Short stories: A visit with grandma

2 of 33

by Janet Grischy

Created on: July 07, 2009 Last Updated: November 25, 2011

I worried that Tish would be upset, and that she’d show it, or that he’d be upset at seeing a small stranger in his house.

But my husband was completely himself, completely present, and he knew his granddaughter.

She climbed on his knee and embraced him, and then sat quietly on the red velvet ottoman beside him. Well coached, she waited with hands folded to hear the story.

“As you know I am very old,” he began.

“Older than snow Grandpa.”

“Older than sin,” I said.

Tish gave me look that said shush.

“And because I am so old, I remember old things.”

She kicked her feet a bit, because she could not help herself. “What things?” she said.

“I remember before there was Blackout Wednesday, before Turkey Day, even before Black Friday.”

“You do?” Trish delivered her crucial line.

“In those days, Wednesday was boat day. Children were taken out on boats, everywhere. Even here in Oakland on our Lake Merritt. The shores were hung with lights, and the boats were decorated too. Little girls wore hats full of flowers, to keep their ears warm, and boys wore three-cornered paper hats made of the financial pages or the sports section, which was then green, to show their fighting trim.”

“A hat full of flowers? They would wilt. I would have been a pirate too, and worn a pirate hat.”

He only shook his finger at her, and continued.

“The whole family would spend the afternoon on the water, and then in the evening they would go to Fairyland.” Fairyland is the municipal children’s park. It’s not so popular nowadays. Tish had never been there, and consequently she had fantastic ideas of its delights.

“The next day, Thursday, was Butter Day. Grammas cooked fantastic meals. They put butter in everything, and when they didn’t they put in rich sweet cream instead. Children were allowed to help too, to decorate and put the plates on the table. If they were very careful.”

“I am very careful.”

“Everyone ate until they could eat no more.They were so full their eyes bugged out.”

Tish giggled, then darted a glance at me to see if she was out of line.

“Then Friday was Kite Day. No one locked themselves up in a store. Families made kites of tissue and balsa wood, and went to the seashore, or sometimes to a high grassy hill, to fly them for the last time before winter.”

He gazed past her to me, “For the last time before winter.”

“You’re lying grandpa. There was no kite day.”

“Oh, Tish-tish, I might lie, to make myself sound big or if I was in a tight spot. But I would never lie to you.”

“There was really a boat day?”

He nodded.

“With different hats?”

He nodded.

“And a kite day?”

He mimed tugging on a kite string.

“And nobody went shopping?”

“Nobody. We made better memories than that.”

“Oh, I love you grandpa. But I don’t believe you.”