flashback friday

today for my flashback, i thought that i'd tell you a little about my grandma dodge.

grandma dodge was born december 27, 1906 in center creek, utah. (i think they've change the name to wallsburg). her name was martha "ellen" myler. she was raised in myton, utah and was the youngest of her siblings. they all called her "babe". she died may 23, 1992.
she was an awesome grandma! i was lucky, because i was the oldest granddaughter and one of the oldest grandchildren, so i remember her well. this picture is of grandma and grandpa dodge on the front porch of their home. they had the coolest old home in pleasant grove, just up from the p. g. central grade school. along one side of the driveway was a border of lilac bushes. they were fun to hide in and always smelled so good. from her kitchen window, she had a great view of the "G" on the mountain. the water that came out of her kitchen tap was sooo good! we lived in arizona growing up and it didn't matter how long you let the water run, it never got cold, but grandma's water was cold right out of the tap! grandma was always a hard worker. she had 10 children. her oldest little girl, virginia died just before she turned 2. i remember her out in the raspberry patch picking raspberries. she bottled everything she could for her food storage. what i liked most, was her bottled cherries and raspberries. she always made her own bread. i love the smell of burnt toast, because when we would have breakfast at grandma's, she would slice her bread, drop it in the toaster and the crumbs from the bread would be burning in the bottom of the toaster, the toast always was the best! grandma had a big yard that she took care of. on the south west corner of her yard, was a 'big' (maybe it wasn't so big, but it seemed big to me at the time) rock garden. i don't remember all that she grew in it, but i do remember the snapdragons. they always looked so pretty. christmas eve was always the best. we were aloud to open one gift. we would always choose to open the ones from grandma. we knew that it was going to be pajama's, made special for us by grandma. she always used whatever materials she had on hand. most of the time, at least one sleeve or one leg would be different material than the rest and we always loved them!

they had an old chicken coop out back and raised their own chickens to eat. one time when it was time to kill the chickens. my uncles hung the chickens on the fence and cut the heads off (every once in a while, one would fall off the fence and run around with out a head, now, that was a sight i'll never forget!) and then grandma and everyone else there, would pluck them and into the freezer they would go. grandpa and grandma had a little cocker spaniel dog. her name was "jingles". she minded grandma better than any kid. when she died, we lived in arizona and when they called and told us "jingles" was gone, we all cried. she was like part of the family. she use to pull us on the sleigh in the winter, when we lived in utah. there was a great big tree out in front of the chicken coop. we use to climb up the tree, onto the chicken coop, and then jump off the roof. we sat under that tree a lot with all of the family, playing, eating green apples with salt, and having picnics. grandma also had a lot of patience, at least with us grand kids. i never remember her ever getting upset with us for anything. she had the coolest arch that went from her living room into the hall. we would climb the walls of the arch and make totem poles. she had an old claw foot bathtub. it was fun to drain all the water out, soap it down really good and use it for a slide. one time i got stuck between the wall and the tub (butt naked of course). we also bathed in the tubs from her wringer washer, downstairs. we always had water fights, and the outside water tap was right under the bathroom window. many times the person trying to turn on the outside tap was bombed with a bucket full of water from the bathroom window. we played in her living room all the time. she let us make huts, moving her furniture where ever it needed to be and using whatever blankets we could find. we would ride on the pipes downstairs and play hide and seek. she could entertain us for hours, telling us stories about when she was a little girl, living out in myton among the indians. one story she would tell was about hiding under the feather mattress, while the indians came in and went thru the house looking for stuff, and how scared she was. another was about an indian chief who had a little girl grandma use to play with. one day he came to their home and said that he didn't have a little girl "with whatever her name was" anymore. grandma was so sad, but then he told her not to be sad, he still had his little girl, but he had changed her name to "ellen", because he thought grandma was so beautiful.

at grandma's we made and pulled home made taffy. we turned the handle on the old icecream maker out on the back porch until we thought our arms were going to fall off. but oh... the icecream she made was so delicious! we would stand on aunt ellen's, cheryl's and arvilla's knees for hours at a time in the living room. grandma always seemed to be happy to me. at least until after grandpa died. i know she missed him so much. one day i was over in downtown pleasant grove and i saw grandma walking down the sidewalk. i stopped and asked her what she was doing and she said that she was trying to go home, but she couldn't remember how to get there. i took her home and she was so upset with herself. i don't think she ever walked to town after that. she had quite a few mini strokes at the end of her life and it was hard to see her struggle. this last picture is of her just before she passed away. she is buried next to grandpa in the pleasant grove cemetery.

i loved my grandma dodge and have some very great memories of her. thank you grandma for all you were and all you did for us. i hope i can be the kind of grandma that you were and that my granchildren will have as fond of memories of me that i have of you. love you forever!