Family Part 6 - Grandma & Grandpa Pfister

As we run into my Grandma and Grandpa’s house there are two things that are absolutely guaranteed - there will be chocolate chip walnut cookies in the cookie jar and peppermint ice cream in the freezer.  How my Grandma was able to get peppermint ice cream off season I will never know but we could always count on it being in the freezer when we visited.  In addition we would have the little cereals that came in individual boxes for breakfast the next morning.  We would carefully eat our cereal and drink the leftover milk, then pull out the insides of the box so our Grandma could fill the boxes with gumdrops before we left for the trip home.  These were all givens should we spend time at Grandma’s house.  

My Grandpa loved kids and would take my siblings and me down to the basement of their house to crack hickory nuts.   It’s the smell of that basement that is most prominent in my mind — old wood and dampness.  To this day when I walk into an old house and smell the smell of that basement I can’t help but smile as the memories poor over me.  My Grandpa died when I was very young and it is this memory that I hold close to my heart so as not to lose him completely.  

My Grandma was a hearty farm wife back in the days they did not have the conveniences that farmers have today.  Grandma milked cows and took care of a flock of chickens every day.  She tended to the coal burning stove, planted and cared for a big garden and canned the products of that garden.  She made her own soap and butter and helped with the butchering.   Every year in the summer she served a thresher dinner once or twice for their farm and helped the neighbors  with theirs. 

Although I never knew my Grandma when she lived on the farm I got a sense of strength and stubbornness from her.  I’m sure this was necessary for the farm life she lived.  Grandma’s family had first hand knowledge of the great influenza pandemic in the early 1900’s.  Grandma was in high school in about 1915 when she came down with the Spanish Flu.  She was admitted to the hospital and placed on a cot in the hallway since it was so crowded.  She survived but suffered from laryngitis that left her unable to speak above a whisper for two years.  

My Mom’s parents left the farm and relocated the family to El Paso, Illinois when my Mom was in 8th grade.  Their house in El Paso was big although I suspect if I went back to it now it would probably seem much smaller.  It was two stories with an attic and a basement.  The dining room had a big round table that could seat 15 people and we spent many holidays around that table with family.  There were four bedrooms upstairs.  We often slept in “the girl’s” bedroom.  It was pink, everything in it was pink and it had a vanity that we girls loved.  On that vanity was a beautiful silver comb and brush set and an old, face powder music box.  We also slept in “the boys’ room”  although none of us liked sleeping there.  On the wall was a painting of a woman that scared us.  It was a close up of a young woman wearing a hat with a park in the background.  It shouldn’t have scared us but we all felt like her eyes followed us around the room.  On more than one occasion we had to talk my Mom into taking it off the wall and turning it around.  I suppose our fear of that painting had something to do with the story our Grandma told us about it.  There is a superstition that if a picture falls off the wall it is a sign that someone in the house is going to die.   A week before my Grandpa had a stroke and died that picture had fallen off the wall.  

My Grandma owned what she called her “penny box” in which she saved pennies.  At some point during our visit she would pull out her penny box and carefully count out ten pennies for each of us.  We would take those pennies in our little hands and walk to the penny candy store where we could choose ten pieces of candy.  The storekeepers would put our penny candy in a little tiny bag.  I loved those little bags.  It was just as much fun to walk home with that little bag in my hand as it was to eat the penny candy.  

Since Grandma worked at the local library which happened to be inside of a large old house, we would, on occasion, go to work with her and sit in that big ole house for a few hours and read books.  Her favorite books were Dr. Seuss and she would very often sit in the big cushioned chair in the reading room, all of us hanging around the periphery, and read “Horton Hears a Who”. 

Just as old, damp wood is the smell I most connect to my Grandpa, Noxema is the smell I most connect to my Grandma.  Every evening she would sit in her lazy boy chair and apply Noxema all over her face.  Shortly thereafter we would head for bed and had to pucker our little lips up just so and kiss Grandma goodnight trying with all our might to avoid the Noxema.  Why she couldn’t put that Noxema on after we all went to bed, I do not know.  

Late in life Grandma had a boyfriend named Clyde.  As children we referred to him as Mr. Clyde.  He was a very kind and gentle soul and gave my Grandma the companionship she craved after Grandpa died.  We considered him part of the family and he often came to family holidays. He stuck with her to the end and was actually the one who found her when she had the stroke that caused her death.  We loved Mr. Clyde as if he were our own Grandpa.

My relationship with my Grandma suffered when I was a teenager.  As was the style of the 60’s and 70’s I wore my hair long and straight and one day she said to me “Why do you wear your hair like that?  It’s just plain ugly.”  I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt my feelings but at the time I was deeply hurt and could not find it in my heart to forgive her.  

I was young, a teenager, and forgiveness did not come easily.  Unfortunately she passed away when I was just 18 and never had a chance to revive our relationship.  But I never stopped loving her and I have felt her presence more than once since she died.  She was what everyone dreams of when they think about a Grandma.  

This is what I learned from Grandma Pfister: 

For soft skin you must apply a strong smelling gross cream to your face every night for the rest of your life. 

Read, read, read

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Penny candy can make even the worst day better.  

Traditions are important.  

Stubbornness is not always a bad thing.

Hard work will take you far.  

Peppermint ice cream is always around if you know where to look.  

Love your grandchildren unconditionally and no matter how badly you would like to, do not give your opinion of their hair or clothes unless asked.

And most importantly - Forgive.