Summer 1956

I was nine years old when I typed this letter to my mother that summer, a three-part summary of what my sister E, nearly two years younger, and I had been doing while staying with our maternal grandmother, age 66, for a week or two. (I've left off the top section, as it wasn't as interesting as the two entries seen here.)

My grandmother was called "Memie" by her 14 grandchildren, of which I was the middle child. She had an old black Underwood manual typewriter, and I loved being allowed to use it to write to my parents.

Horses ("There we saw a coal black pony. He was a stallion. I rode a merry-go-round 2 times.") and make-believe cooking were among my favorite things. ("We make mud pies a lot. I made some mud cookies and candy. We used some of the apples off the trees to make things. We used rye grass and water to make oatmeal.") I still love horses and messing about with food -- not much has changed there! 

I wish I could remember what my grandmother was doing that caused me to write "Memie is ironing the Statue of Liberty" that Saturday so long ago. Equally intriguing is "A strange visitor from Mars got out of the flower pot and climbed up the wall."

Not finding a photo of my grandmother with my sister and me in 1956 amongst my collection, I've added in the extras one of Memie with me at about age 4 and my sister E about age 2. My grandmother looked very much the same for all the years I knew her. 

She was the only grandparent I knew; the others died before I was born. Memie didn't fare much better herself, as her maternal grandmother died two years before her birth and her paternal grandmother died just before Memie turned three. Her paternal grandfather died long before she was born, and her maternal grandfather died just before Memie had her sixth birthday. 

I'm so glad that my mother saved this letter for many years, as it's brought back wonderful memories from my childhood!

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