What are your childhood memories of your grandparents' house?

Aww :o

My grandparents' apartment- the smell in the rickety winding staircase up to their floor, Easter egg hunts in the courtyard, sleeping in my grandfather's room and his radio, him giving me a book about wild animals there, for some reason I was fascinated by the page on dingos, the big old door, the v. v. narrow corridor to the bathroom with hundreds of old bottles of shampoo and bath stuff everywhere, heaping white sugar into little plain yoghurt pots for dessert in the kitchen, my parents would never have let me do that...

Their house in the country- holding still while my grandmother put lotion on my enormous mosquito bites (I used to swell up like a balloon), playing dressing up in the playroom, hiding in the curtains, "boating" on the lake with a paddling pool (punctured...), huge thunderstorms in the night, hauling things up trees to make treehouses with my cousins, rose jam and chocolate in my bowl in the morning, apple fights in the orchard. Oh and I'd always find English books I'd left behind there the last summer, so I had something to read under the covers at night.

My other grandparents' house is smaller and darker, but still had quite a lot of rooms- so I remember people coming to stay, being turfed out from under my grandfather's big desk, it also had a lovely tobacco smell (I love all the different smells in these places), the larder down a little flight of stairs my cousins and I would push each other into, I always had the same room and it always had the same ornaments and things, and the spider toilets (from the beginning of the stay to the end I'd take note of exactly where the creatures were and if I couldn't see them I'd send my dad in to find them).

Aaand my great grandmother's house....v. old, v. rambly and miles away from any town. Huge spiders. Woke up to find one inching its way up my sheets when I was six and the phobia kicked off. We went all around, up to the farms and through the river, and there was also a little house which we redecorated. I used to leave behind little diaries and I found them again recently...I think it's French. Had no idea how to write it properly. Hmm and also reading No Exit for the first time there, made me cry.

I remember a lot of Chinese ornaments and paintings. My grandfather was English, but travelled a lot to China in the 1950s - 1970s as he was a shipping boss in Liverpool. It's nice to look back on, because I ended up moving to Shanghai where he spent a lot of time. I think it was those ornaments that inspired me to come here.

My gran always had that green fairy soap in the kitchen, the smell always takes me back!

Wow what an emotional thread. Aren't most of us so lucky to have had these amazing people fill our lives with so much love.

My paternal granda died when I was only 11. He was 85. At that age he would still drive about 3 miles in the rain to pick me up from school so I wouldn't get wet (I only had a 10 minute walk home).
I remember pandrops, his smiling eyes and his absolute adoration of me. I often think about him and wish he could see me now. I cry, very easily, thinking about him - he was such a special man.

My maternal granda lived an hour away from us and I loved to spend my school holidays with her.
I remember making toast over an open fire with her
Collecting hens eggs from the barn
Making pancakes with her
Playing cards at night with her and her thinking it was a bit bad to do it on a Sunday
and I remember seeing her cry only once when she told me of how her own mother had died when she was 2. Her father paid a woman to come in and look after the children and the woman was evil to the children, even stealing their food and taking it home to her own family.

Most of all I just remember their unconditional love and how happy I was just spending time with them, whatever we did.*

*Thinking about it now that never included spending money. None of my grandparents had any.

Wordsearches
Immaculate house (nan picking crumbs off the carpet and grumbling)
Knitting
Nan having a sneaky fag, only one a week, and a sherry while grandad was walking the dog on Sunday lunchtime
Giving me a shot glass of sherry as long as I sipped it very slowly
Pigeons making a racket on the roof (Nan hated them with a passion)
The mangle in the outhouse (fascinating)
Nan's porridge with cold milk around it like a little island
Nan chasing squirrels down the garden with a stick "dirty vermin"
My apple tree in the garden, gooseberries, rhubarb
Pancakes
The magic land I was convinced lived at the bottom of her garden
Taking me to the seaside
Kicking leaves up
Toilet roll dolls
The way she was forever correcting my speech despite the fact she was very broad
Reading letters from their friends in Germany
Nan saying hello to Mr Smith next door over the hedge then slagging him off rotten the minute he was out of earshot
I have her sewing box, still with buttons and wool in the colour of my primary uniform in little Beaties bags

Mostly I remember her house being the safest place in the world. I loved my other grandparents too obviously but I really miss my special Nan. Whenever I hear one of those pigeons I like to think it's her way of cheering me up

I know that feeling of grandma-shaped hole. After my grandma died, I lost the plot. Still wondering when I'll find it>>

Apologies to Chaos for misogging over lovely thread.

MotherMucca

The cold, sparse and basic nature of GDs house. I also remember our dog whining in the night, dad letting her out and her crapping all over the place. She'd had lovely fresh cows milk before bed, and managed to hold it in until she got outside.

Also remember GD slaughtering a cow and getting told off for kicking up the dust around the carcass.

Downstairs - lovely

Upstairs - haunted and scary as shit

A dusty bin

WIPD: "My lovely grandma... When she died, a big chunk of me died too. I hope I make her proud"

A big old apple tree I used to climb. I loved being surrounded by blossom.

The summerhouse in the lovely garden and the homemade swings. Lying on the grass with a glass of ice cream soda with an ice cream float.

Making toast at the coal fire, lovely homemade bread, proper farm butter and homemade jam.

The china shire horses.

My grandad's shed, he was a joiner and I loved just sitting there watching him work. I remember the smell of the wood shavings and my grandad throwing offcuts for me to whittle.

My lovely grandma, never without a cup of tea or a cigarette. She used to give me a little sip of Babycham or Snowball in a special glass, I felt so grown up. She displayed my art everywhere, she was so proud of my work. When she died, a big chunk of me died too. I hope I make her proud.

I have lots, I always loved going there.

I remember my grandma feeding the birds and us all watching them from the kitchen window. The amazing cakes my grandma made and the smell from the electric mixer. Wholemeal toast with lime marmalade. The shaggy carpet in the attic bedroom and the orange foldout 1970s bed that we sometimes slept on. I remember my grandma singing songs to me and the daytrips she planned for us around London. Lovely homemade soup. The lovely garden with the rope swing at the bottom of it. Lots of great fun times and everyone really happy to be there.

Brill thread. Like Proust or something!
Ok I really miss all my grandparents, 2 died within a week of each other 20 years ago (romantic!), thankfully both well into their 80's:
Smoked salmon for tea
Lovely art deco house with a special shelf lined up with miniatures collected from all over the world (booze that is)
Tomato scented greenhouse
Raspberry patch
Baby frogs in the garden
Large lawn for clock golf and croquet (!)
Nosh house (larder) packed full of Corona and just about everything else
Sasha the black lab who used to let us ride on his back
Thimbles of whiskey
Tiger Tim/Rainbow annuals in my dad's old bedroom.
Colour TV on all over the house (that was shocking for us - we had B&W)

I'd better stop... this could go on all night and I haven't even got on to my other grandparents yet.

Wow, mine also had placemats with hunting scenes on and some others with very old Devon and Cornwall historical pubs on Jamaica Inn was my favourite

At my dad's parents:

Dead flies in the conservatory.

The serving hatch between their kitchen and dining room.

Not being allowed to read at the dinner table or to get down until everyone had eaten.

The smell of the empty scrubbed sink in the kitchen.

Po-going on my grandpa's lawn at christmas.

My granny on the piano.

Books about the royal family.

Grandpa's walking sticks.

Placemats with hunting scenes.

At my mum's parents:

Spiders in the cereal cupboard.

The patterns on the ceiling.

Boxes of matches and granddad doing magic tricks.

Watching Haley Mills films.

The door to the stairs.

Granny taking a shovelful of burning coal from the fire and running through to the bedroom to have an instant fire on.

Grandad's shed which smelt of creosote and had stacks of kindlers and a picture of Betty Grable on the wall.

The pantry with jars of jam and pickles.

My Norn' Irish GP memories are:
Grandma smoking in the bathroom.
Granddad playing his banjo on the loo.
Relatives pressing folded-up notes (£) into my hand.
The smell of powder in the room I shared with an auntie.
Egg and onion sarnies.
Copious amounts of food.
Watching V the alien tv series.
My grandma's wheezy laugh. (see remembrance .1).

we didn't see my grandma often as it was over 2 hours away (a lifetime in the early 80s) so we would go 2 or 3 times a year and we would come out so fat!!!

we would get there about 10 and there would be hot buttered toast
then at 12, roast beef (always beef) with yorkshire puddings
followed by a choice of 2 plate pies! (omly ever met my grandma who made plate pies?) and I always got laughed at because I liked just custard by itself, but she would always save me some!
then around 2 pm the special biscuit tin would come out that was was full of penguins and blue ribbands

then so we didn't get hungry on the way home (as if) at about 4 pm she would bring out a selection of cooked meat, cakes and bananas -and what ever we didn't eat we had to take home with us!

as I hit my teens she decided I was some kind of technical whizz and would send me down to her friends flat (bottom left) to go and sort out her video, alarm clock etc

the first time I drove to her house, I came out and found a £5 note in my pocket -apparently she had been doing this to my dad since he married my mum. They had gone to see her from Manchester to Lincoln and he wouldn't take any money for the petrol, so she snuck it into his pocket! -this went on for 30 years with niether of them saying anything, dad thinks mum still doesn't know lol

Lovely thread , i enjoyed reading all the posts.

Cinnamon smell.

Long red peppers (Spanish), fried, roasted, pickled.

Smell of old fashioned soap.

Drawers of letters and photos from family members immigrants around the world - all the envelopes and stamps were kept too.

I could go on and on and on with amazing memories of Grannie and Pa. My youngest DC has just one grandparent (my mum) and it makes me so sad that she can know no others.

Thanks MrsLovelyDB

Sorry about all my typos/crap proofing, but I blame Chaos.