Lunch Like Grandma Used to Make

 My grandma (left, back row) and great grandma

with some of Grandma's siblings

One of the things I loved about my maternal grandma was that when I was the sole grandchild at her house, the McCalls magazines were dragged out, along with pinking shears, typing paper, paste, and crayons.  Betsy McCall, a paper doll with accompanying outfits, took up a couple pages at the back of the magazine, and it was such a treat for me to play with those paper dolls. I don't remember having those things at home, but at Grandma's, I loved cutting, coloring, pasting, etc.

And eating Grandma's food.

Does anyone else remember a nice little bowl of raspberry sauce? or blackberry sauce?  Delicious, home-canned berries with a light sugar syrup. I loved that stuff.

And real mincemeat pie. The mason jars of canned mincemeat sitting on the basement shelves looked really disgusting, but I tried not to think about it when the beautiful pie was made and sitting in front of me. It was so good!

Grandma (left), much later

and me (right), putting on my most angelic smile.

I have a little grandson who has a very similar smile.

But one of my very favorite lunches at Grandma's was this:

Open-face rye with sliced green olives and pimento

and

Cheese Whiz 

I loved that!! And usually I had a glass of 7-Up with it - and maybe some of that raspberry sauce! Sounds like enough to give any kid a belly ache, doesn't it!

Testimony to the fact that even that long ago we ate junk food.

Does that look like an owl to you?

I know. It's been a long winter.

But I don't want you to leave here without knowing some other very important facts about my grandma. First and foremost, she loved God and shared that love with others. I remember hearing that she used to set out food for the hobos (yeah, I know it sounds like ancient history!) who came in on the train and scavenged for food. Evidently they knew which houses were going to help them out. I think Grandma set food out on the window sill of the kitchen. At least that's a memory I have. Maybe it was in a novel, but I think it's something my mom told me.

She helped her neighbors, even those in the town who were considered sort of 'odd' by others. Grandma was not a 'respecter of persons,' so to speak.

Grandma could often be found sewing doll clothes or making rag rugs on a huge loom that was in her upstairs room. Under the eaves were stashed hundreds of balls of rags that she had cut and wound, ready to be made into rugs. I have no idea whatever happened to that loom or the pedal organ that was in her living room.

She collected tea cups and plates and displayed them on a shelf in her living room. Her backyard was a garden of irises of many colors and a wonderful grape arbor that was full of Concord grapes. I have no idea how she managed to do all this stuff, but her gardens always looked gorgeous and she was always busy.

 One of the irises from my garden

via my mother's garden

via Grandma's garden

One of the most important things to Grandma was her work with Child Evangelism Fellowship. She was a wonderful teacher and would visit homes to teach children about the love and hope that only Jesus can give. It was a weekly class where kids would get off the bus and meet for an hour or so to listen to my grandma relate accounts of Jesus' life, as she deftly placed paper figures on a huge flannelgraph board. We loved it, and Grandma definitely lived her love for Jesus.

I wish she had lived long enough to know my children and grandchildren.

***

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