Days Gone By

I saw a very old picture on Facebook recently with a caption that read, “How Grandmothers Used to Look”, and I had to do a double take because that really is how my grandmother used to look. I never knew my first Grandma Kinney because she passed away before I was born, so when my Grandpap Kinney remarried somewhat later in life to an elderly lady named Leila, she was the first “Grandma Kinney” that I actually knew.  Leila had probably accepted the fact she was going to be a spinster, when she suddenly found herself married and with a ready-made family.  We weren’t quite sure about Leila, but it didn’t take long for her to win everyone over.  She was a country woman to the core.  She wore dresses that she handmade herself on an old treadle sewing machine, and thick beige stockings and sensible lace up shoes.  She wore her gray hair in a bun on her head and little wire-rimmed glasses.

Leila was the best cook in the world and everything was homemade.  The highlight of every Sunday was always a trip up the road to visit Grandpap and Grandma Kinney because we couldn’t wait to have one of her mouthwatering dinners.  There was always plenty of good food to go around, most of which was raised on the farm.  I still can see the huge, thick slices of homemade bread, and we always had the same three drinks to choose from—orange Kool-Aid, strawberry milk or plain white milk from the cows on the farm—all of which would be served throughout the years in the same glasses that probably came from the Fostoria glass factory in Moundsville.  If she could make it or grow it, she did—everything from ketchup, to clothing to lye soap.  I can still see her standing out in her garden on a hot summer day, in her dress, stockings and shoes, vigorously attacking the weeds that were growing among her vegetables with a hoe.  Later, she would work even more by preserving those vegetables for the coming months.  She had an amazing green thumb, and her front porch had clay pot after clay pot of African Violets on display during the summer months, which were moved indoors to the back room in the winter.

One of my favorite pasttimes when I was visiting was to sneak into the back room and play around on the old upright piano.  Even though she always seemed so busy, she still took the time to show me how to bang out a little tune on the piano.  I don’t know what that tune is called, and I am definitely not a piano player, but even after more than 40 years I can still remember how to play that little song.  I was eventually given that beautiful old piano, which sits proudly in my dining room and brings back great memories every time I look at it.  She truly was the hardest working woman I have ever known, and all of her chores were done without the modern conveniences we have today.  No weed eaters, no microwaves, no store-bought bread, no bathroom….wait, they did have a bathroom, but they preferred to use the outhouse.  She was a simple country woman, who preferred to do things the “old fashioned way” and live a simple, country life.  I wish my kids could have known her.  In the hustle and bustle of today’s world, it’s nice to revisit time spent with her, and those days gone by, in my memories.