Today is Grandparents Day!!! Do you live near your grandparents? I didn’t for most of my life but luckily was able to travel to see my maternal grandparents. They lived in Germany, Bavaria to be more precise, and I loved going to their house. Every hour my sister and I would run halfway down the stairs to watch the Cuckoo clock chime and for the tiny bird to come out and give its call. It was so much fun!
My Oma used featherbeds and my sister and I would leap high onto the mattress and sink into the thick and soft featherbed. The ticking would engulf us and we would laugh and laugh and laugh.
My sister and I shared a bedroom on the ground floor with our twin beds lining the wall around the corner like an ‘L’. It made for an easy time talking until late into the night–much to the chagrin of our Mom. We would always scratch each other’s backs and it was a strategic campaign to be the last one to have a back scratch since we usually fell asleep. The last one was able to stay asleep while the ‘scratcher’ had to stay awake and then crawl into her own bed. My sister usually won and was the first scratcher.
The house also had an amazing attic that my Oma used as a sewing room. During rainstorms, we would open the dormer windows and watch the rain fall over the valley below us. We would also listen to the clanging church bells that echoed through the valley and traveled up to where we were on the mountainside. My sister would also sing-along to the ‘Sound of Music’ soundtrack and act out the songs (we had the entire movie memorized!). I spent many hours playing Captain VonTrapp.
I would love to hear your memories of time with your grandparents (or grandparent stand-ins)!
Have a wonderful week, Sonja
