Since I told you a little about my maternal grandparents yesterday I thought it was only fair to share what I know about my paternal grandparents today. There are some interesting similarities between my two grandmothers. Sadly, they both died in their 50s so I never knew either of them. They were both 5' 10" tall (unusual for women of that era) and they were each six years older than my respective grandfathers.
The story I was told about how my father's parents met was that she came to work as a house maid for my grandpa's family. This does not mean that they were rich by any means. It was not unusual for young women to find work in someone else's household until they married.
My grandmother's family were farmers and my grandfather was a carpenter. My father quit school at 16, as was expected of him, and went to work with his father. I was told that they built most of the barns in the territory surrounding the small town where they lived.
When he was much younger, about 3 years old, my grandmother took my father (her youngest child) with her every weekend to help her parents with house work. These trips of about ten miles involved riding in a train, a horse drawn surrey and a Model T, all in the same weekend. I find that fascinating.
When my grandfather was still able to drive (he later had both legs amputated because of diabetes) he would drive out to our place in the country and always had pink and white mint lozenges to give my brothers and me.
He also had a picture of a sexy lady on the knob of his car's gear shift (the same silhouette you still see on some truck's mud flaps).
Isn't it funny the things we remember?
Here's their wedding picture. I'm guessing they were married about 1905. Although you can't tell it in the picture, my grandma's wedding dress was a black two piece outfit. Years later my cousin and I used to play dress up with the skirt.
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