How Tough was your granny?
1. Back in WWII Czechozlovakia, told a German soldier who made my 4 year old father stand so the soldier coudl take his seat that he was a (*&%(% coward;
2. Same time, they paid someone to take her and my dad and uncle across a lake in a small boat. Half way across, the guy said "why shouldn't I kill you and your kids now and take your money?", and she replied "It wouldn't be the Chrstian thing for you to do, and I'd kill you before you moved";
3. When she was about 80, we got into a fight with some older kids. She came running out of the garage, screaming, swinging a broom...[8D]
Love that woman!!
2. Same time, they paid someone to take her and my dad and uncle across a lake in a small boat. Half way across, the guy said "why shouldn't I kill you and your kids now and take your money?", and she replied "It wouldn't be the Chrstian thing for you to do, and I'd kill you before you moved";
3. When she was about 80, we got into a fight with some older kids. She came running out of the garage, screaming, swinging a broom...[8D]
Love that woman!!
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My hat's off to her, and women like her. They were tough or they didn't survive. Wish todays men had half the courage those old women had![;)] 0 -
My Grandma was on the Oklahoma land rush, lost her claim when her first husband died. She was 94 when she died and had 11 children by 3 of her 5 husbands. She outlived all of her husbands and several of her children. My Granddad died in 1918 at the ripe old age of 35, from the Spanish flu epidemic. My Dad was the baby of the family and was an uncle before he was born. Tough? I don't know how tough she was, but she had her share of hard times and good times.. 0 -
I don't know how tough she is but she would piss herself if she were forced to ride in a Japanese car!!!! 0 -
At age 12-14 my great grandmother's Father ran off, and her mother was committed to an insane asylum. She raised her 6 younger siblings by herself, and by age 17-18 had started a family of her own while working in a shoe factory, and hunting with a winchester pump .410 before and after work.
At age 94..I think, she's still kicking. In the past 5 years she's been on her death bed two or three times undergoing serious surgeries. She always comes back kicking.
Times were never easy, but she never gave up. My Grandmother, her daughter, grew up as poor as poor can be. Up to 14 people living in a 3 room house. There was always enough meat to make gravy, and enough money to buy bread. Bread and gravy got them through what not a one of them has ever referred to as "the hard times".
Ben0 -
My gandma (Czech) drank rum and smoked lucky strikes until she died at 92. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by dheffley
My hat's off to her, and women like her. They were tough or they didn't survive. Wish todays men had half the courage those old women had![;)]
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My grandmother was a cook in a northern Michigan logging camp, until she and my grandfather moved to Detroit. My dad was born in 1907 and IIRC was about 12 when they moved "south". 0 -
I remember my Granny (Serbian) telling me to get off the couch, while she was vacuuming, when I was about 11 and I ignored her and just kept watching TV.
Next thing I know that 100 lb woman lifted one end of the couch and vacuumed underneath it while I was still laying on it then went to the other end and did the same.
Amazing strength for such a small lady.0 -
My great-grandmother died at 109 yrs old and had 22 kids! One of her daughters (my grandmother) is still going strong at 86. 0 -
Mom's mom (Polish) was a farmgirl, then worked full-time in a factory, died young of a heart attack in her late 50's when I was one year old, before I got to know her.
My Dad's mother (also Polish) was a creampuff. As long as I knew her, she was dying. There was never an illness that she didn't have worse. Refused to learn to drive a car, or learn any independent living skills, insisted that others catered to her as long as I can remember. Likely killed my poor Grandfather just from the nagging. Lived herself to the ripe old age of 91.0 -
my dad's mom's side of the family, ther grandparents were among the first people to settle Nebraska. they lived in sod houses. there's a story that dad's mom's grandma (or something like that) was out working in the field and she was pregnant. she gave birth, laid it aside and kept on working. 0 -
my dads side were loggers, sawmill owners and miners , a terribly rowdy bunch
moms side were stone masons and farmers, these two , grama and gramps were the best people the good lord ever created. never a cuss word, or a bad word spoken, just hard work. if you said to gramps, i wonder if the fish are bitin, he,d laugh and say git yer pole boy[;)][:D]0 -
My grandma (father's side) was taller and bigger than grandpa. She only used her false teeth at mealtime. Chewed Doublemint gum, dipped snuff and IIRC smoked a cigar once in a while. She helped with the planting, picking and putting up produce from the garden. She was tough. She died in 1973. I still miss her. 0 -
I forgot another one. She was really PO'd that I left a shirt on the floor. She picked it up, and got right in my face, and yelled, and this is a word for word direct quote: "This shirt looks like it was pulled from the doggie's dude!!"
The funny thing is that she took English clasess at Michigan State back in 1960 when my father was a student. She was very well educated in Europe, and she made sure that we all got an education here. Someone told her that "English is just like German". So, we still have some of her papers from that class. She had to write about what she thought was the most important invention of all time. She chose the wheel. Her tag line on her paper?
"Without the wheel, Civilization is don't moving."
[:D][:D][:D]0 -
Dude is supposed to be A-s-$-h-0-l-e. Doesn't make as much sense or is as funny when it's censored!! 0 -
My Dads mom was Irish and meaner than Granny Clampent and the same size. She shot a neighbor kid ( forced entry ) with a Model 37 Winchester .410 thru an interior door. He survived but the neighbor kids NEVER bothered Grandma again. 0 -
Them old women get tougher and more demanding with age. Everybody always told me about how tough grandpa was. All the kids and grand kids would say that he would take his razor strap to you if you made him angry. Luckily I never saw grandpa angry, and I've never been real convinced that he was the real owner of that piece of leather either, since grandma was the one that would strop the razor on it with grandpa in a kitchen chair which was always leaned back against her and balanced on just two legs, as she would shave him with speed and efficiency. Once when I was visiting them, I overheard grandma tell him after lights out that he ought to take me fishing, and the next morning found us heading to the river with some catawba worms and fishing poles.
[8D]0 -
I had some tough grandparents as well. Grandma and Grandpa also homesteaded in western Nebraska, in a sod house. It was in Wheeler county. Here is a picture of it. swamp_thing
And here is my great grandma who lived to be 98 and the oldest resident of Falls City, Nebraska. She lived from 1850 to 1948.0 -
quote:Originally posted by swamp_thing
I had some tough grandparents as well. Grandma and Grandpa also homesteaded in western Nebraska, in a sod house. It was in Wheeler county. Here is a picture of it. swamp_thing
Damn! And our younger generation of kids think they have it rough now!0 -
Yea, kids today don't know what tough is. Thinking about it though, I'll bet them old folks wouldn't have traded what they had for what we have now. People then stuck together and cared for one another. What they had they shared and everyone looked after each other. We have many material things nowadays, but most folks don't give a darn about anyone other than themselves. Kind of sad, ain't it? swamp_thing 0 -
My great-grandma would take her walking stick to me and my brother if she caught us fighting or wrestling, hitting us in the shins. We learned to stay out of range. Watched her beat a large dog to death with same stick once when it tried to bite her. She also outlived all but one of her 6 kids, living to be 101. 0 -
My Grandmother was born in Denmark, immigrated to the US early 1900's. Could be tough as nails and as gentle as a blowing feather, whatever was required.
All the above mentioned and those not mentioned Grandmothers born in the late 1800's and 1900's were a special breed, never again will we see such women. There were good ones as well as bad ones, but they were survivors and had to be. When walking through a cemetery I look at the dates on the headstones, my thoughts being if they could see where we are today, there would be hell to pay with fur flying everywhere.
Our Grandmothers wanted and expected us, along with the values and beliefs they had passed on as we were growing up, to have a better life than they had. Quite a gift along with a great responsibility, particularly attempting to pass on to the Grandchildren0
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