Grandma's Gleanings
Words and Thoughts from Grandma
One thing is for certain, she didn’t get it from me, but she absolutely was infected…badly! Every Sunday morning, when our young toddler was dropped off at the door of our church nursery, the ladies were well aware of what was in store for them. Even at that young age, my daughter was a bit …
As an official senior citizen, I sometimes feel as though I have been plopped down in some parallel universe. Gone are the days of Tang Instant Breakfast Drink, ice cream cups with wooden spoons, library cards, and Mercurochrome. When I was a child, internet, social media, and video games were non-existent; entertainment consisted of riding …
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. (J. Powell) When someone with whom we are acquainted, a person we admire, makes a glaring mistake, we have two choices before us, do we learn from that error, or do we duplicate it? To glean understanding from another’s error is a prize …
The streets are abandoned, buildings are gone, graffiti-strewn highways are buckled. What was once a prosperous mining community is now a ghost town, an unfortunate tourist novelty nestled in the central Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. In May of 1962, the city council of Centralia proposed cleaning up a local landfill by setting fire …
Allow me to share with you a true and touching story from the lips of the recipient of a sweet act of unbridled compassion: When the supermarket clerk tallied up my groceries, I was $12.00 over what I had on me. I began to remove items from the bags, when another shopper handed me a …
What characteristics would you list in your definition of a friend? What do you consider the hallmarks of true friendship? For me, loyalty is an essential quality, someone who sticks by me when times are tough, when I’m at my weakest. Common interests are always a plus, someone who shares the same hobbies, pastimes, …
Do you hear it? It’s the cavalry charge, a rousing theme based on Rossini’s William Tell Overture. Both children and adults would gather around the family radio, waiting to hear the clippity-clop of that frantically galloping horse and then that famous cry, Hi Yo, Silver, Away! The Lone Ranger had its maiden broadcast on January …
Have you ever felt like a piece of information has vanished from your memory? You had it once, and poof, it’s gone. What a terrible experience to know that the information is stored somewhere in your brain, but you just can’t retrieve it. In days gone by, if a gentleman wanted a reminder of something …
Civic, level, madam, noon, race car, and wow would all class under the same definition, for they are all referred to as palindromes. The word palindrome is comprised of two Greek words, palin, meaning again or back, and dromos, meaning running, thus we have a palindrome, a word running back, the same word even when …
Our culture is riddled with deception in advertising. From an energy drink that gives you wings, to diet plans that melt 10 pounds in 10 minutes, to facial treatments that promise to erase those aging lines overnight, we have all been bombarded by outlandish advertising claims. It’s easy to see through most of the …
Even a child is taught early in life the significance of that telephone number. It’s a type of magical number that unlocks a treasure trove of lifesaving resources in a matter of seconds. The three-digit number, 9-1-1, has been designated as the Universal Emergency Number for citizens across the United States. The catalyst for …
The film was what is referred to as a sleeper hit, an unexpected box office surprise. The story revolves around an inventor who accidentally shrinks his own children, along with the next-door neighbor’s children by way of his electromagnetic shrinking machine, and then inadvertently tosses the mini-kiddos out in the trash. These teeny children …
Sometimes reflection is a good thing. After almost 45 years of marriage, I have certainly not mastered the art of being a good wife, but I have most decidedly improved. As I look back on those early years, I quietly giggle in the face of my total ineptness and unpreparedness. Oh, some of those …
The trip, according to our GPS, should have taken approximately five hours, six at the most. This was an exciting time, traveling across our beautiful state to spend the holidays with our children and precious grandchildren. The turnpike travel was moving at a normal pace, and we were making great progress, until we were …
‘Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.’ Those words, spoken by the Dutch, post-Impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, would be vividly reflected in a style he used in his 1887 painting, ‘Self Portrait.’ The artist was heavily influenced by Pointillism, a technique of applying paint in a pattern of …