,,,For The Times, They Are A Changing...

Fortunately, I had a close relationship with my grandparents. I visited daily. I dearly loved Saturdays when I got my book and a big feather pillow and got in the big swing on the front porch and softly rocked and read. My grandmother would fry sweet potatoes for me for lunch. I loved it. My first remembrance of my grandparents was my grandmother, heavy set, long dress, beautiful white hair. My grandfather was very tall and slender. He smoked Camel cigarettes and drank coffee. Smoking unfiltered Camel cigarettes, I think I was in 7th grade when he died. We went to church every Sunday, even if we were sick. If we wiggled in church, there would be a sharp thump on my leg from my dad. Don't even think about being taken out of church during the sermon. I cherish all of those memories.

I look at my sister-in-law, who is a grandmother, and I look at the lives that she and her grand daughter lead. They are also very close...equally as close as I was to my grandparents. Yet the lives are so vastly different. My sister-in-law and her husband look like me. They don't look "old" in my mind's eye. They go to the wine country in California 2-3 times a year. They go to Las Vegas and Tahoe 2-3 times a year. When they are at home, Jennifer (we will call her), visits a few times a week. Jennifer's memories are going to be of going to Disney for every long weekend with her parents and grandparents. It is the princesses and dancing on stage with the Disney characters and the Magic Kingdom.

The times are definitely a-changing.