Thursday, November 29, 2018

Socks

My Daddy's momma, my Granny Gheen was a special lady.  She lived 'in town' and had a job in an office when I was little.  My PawPaw Gheen died when I was just a few months old. So Granny Gheen's house, and life, were different than my other grandparents. My Granny and PawPaw Crow lived on a farm, raised chickens and cows. 

Before my Granny Gheen remarried, there are 10 cousins on my Daddy's side and my Granny always got us something each Christmas. One year she got all the boys Stretch Armstrongs.  I can't remember what the girls got.  But we all went outside to stretch Stretch as far as we could and eventually poke a hole in poor Stretch to see what was inside him.  After she remarried our family grew but Granny & JR always gave us each something.  Most years it was something one of them made us, they were both pretty talented.  Granny crocheted, sewed and quilted.  When I was in college she got a computer and taught herself how to make iron on transfers.  JR learned to crochet as well.  He always had a stash of blankets and scarves if you brought a friend or new boyfriend to Christmas. Ryan got himself a JR scarf the first year he went to Christmas at Granny Gheen's.

As she got older, it was harder for Granny to get everyone a gift.  She started making a list and my Aunt Christine would do Granny's shopping. I don't know how Granny landed on socks. I wish I'd asked her.  After she passed away, my aunts found her socks list.  My Aunt Dianne took the list to a store near her house and had a platter made for each of her siblings and then a stocking ornament for each grandchild and great-grandchild.  So, I have an entire set of stocking ornaments with our names on it in my Granny Gheen's handwriting (the store added the holly image). 


They are special to me since all 5 of us have one and have Granny's handwriting.  But there's another reason.  Granny struggled with the spelling of my name from time to time, she switched the i and m often.  I was so glad to see my name is spelled correctly. 

Our world is increasingly digital.  We don't write much. I love the act of handwriting. It helps me think and helps me remember what I've written.  I'm so thankful that my Granny hand wrote her sock list so we have this special ornament.

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