flash back friday...

my grandma winters...

i went to my uncle cliff's viewing the other day, and saw a few of my cousins on the winters' side. it brought back a few memories that i have of my grandma winters. i didn't really know her well, because growing up, we lived mostly in arizona and grandma lived in pleasant grove. she died on my 8th birthday. so the memories i have of her are very few. her family was from sweden. i know that she married my grandpa winters after his first wife died. he had children as old as she was. in fact i've heard that she was good friends with one of his older daughters. grandpa had 11 children from his first wife. grandma raised a few of them, along with the 10 children that she gave birth to. she was 27 years old when she married grandpa, he was 53. they lived in pleasant grove where the p.g. high school is now. after grandpa died grandma moved closer into town and close to the cemetery. i remember my dad telling me that they lived in a one bedroom house when he was young, so the boys had to sleep out back in a chicken coop. grandpa died when dad was about 11 years old. what i remember about grandma is that her house was always immaculate (maybe that's where i get my obsession from). also i remember that when we would come up from arizona, my cousin marilyn always wanted me to sleep over at grandma's with her. most of the time, i remember crying until some one would take me back up to grandma dodge's place with the rest of my family. but i do remember one time when i was with grandma and my cousin tom. we walked over to the cemetery, grandma pushing the old push lawn mower and tom carrying me on his shoulders. we went over and cleaned up around the graves of grandpa and three of grandma's children ~ kathy, bonnie, and leon. i couldn't have been more than 5 at the time, but i remember going back to grandma's and having a big drink of cold, cold water right out of the tap in one of her tin cups. i can still taste how good that was! in arizona, we never drank water out of the tap - gross! also, when we went to grandma's, we could never put our feet on her furniture! that was a BIG no! no! (so hard for 6 kids, all under six years old). she had a very small house with a very small yard. but she did have a cool old tire swing tied to her clothes line out back and she had the very best purple grapes ever! we could pick and squeeze them right into our mouths :-P yum! (coming from arizona, i don't ever remember having purple grapes other than at grandma's). grandma was a very good cook, but she was stingy with her recipes. i always remember at christmas time, we would look forward to the box of goodies that she would always send ~ especially remember the thumb drop cookies, i think they were dad's favorite. when she died, dad was out of town working. i remember him coming home and the look on his face when he walked through the door. he was very close to his mom. dad and mom came up to the funeral while us kids were taken care of by neighbors. these pictures were taken may 26, 1934 @ uncle heber and aunt augusta's 50th wedding anniversary.

grandpa winters, grandma winters, uncle cort (grandpa's brother), aunt ella aunt augusta(grandpa's sister) and uncle heber (j. grant)

yep! that's him... President Heber J Grant was my great uncle.

i wish i knew more about my grandma. it makes me sad to think that i didn't know her that well. especially after having grandchildren of my own. how sad it would be if they didn't have great memories of me when i'm gone.