s/o Share your childhood stories with your extended family.

[Anonymous]

I LOVED spending time with my grandparents and great grandmother. My dad often traveled for work, and when he did we got to spend time with them - sometimes for a weekend and sometimes for a couple weeks at a time.

They were so loving. My grandfather, while gruff, gave the best hugs. They spoiled us with cocoa puffs, chocolate milk, and cable and my grandmother could always make us laugh. Going upstairs to visit my great grandmother yielded an endless supply of cookies from her cookie jar and old shows like Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith.

I actually miss those days. They moved to a different house when I was going off to college and I still miss the old house (even though their new house is nice). My grandfather passed away a few years ago and I still miss him terribly.

[Anonymous]

Grandma took me to church. Every Saturday night she put me to bed with the foam curlers in my hair. I always wore little ankle socks and patent leather shoes to Sunday School. I had to make my bed in the morning and she had chenille bedspreads with fringe. The fringe had to be perfectly even and not quite touching the floor or else she would re-make the bed herself. The bedroom I stayed in also had a huge vanity so I could sit in front of the big mirror with all of her costume jewelry and play dress up.

She always had me plant her lettuce seeds in her garden, claiming they grew better when I did the planting. I also helped her make bread & butter pickles with cucumbers from the garden. I once cut off a pretty big chunk of my thumb, nothing requiring stitches, and she wrapped it in a wet washcloth and we went to Kroger to get more stuff to make more pickles.

She had this itty bitty prizer ware enameled frypan that she used to make my grilled cheese sandwiches. I have that pan today and just made a grilled cheese for my son in it over the weekend.

Family Christmas dinner was always at her house and she would make each person's favorite dish. I always came over early to help with the chicken & homemade noodles.

My Grandparents on my Dad's side lived in a rural area. Their property had two houses. The second house was unoccupied so I would use it for playing "house." It had a HUGE root cellar and a well on the screened in wraparound porch. I remember they always loved going to Shoney's for breakfast. It was like 30 min away!

[Anonymous]

My brother, cousins (2) and I stayed at my grandparents' house every Friday night, and the 4 of us stayed at each other's house often. The 10 of us took annual vacations (2 families + grandparents) and neither family ever used a non-relative babysitter either. They were old school but I think I'd never made my grandma more proud than when I started playing drums in punk bands... she came out to see me once before she got sick and told everyone in the room that that was her granddaughter up there... she was basically amazing.

We kids actually just remembered a "time capsule" we buried about 20 years ago that we dug up and were all sitting in the backyard crying over it, largely because both of those grandparents are gone now (we are still trying to sell their condo).

I think I was around 25 and talking about grandparents when I found out that a lot of people didn't like their grandparents, or had mean or thoughtless ones. I had no idea that was possible and it made me appreciate and miss mine even more.