My Grandma.

Grandmas. I was remembering my paternal grandmother. She had 5 children. My grandmother was a fascinating old lady. She lived a hard life but then she wasn't all that much different from so many others.

Grandma was born at the turn of the last century. Her own mother had quite the life, too. In fact much of it is veiled and hidden. No one knows why my Mama was sent to Ohio but the rumour suggests an out of wedlock child. Mama married a man who was rather difficult to get along with much of the time. He had been married once before and his wife died. I don't know why. All I know is once Tom, Mama's husband, died Mama took her 2 girls to Church and had them baptized Catholic. Mama never got remarried.

My grandma went to school. In the 8th grade she played basketball. I mean she was on her school's basketball team. I remember seeing a picture of these young women dressed in short skirts (short being at the knee) most had their hair bobbed. It wasn't quite the roaring twenties yet but a short hair cut was in fashion. I can't remember if my grandmother finished high school or not. I do know that she spent most of her life working.

At some point she met my grandfather and married him. My grandfather was a hard working man but he was also a hard playing man. I don't think my grandfather spent a whole lot of time with his family. He was a safety man for the steel mills. In the end that would lead him to his death. Buck was also a volunteer fire fighter. I imagine he was one of those men-- Strong, diligent, a bit of a dare devil perhaps a warrior without a war to fight. Except he did find that too.

What I mean is he was one of the many brave men who stood up to big business and demanded rights. My grandfather was a Union man. He took that seriously. Once my father wanted to join the National Guard and my grandfather won't let him. When my father asked why, my grandfather replied, "When the strike hits I don't want to be looking down the barrel and seeing my son. I don't want to have to kill you; or be killed by you." In the town my family grew up in strikes were very serious; in the late eighties I was visiting, and I went to a grocery store. I couldn't find what I was looking for so I asked the girl in the store about the item. She told me that this other store had it but advised me strongly to forget about it since the store was being striked. I kidded you not the girl told me to cross that line would be risking my own life. "It's a Union town here.", she said with pride.

So you see my grandfather was a busy man. And when he wasn't busy with business. He was busy drinking. There was a bar on Brownsville Road where he spent his time with the other volunteer fire fighters. It was near the fire station. It was still there when my grandmother showed it to me in the 80s. And men that were use to doing hard labor were still visiting it. It was like some sort of brotherhood.

What ended my grandfather's working life was a fall on to a vat. The weird thing about this accident was the vat had just had the lid put on it. If my grandfather had slipped a few seconds earlier he would have died out right. Shortly after that my grandfather started to act weird. Oh there wasn't anything seriously wrong at first. He would wander off. No one would know where. Then he stopped bringing home his checks. I'm not sure what was exactly the last straw but my grandfather ended up in the state hospital. He was committed and that meant my grandmother had to find work. She had been working all along but now she need serious money. My own father went to work at the young age of 7. He worked in a Jewish deli. But that's another story.

What this all boils down to is in the end my grandmother went back to school in her mid-40s to become a LPN. I remember the graduating class picture. There are all these fresh young faces in ovals. Then you see this picture of a mature woman with snowy white hair. I think she was so courageous.

One thing I've been told is that I have her walk. My mother says that my grandmother had a very clipped determined walk. She wasn't a tall woman but she got places very quickly. She just kept on walking. Determined. Yes, she was a determined woman. She wanted things her way but she wasn't ugly about it. At least I never saw it. There are those who would say that she could be very ugly but I can't help wonder if there is some sour grapes to those memories. Yes she was a fascinating old lady. She learned to drive a car at 50 years old. Courageous and fascinating.