What Grandparents Do

[poliphilo]

Odi and Peter came to lunch. I threw a macaroni cheese together. Even before I got serious about my cooking I had perfected the art of  the cheese sauce.

This was the first time we'd seen them since Odi returned home. Ailz  told them they need to talk to one another. I took Fabrizio's disgusting push chair outside and scrubbed it with soap and water and a hard-bristled brush. This is what grandparents do.

Then I sang to him. I'd like him to grow up knowing all the old nursery rhymes and counting songs. They're the key to the culture.

Comments

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

You are a wonderful grandfather! And you are so right about the "key to the culture". My own grandmother sang these songs to me, and taught me the rhymes, many of which I had memorized before my third birthday, and all of which I remember to this day. My own long distance grandchildren have been deprived of these, as far as I can tell. When I made reference to phrases from them, the kids thought that I was a bit crazy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've been happy to discover just how many children's rhymes I know by heart.

I don't think they're as current in the culture as they used to be. Clearly it's the duty of us oldsters to pass them on.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to add the ones I remember into my memoirs file. I am keeping that against the day the grandchildren just might at last be interested in what life was like when Grandma was a kid. I know I was not very attentive to Grandpa's stories of way back when, but now wish I had been. Failing that, I wish he had left written memoirs.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I could wish I knew more about my grandparents. My paternal grandfather was an engineer and did a lot of travelling. There's a set of photos- from the 1920s- showing him posing against South American backdrops. I wish I knew more about that trip.