It is odd that two people can experience the same event or hear the same version of a story but come away with different memories. Memories are susceptible to distortion. Does that matter to you? And actually, a memory is remembering; a memory is re-remembering. That means some details are probably wrong and there is a bit of fiction thrown in. But that's OK with me because it is my fiction, my memory and it just makes me a bit of a storyteller.
To those who knew Gram Liston, these are MY memories. We can debate the particulars, but there is probably no evidence and in the end we must admit to storytelling.
A memory popped into my head recently and I keep revisiting it. It makes me laugh, but also very grateful for my Gram Liston, Ruby.
Gram was my guardian angel. After my mother died, my dad would drive us all to Vermont to stay with Gram and Grampa. Along the route we always made two stops. One was to a shack in some Vermonters front yard. There was a little window with a shelf and he sold pop. We would stop for a pop and he would hand us a small cardboard box filled with all the bottle caps he had collected since our last visit.
Another stop we frequently made was to the Gardner chair. Gardner was known as the 'Chair City' and also as the furniture capital of the world. It had a long history of furniture production and in the early 1900's there were as many as 20 chair factories. Of course they would honor that achievement and financial/work stability by placing a giant char on the town square. We loved going to sit in the chair!
A favorite favorite memory was Gram's influence on my faith. She was a devout church goer. Once, after she had moved to Cape Cod, she shared a very Un-Gram side of herself. I was visiting her alone, no siblings, just Gram and I. It was Sunday so naturally it meant getting up and putting on my Sunday best, but not this particular Sunday. She said, "we'll be casual today".
Other memories?
- A trash shoot in her kitchen that had a can beneath it in the basement
- She was depression frugal
- She could sew anything
- She 'parented' me when I was a rambunctious child who had a very sick mother (I lived with she and Grandpa for a year and went to nursery school)
- She was champion to Billy, my cousin who had Down syndrome
- Dinner was always formal
- and she was always strict ... "don't you be sassy young lady"
Gram was an important person in my upbringing. I was fortunate to have many wonderful elders in my life. A gift.