fur coats! We loved going there!

My grandmother was a typical 80 year old Italian grandmother who wore black all the time, spoke very little english and always had her hair up in a bun. I have no idea what she thought of her very eclectic surroundings!

my one grandmother was born in the early 1890's and my other grandmother was born in 1900- that was awesome because i always knew how old she was- never really knew about the other one because i didn't know her birth year when i was young and she would always tell me she was 29plus...

I have a few things from my grandmother's houses-- things that my mother kept. I remember them always having candy dishes out... 'sour balls' and butterscotch hard candies were big with them. an ashtray always sat out on a side table tho neither of them smoked.

they both had hummels, one had more than the other.

I remember my one grandmother had a stoup in her upstairs hallway that she always kept holy water in..... and they both had some beautiful crystal rosary beads.

they used a lot of doilies-- my one grandmother was an excellent seamstress and tatter and I have a big bag full of sewing materials and tatted doilies of hers still. they used to have doillies on the arms of chairs and couches and my one grandmother always had these fancy pins to secure them... I have a pair still in a jewelers box that must be close to 100 yrs old...

wicker furniture on the sunporch with big leafy design fabric for the cushions...

my one grandmother had a pulley system out of her kitchen window that she hung laundry on to dry... I used to think that was the coolest thing!

I wish I had the cool (bronze??) dog nutcracker where the tail lifted to crack the nuts- it must have been at least 10" high and 16" long! no idea what happened to that :( the funny thing is neither grandmother would ever think to allow a dog to live in their house!!

Ah, Tiffani, what a beautiful narrative. Your love, and your grandfather's love, shine.

My grandma had a collection of shell covered boxes. I remember staring at them as a little kid. They were both fascinating and grotesque. I also remember that she had a collection of white enamel pans with red rims and handles stored on the attic steps. It was a huge, sunny attic and actually very near the kitchen so I think they were used, but that was just a convenient place to stick them. I loved those pans. They looked so cheerful to me.

My grandma was quite old by the time I was born. She was the kind of grandma who gave her grandkids all the change from her purse every time she saw them. When she babysat me at my house, she'd let me stay up for The Love Boat and Fantasy Island on Saturday night. When I stayed at her house, she shared her bed with me and fed me chicken soup. Now, when I make soup at home, something in me relaxes deeply when the smell permeates the house. To me, it's the smell of love and comfort.

the_foxes_pad - You just made me cry! Sorry for your loss. ;)

the_foxes_pad, I'm sorry for your loss. What beautiful memories you have of all of your grandparents.

Thanks for sharing those wonderful memories, the_foxes_pad.

One set of grandparents didn't have a lot of money. I remember there was always hot tea in a plastic kettle stained very dark brown over the years. Always a few friendly dogs and cats roaming around. We usually sat in the big bright country kitchen unless we went into the very informal garden. My grandfather had long ago put tires around the trees lining the driveway for bumpers for his logging equipment, and the trees were now so huge the tires had burst. The grandparents had 20+ grandkids and we lived the farthest away so we weren't especially close, but they served as a wonderful center for a very large family. I was reading through some old elementary school diaries I wrote after I moved away from their community and it's startling how much time I used to spend with my cousins, whom I hardly see at all anymore. One is getting married this September and I'm looking forward to the reunion.

On the other side, my grandmother had passed away and my grandfather lived with his mother in an MCM ranch (one of few in this area). I loved that house, which always smelled like cleanliness and wood shavings (granddad woodturned and made furniture as a hobby). It had white walls, rich bright red wool carpet and very 60s gold, red and green furniture. He cooked and baked well, but my great grandmother was a baking genius and often had very soft molasses cookies for us - yes, in the cookie jar! And there were always hand-turned dishes of candy and nuts. My late grandmother's ruby glass collection sparkled from the asymmetric shelves. The kitchen was about 8x8 feet and even had a small kitchen table pushed up against one wall. My great grandmother hand quilted quite contemporary geometric quilts, always in red and white. I remember his home office was a great robins egg blue with a canvas zebra print rug on the floor - where that had come from I have no idea.

My grandfather was quite gruff and partial to my younger sister, so I didn't long to visit him in particular, but man I enjoyed visiting the house. Then my parents bought it and my mom chain smoked in it for 15 years..it wasn't quite the same when they left.

So timely as I have started the (long I fear) process of cleaning out my grandmother's house. The plan is to rent the house at the first of the year. Things I remember of her house from my childhood: the feather pillows, made by my great-grandmother, the colander she used for making jellies, the small round metal "ring" (like a strip/ring cut from a tin can) that belonged to my other great-grandmother - it was used for cutting out biscuits. Yes to the ashtrays. I can also remember the little jar that sat by the stove into which she poured her bacon/sausage grease and it was used to cook with. The soft pink rabbit that belonged to one of the children and was kept over the years for the rest of us to play with, sleep with. It never got to come home with any of us, it stayed at her house. LOL Thinking we were "fancy" if we got to sleep in the guest room. The portrait of my great-grandmother which is still on the wall. Velvet chairs in the living room. The old chest style stereo - still there (my sister went through the records recently). NUTCRACKERS! My pappaw always had a bowl for nuts on the hearth (beside HIS chair) with a nutcracker. The old iron "kettle", again belonged to my great-grandmother, in the back yard. She used it to wash clothes in, my pappaw re-purposed it into a planter. The pop-corn popper - the old timey kind where you put the popcorn and oil in and then you moved it back and forth across the eye of the stove. My sister and I would always get popcorn when we spent the night. Etc., etc., etc. My grandparents home was always a great place to me. A place I loved to visit, to spend the night. Now it's kind of sad to go in that house. So much has changed. Pappaw is gone, my grandmother in assisted living. My mother passed away in that house. It's not a happy place anymore and cleaning it out is not a fun thing. BUT, I have hope that once it's cleaned out and a few things updated, and a newly married couple move in, new and happy memories will be made there. Also a good thing for my dad, who has property down below.

Robo! Just read your answer. The ruby red glass. That must have been the thing at one time. My grandmother had a set of ruby red candle holders her mother gave her when she married. My aunt (my gm's sister) had a couple of other pieces and when I got married, those pieces were all given to me. I started my own collection of ruby red. Love all these memories!

What a fun thread!

I had one set of grandparents (my moms parents died before I was born) but growing up was, well weird.

They retired when I was a baby and they would spend all year traveling and come home for Christmas. I was envious of my friends who had grandparents that were actively involved in their lives, I mostly felt like I had none.

Nothing in their house ever changed, which is odd to me as I love rearranging furniture and redecorating but, I suppose they weren't there long enough to care.

My grandmother was a perfectionist, extremely stubborn and all about proper manners and etiquette. She also loved to host get togethers with the table set with the fostoria crystal and her china. She informed everyone when the first grandchild was born that she would be called grandmother. No cute nicknames or shortened phrases were allowed and if we tried, she would correct us.

My grandad was very quiet and he would always end up dozing off in his recliner after dinner.

They had a wood turned candy dish that my grandfather made that always set in the corner of their dining room and it was filled with Hershey kisses. We had to give grandad a kiss for a kiss, which we would all rush to do before he fell asleep.

While he was dozing, we would help clear off the table and do the dishes and then we would play a game together. Dominos or card games.

On Christmas Eve we always had Mexican food made by my grandmother from scratch, then go to the church candlelight service, then drive around and look at Christmas lights. When we got back to their house, grandmother would make homemade eggnog (no alcohol, didn't even know until I was an adult that eggnog normally has alcohol) and pull out all the tins of homemade candy and the fruitcake.

Then we would open our gifts, everyone would get the same gifts from them, I think it was my grandparents way of trying to keep everything fair, also probably had to do with the fact that they didn't really know our personalities.

When I got married, they didn't come because they had a cruise they wanted to go on.

In the later years of their lives my grandmother got cancer and they could no longer travel. I was the only grandchild that still lived in the same town and I spent a lot of time with her.

She softened up a lot at the end and I finally got to know her. In hind sight, I think she probably just wasn't comfortable around small children. They clearly loved us but I don't think either one of them knew how to express it.

She died when I was pregnant with my first. My grandad never really did open up and let us know who he is. He is still alive but now has advanced Alzheimer's and is in a lockdown unit because he kept trying to escape.

I now have my grandmothers china and a few of her Fostoria pieces and I use it every thanksgiving and Christmas and it reminds me of her. I have the wood turned candy dish my grandad made, but I can't leave kisses in it or my kids would have chocolate faces all the time! ;)

My paternal grandma lived in a very old, shotgun style, 1 bedroom house. You walked into the living room, then bedroom and through to the kitchen. I remember her wringer washer that was in her cellar that you entered from outside in the back of the house. The outhouse was still present at the back of the yard, even though it wasn't used. She didn't have much, but I can still imagine her sitting in her rocking chair at the front window, wearing her "house dress". She had a raspy voice because one of her vocal cords had been paralyzed. She kept a large tin container filled with all sorts of buttons. I remember as a little girl thinking some of them were so pretty. I remember her cooking in her cast iron skillet a meal of fried potatoes, carrots, onions and green peppers. I make that occasionally now. Tastes so good together.

I always liked this one old picture she had on her wall. It was common, with a little girl kneeling outdoors on a bench with a bird. When she died at age 83 and I was 15, she was found sitting in her chair holding her bible. She had taken that old framed picture and removed the picture to write something on the back......my name.

I still have it.

Speaking of things from Grandmother's house, you may appreciate these paintings by Mary Pratt, an Eastern Canadian painter who focuses on everyday life. They had a big retrospective here (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia) and a smaller one at the National Gallery this year.

Designsaavy - how absolutely lovely.

I only had one living set of grandparents growing up and saw them weekly. They had 5 children, my mother was the youngest. Each of those 5 children had only one child, so there are 5 cousins, all only children. Most of my aunts and uncles still lived in the same town and several very near my G'ma's house, so they would get together and play cards on Saturday nights.

Their house was a small one bedroom cottage near the beach, with the living room/dining room across the front. Their table and chairs and buffet were common old oak, mission style. I remember so many meals and card games at that table. I loved the buffet especially because behind one of the doors were some wooden drawers lined with green felt, designed for silver flatware, I suppose. It had great appeal to me.

I remember when I was about 12, I think, I said to my grandmother, who was in her 80's "Grandma, when you die, can I have your furniture?" My mother was appalled; I didn't know it was rude and probably thought she'd be touched that I loved the set. But she told me I could have it. Then a couple of weeks later she called me to tell me she'd forgotten, but she'd already promised the set many years before to my oldest cousin. I was fine with that, of course...I was much too young to really care.

But when the time came that my grandparents moved to a nursing home and their house was sold, I was 21 and had been helping them a lot. My aunts and uncles decided that the eldest cousin, who had pretty much disappeared from everyone's lives for many years, wasn't going to get the set and they gave it to me. I also got 2 old oak iceboxes that I loved; one from their laundry porch and one from my grandpa's workshop/garage. I'm still using the set today. It's never been refinished and I love it as much as I did as a child. I use the iceboxes, too!

I loved reading everyone's stories and they brought my memories back to the surface.

When we were kids (younger than 12), we used to get to stay a weekend with the grandparents. Paternal grandparents had plastic covered furniture and knick knacks; no toys and nothing could be touched. Grandmother kept the house as neat as a pin and always wore sparkly coordinated jewelry. She was always dressed nicely, no matter when we saw her. They had 2 children and there were 9 grands on that side in total. We didn't do much with those cousins and maybe saw them once a year. She wasn't much of a cook and I honestly can't remember "playing" with her at all. She passed away when I was 20 and my grandfather passed away when I was 33. My dad recently passed and I have some of those knick knacks and some of grandmother's costume jewelry.

Maternal grandparents were different; there were 6 kids in the family and always something going on. Grandfather was raised on a farm so their house always had something growing in the side lot. It was a huge garden with all kinds of veggies. For the longest time, he had Muscovy ducks, a few rabbits and some chickens. I think they had to stop with the livestock sometime in the early 70s. The garden continued on a smaller scale after a time. They were a central point in the neighborhood so between the large family (30 grands) and friendly neighbors, the house was hopping! I remember playing the player piano, carefully changing the paper roll between songs, and playing with cast iron banks, Buddy L trucks and all kinds of board games. She had a small curio cabinet with some glassware but I don't remember looking at it; those toys! She knew how to keep all of us occupied. My grandfather passed away when I was 12 or 13. Grandmother passed away just last year at age 96 after spending the last 12 years in a nursing home. My mom had some glassware that was a wedding present to her grandmother; I don't know when she got it but she had that since I was young. Dad packed it away when mom died. I have that glassware (made in 1914) as part of my (large) collection.

What a wonderful thread, Kitty! My father was the second youngest of nine children and his parents were already quite old when I was born. They passed when I was about 5 years old. They had a beautiful old home in Grosse Pointe (Michigan), but what I remember most was that it seemed dark and I was not allowed to touch many things. I'm pretty sure that my father's older sisters and brothers inherited the majority of their my grandparents paintings and finer things. My parents were just starting out and had 4 small children. They got the furniture that couldn't be (quickly) beaten up by us little ones.

On the other hand, I grew up knowing my maternal grandparents very well. They died when I was in my early thirties and married. I adored them. The most wonderful times of my young life were spent at our family's summer house on the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair. To this day, I am very strongly drawn to anything Cottagey, as it reminds me of them and my life there. Cottageware, cozy kitchens with a big bay window where we would sit at the kitchen table with the view of my grandfather's fish pond out back. The cozy smell of warm knotty pine walls in the upstairs bedrooms and crisp sheets that had been hung out on the line to dry.. I remember those vintage ladies' head vases and the framed ribbon and lace art paper dolls that my grandma had hanging in their bedroom. I have one of them hanging in our MBR now. The kidney-shaped dressing table with the skirted arms that swung out. Framed embroidered samplers. Mine now, and also hanging in our MBR. I inherited my grandmother's collection of Cottageware, that she used to have in her kitchen there . It's now proudly displayed above the cabs in my laundry room. My grandparents also gave me the (huge) family Bible and Gram's mother's wedding china, the Japanese dolls that sat to one side on the living room mantel, dressed in beautiful silk kimonos, my uncle sent to her during WW2, some paintings, her collection of crocheted doilies, and so much more.

I bought the chairs, now on our front portal, at a garage sale many years ago because they were very similar to the ones I remembered from our living room there. Of course, our summer house chairs were in great shape, while mine here are very weathered and beat up.

Well, I'm obviously a lot older than many posting here, since my grandmother was born in 1873 in Slovenia and came to the complete wilderness of northern Minnesota in 1896. Got married to a philandering carpenter who drank away his paycheck, and even though she had nine children, threw him out when he was abusive. Somehow raised a wonderful family, three of whom went to college. She died when I was six, but I remember her living above an old (closed) saloon in our little town, heating bricks in the oven and wrapping them in towels to put into the bed at night. (I remembered this trick many years later when I returned from a long trip in the middle of January and my furnace had died in my absence. I cranked up the fireplace and found a few bricks in the garage and heated them. Saved my life!) There was probably only newspaper insulation in those old pioneer buildings. My father said that when he went into the Seabees in WWII he was the only one in his troop who thought the food was good--because his mother wasn't known for her cooking! My mother told me that she fed me two things....zgancie, which is a Slovenian word for corn meal mush, alternatively made with buckwheat; and chocolates. I never knew my maternal grandmother; died of TB and diabetes before I was born.

My dad's mom was from a farm in Minnesota. They raised horses. Several kids all together in one bed in the upstairs room. She loved the country and her home with the stream running through the pastures. My dad's dad lost his parents young. His dad was a tailor. Both their parents had come over from Sweden. My grandfather especially never forgot that his parents came over to escape religious persecution for being Baptists. Both grandparents always celebrated their Swedish heritage. My grandmother spoke Swedish with all her brothers and sisters. At the end of her life, when she had memory loss, she said she wanted to go back to be with the Swedes ( Minnesota ). They had things from Sweden all over the house and my grandma always had blue and gold curtains and fabrics for slipcovers. They asked me to make them a big Dala horse with the house numbers on it for the gate. I remember the two Victorian portraits of my grandfathers parents over the Victorian organ that was in the family room. We loved to play that organ as kids. Grandfather also had the china and a writing desk from his family when they came to America in the 1800s.

Grandma always loved gardening and had a flower garden everywhere they lived. They started out in Minnesota, moved to Maryland, Indiana, and then out to California. The happiest day my Grandma had according to my dad was when her brothers and sister came over during WWII and they were all together again. Both brothers were in the army then and my grandpa worked as a radar specialist and sometimes flew in the large bombers. My grandmas brothers helped my grandpa build the first house they had in So.CA My grandma had a big garden then and it was packed full of flowers. I was a toddler then but I still remember all the flowers and the hand poured cement walks. Grandpa also built a little pass through door in the wall from the kitchen into the family room so grandma wouldn't have to go around. She always loved to bake.

Later, they moved out to Riverside county. They had a bigger property and grew all kinds of fruit trees and grapes and every kind of vegetables. Grandma canned them all even though she had a market right down the road. She had all kind of little figurines and things for the kids to play with in the yard. We liked to make out little farms with the toy animals and give them rides in the old wagon she used to move plants around in. Grandpa had a room he added on to the garage where he had his electronics equipment. After the war, he was involved with the space missions. He loved radios, anything electric and my dad got him an Apple computer when they were first available. He was on the cutting edge of technology even into his nineties. I remember dad said he could fix anything. He was always going over to a neighbors house to help with electical or plumbing or carpentry. That's what neighbors were supposed to do. He had a woodshop in the garage and he built all our garage cabinetry and shelving and all our kitchen cabinets and a big kitchen island. He removed all the kitchen cabinets from their last home and replaced them with custom ones. If his body hadn't worn out, he'd still be doing it.

Grandma always had pets. She loved them and I don't remember a time when she ever scolded them ( or us) . My sister said that grandma could make a good dog out of a bad one. She never was sophisticated and had an 8th grade little schoolhouse education but she had a kind heart and would always be there for a friend or neighbor in need. Her three kids all went to college but she never boasted about it. Any kind of flattery embarassed her in fact. She loved crafts and had a little room full of scraps and buttons and trims where she would sew. We spent hours in that room going through it all just for fun and on holidays she let us make valentines and ornaments and all kinds of Christmas decorations.

We got together every Sunday for dinner and afterwards watched Lawerence Welk, Wild Kingdom, and Disney. I remember my cousins came over too and especially during the holidays. Two of my cousins moved to Virginia but they came to spend the summer with grandma in CA. She loved Virginia too and sometimes she lived there with my aunt for a month in the summer. After my grandpa passed away, she moved to my aunt's in Virginia and saw my cousins and their kids all the time. She loved kids and babies and all kinds of animals. She loved the seasons in Virginia and sent me pictures and fall leaves.

My father was in the military and we traveled a lot. But every summer, if it was at all possible, we returned to the city where both my parents grew up, spending a month with Dad's parents, as they still had the big house, and doing overnight visits one at a time with Mom's parents. I've learned as an adult that many of my cousins envied us the concentrated time we got to spend with the grands.

Paternal grandma: As a mother of 7, she had a red wooden toy box in her living room, tucked behind "her" chair, for all the visits from grandchildren. Grandpa had a card table permanently set up in the living room for reading the newspaper, but it turned into a dominoes table when we arrived. I had mad dominoes skills.

The most hotly contested item in their house was a small, red, wooden shelf in the kitchen, that held the candy jar. Grandpa would mete out one or two candies per child per day. All the cousins want this when we were clearing out their house.

As a child, I was fascinated by a rectangular glass vase on their front hall table--I'd only seen round vases before. When Grandpa started clearing out the house a few years before he died, he asked me one day if I'd like anything from the house and I immediately mentioned the vase. He gave it to me with tears in his eyes--he and Grandma had picked it out on their honeymoon--the first thing they had bought together.

Grandpa's father had died when he was five, and Grandma's mother died when she was two and her father basically abandoned his children, so they were both very big on family. What I remember most is how happy they were when they could get a bunch of us under their roof and feed us and just sit around being a family.

At my other grandmother's, things were a tiny bit more formal--for the adults at least. Grandchildren could get away with a lot. Mostly I remember the blue and gold embossed tin that always held some of Grandma's baking--I only wish I could bake as well as she did.

Grandma had a cut glass candy dish with a cover on her coffee table, always filled with candy for her grandchildren. I'd never seen one before and just loved it. It sits on my sideboard now, and will probably go to my niece when she turns 16. She is fascinated by it, and when she stays over, her job is to carry it around the table after a meal and let everyone pick a piece of candy. She loves old things and being connected to family, so I think she'll appreciate it.

Both grandmothers had dollies everywhere. Dad's mom had crocheted arm covers and antimacassars on every chair. Crocheted dresser scarves, table runners, and crochet trimmed napkins abounded in both houses. I have a set of what I think are coasters, small circles of linen with a lacy crochet border. I starch them and hang them as snowflakes over the holidays.

I'm loving reading all the wonderful memories!

I wrote previously about my paternal grandma, but I haven't mentioned yet about my maternal grandparents.

My mom grew up during the depression era, and they did quite well because my grandpa owned a grocery store. My grandpa and his three brothers were all butchers. My grandpa and grandma retired to the country with acreage and a small farmhouse with a couple rooms attached to the porch area that he converted to a butcher shop. He serviced the farmers and our family.

I would always spend a week with them during the summer. They were early morning risers to get out in the massive garden while it was cool. They had everything from corn, green beans and potatoes, to tomatoes, watermelon and peanuts, etc. My grandma kept a sealed container on the countertop with food scraps from the day, and I would get to throw them to the pigs. I then got to spray them with the hose which they loved, of course. I would take a bucket and walk through the pasture to fetch walnuts for grandma, and grandpa would help me turn the old ice cream maker. That was the best ice cream!!

I learned real quick not to go in the fenced off area where a momma pig was with her babies. I started to go through that way to go to the pasture and she came running toward me. I ran behind a tractor and jumped over the fence. Whew!! Glad I'm here to tell you about it!

What I remember most about their house is their twin beds and no tv. Every night they would kneel in the living room to say their prayers and take me to their little country church. I thank God I had such wonderful grandparents and a great experience being on a farm.

designsaavy- I hope you don't mind me saying if but reading your account reminded me of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, especially with the pigs!! What a fun story!

I must admit ... I've been avoiding this thread.

Packing to move my own home recently, and carefully wrapping and securing the treasures that previously belonged to my grandparents, has left my heart a bit raw. I miss them so much. Oh, how I miss them and their unconditional love and their clear adoration of me. It's not often we feel that - really FEEL that - from others in this life.

My maternal grandparents lived in the house where my mother grew up, right in front of the railroad tracks. My grandpa often took me walking along the tracks, and I thought that was just about the most adventurous thing ever. He always had lemon drops in his coat pocket, and I loved those. There was a little chunk of concrete outside their back gate that bore the impression of my mother's hand, made when she was a little one. That intrigued me.

Inside the house, things were simple and always neat as a pin. My grandmother's tiny kitchen was paneled in knotty pine, and she had Franciscan Apple dishes for everyday, and the Desert Rose pattern for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. There were little red-and-white checked curtains at her window, and her pantry smelled like buttery Ritz Crackers. When I spent the night at her house, the window over the bed was cracked open to let the air circulate, and I swore that it made my chin itch. (I know - weird kid.)

I spent more time with my paternal grandparents, and I can't even begin to adequately recount all the wonderful memories I shared with them. I spent summers at their lake house, swimming with my Grannie off the dock, fishing with my Grandaddy and traipsing through the woods around their house, pretending to be a great explorer. Grannie loved to make things, and she sewed often for me and taught me to sew as well. She made me dresses and quilts and afghans and stuffed animals, and I still have many of those things. Their Christmas tree was adorned with old-fashioned baubles and dripping with icicles, and I told my mother that OUR tree (which was decorated with faux candy and really cute decorations that I'd actually kill for now) was not a "REAL" tree like Grannie and Grandaddy had, and was therefore highly inferior.

Over the past few days I've packed up Grannie's childhood bisque doll, her Danish chocolate set, the delicate-as-paper wine glasses that she received as a wedding present, the five owl figurines that were a small part of the collection she adored ... among many other treasures.

It's hard to be without these people now. But oh, oh, ohhhhhhh ... what an unparalleled blessing it was to have them for as long as I did.

Wonderful AuntJen. We don't really know what we are missing till it's gone. Thankfully we have great memories.

My last grandparent dies when I was 12. I don't remember my maternal grandma at all. Oddly I remember my paternal granny's house and the granny things in it before she moved to her last house. I was about 6 when she moved from it and we both moved to another state. What I remember there was some kid of window seat/counter? where she had collections of birds and salt and pepper shakers. I don't remember if the birds were all the same type or not, but the ones I remember were ceramic or porcelain.

I remember my great grandma's house fairly well. She died after my maternal grandma died. She had a house, that at least in my mind I would love today. It had a little entrance with french doors into the living room and another set to the side into a large bedroom. I know at some point money was tight and the doors to the right became a rental unit. The large bedroom led to a small bedroom that while it was being rented out was a kitchen. I often slept in there and feared occasionally the dressmaker form that stood by the bed in a dress and a hat.

The living room went into a formal dinning room. I don't remember much about most of the room because the entire length of one of the walls had windows and glass cabinets in those windows. That is where my great grandma's doll collection was. It seems like there were 5 or 6 shelves that went across the length with a number of dolls that went on each shelf. Funny thing was that sometime when I was around 5 or 6 I caught part of a doll horror show (not Chuckie, before that) when the dolls came to life and killed people. I never did like dolls after that, but that dinning room still has wonderful memories and I'm ok with those dolls or would be if they still existed. My mom went through the house just a month or so before my great grandma died and found wonderful pictures and some other items. When gr Grandma died my mom's uncle was in charge, hired a company and they basically said nothing was of worth and was all bug eaten so pretty much the entire contents of the house were dumped - according to the company.

Grandmother's house: I have her living room end tables and coffee table, all three items have a white with grey detailing marble top. I also have a chair, which in the day was covered with a soft gold fabric but which my parents recovered in a red fabric. Grandmother also had this really pretty piece of white coral that she'd attached purple silk flowers to; the flowers have since decayed, but the coral remains and I keep it on my wall unit in the living room.

I also do remember the house she and Granddad shared for years and years and years. A brick house in Louisville, KY, with a detached garage in back, and Granddad's darkroom downstairs in the basement. An open-air porch in front, with a brick wall in front of that. Some trees that really needed trimming, but at the time they just simply felt cozy. A two or three person bench out back for sitting on. This photo was taken February 2014, during our celebration of Dad's 90'th birthday. That front porch was more open-air in the day, and I'm thinking the upper rooms on the right didn't exist back then, when my grandparents lived there. There was an upstairs, just not so extensive. The overshadowing trees are gone. The detached garage still exists in the back. The smooth-surfaced stuff besides the driveway before you get to the house didn't exist back in the day, but those last steps up into the house -- yep, I remember them.

The sad thing was -- Dad didn't remember any of it. (He passed away November 2014.)