Early in the Morning

Sitting here at 3:30 in the morning, I've been awake since probably 2, bothered by my (politically correct term) "upper respiratory infection," better known as "the common cold."  It has been quite a long time since I've had this nuisance disorder, long enough for me to not remember symptoms at the onset--a scratchy throat that started on Saturday.  Well into the cold Tuesday, I remembered my Zicam spray that is supposed to ease the cold, if not stop if altogether (if you catch it at the onset, which would have been Saturday).

So I sit here at 3:30 in the morning, doing what I enjoy, with my oatmeal with almonds, buttered toast, a banana, and hot "throat relief" tea.

The last week or so I've been reminded of my Grandma Doty.  She was also single in her 50's, and lived a couple doors down from here.  I've been having alot of dreams about her, mostly about her apartment and her dining room floor, which was a green and peach swirl linoleum (funny the things you remember most as a child, but then, I was closer to the floor than anyplace else).  I am reminded of her as I prepare my meals (or lack of preparing my meals, I'm not the cook she was, and life is way too convenient today, whereas back in the 50's and 60's I wonder what my grandmother prepared, cooking for herself all those years (mostly 60's) alone.

I remember her little apartment with it's spookiness.  Gram was always a little spooky anyway, she was superstitious and you couldn't rock the rocker without being in it (someone would die), you daren't hold an umbrella over your head in the house (you would die), and if a bird landed in your window, someone was sure to die.  As a child, I was dead certain that there was a skeleton hiding in the clothes closet.  (Please note, it was not spooky if Gram was there.)  And the back attic room housed an old claw foot tub, so amidst the trunks and boxes and window light with all of her plants, there was this old tub.  (Now if that wasn't spooky, nothing was.)

Gram had a very simple way of life.  She babysat for the Harold Races' for many years, being there for the children and housekeeping and starting dinner, then she'd walk back to her little apartment around the corner.  She never had a car, and it wasn't until the 1970's that she got a telephone.  Norwegian baking for the holidays was her specialty.  Crisp flat crackers (no I cannot remember the name), sugar cookies that looked like cupcake holders that had a sprinkle of colored sugar, and her famous rosettas!   (Now would be the time to insert a beautiful photo, but alas, I have none!)  My daughter and my mother have continued the tradition of the rosettas.  (My daughter moved to Kansas City this spring, I know my Mom will miss her and their annual baking project.)

Gram loved playing cards.  She would sit in her livingroom and play solitaire for hours on end, while watching her television.  Her television.  Gram splurged in the early 1960's and bought the color tv, and we would watch programs in "living color."  We'd go to bed fairly early, and Gram would sit there in her livingroom, playing solitaire and watching her tv.

In later years, after the Race kids were too big to need a sitter anymore, she tried to move on to working for an old woman, taking care of her during the day.  I don't think it worked out, I don't remember her doing that for very long.

Many more stories of my grandmother to come, I'm sure.