Wednesdays with Grandma

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

In the fall, winter and spring months the kids have a function on Wednesday nights at our church called AWANA. They also attended AWANA in Texas so the wife and I used this time for a small date night. It was fortunate that the church we attended also had a (privately owned) coffee shop so we could kill 90 minutes or so enjoying coffee items and the free wi-fi. This year the wife volunteered to be one of the AWANA leaders so that left me with Wednesday nights free (and lonesome) so I decided to take Wednesday nights to visit with my grandmother. I am the oldest of her (4) grandchildren and am winning the race so far in producing great-grandchildren for her.

My grandmother is over 80 years old and actually bought a house this past year (with a 30 year loan to boot!). She had not owned a home in quite a few years so she actually qualified for the Obama first time home buyers tax credit. Due to her being widowed multiple times and having retired from GM, her income is complicated involving many pensions and payouts from various investments. Normally she does not receive a tax refund from the federal government so this year she is very excited.

Over the months of visiting her, I have learned a thing or two about her life. I wonder about people that reach an old age and how much of their life is unknown to everyone but them. I think it would be a disservice not to know at least the basics. For instance, I learned that she was actually born in Iowa and lived there for a grand total of (9) days before making the trip to Indiana. I heard the story of the struggles of her large family (there were 10+ children) during that time in history when times were tough and how various kids stayed home from school to help out around the house and farm. I learned about the first time she tried a coke (she said she had to water it down 2:1 with water in order to get it all down).

I remember one time asking her about what it was like to be around when the 49^th and 50^th states joined the union. I wanted to know what it was like to see the US flag change and other various things that would have had to change (seats in congress, etc). She did not even hesitate when she told me (flat out) that (to her) there will always only be 48 states. I was dumfounded. It was like she was saying a big "screw you" to Alaska and Hawaii. I don't think she meant any malice toward these states and having never visited these states (or perhaps owned a flag post 50's) she probably simply has no use for those states. I guess when you are over 80 you are allowed to your own opinion about such things.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon