What are your childhood memories of your grandparents' house?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I was schrunching some foil today and it reminded me of the Vitalite tub of milk bottle tops for the Guide Dogs (always a concept I struggled to undersand) at my DGP's house.

And the whoosh hit of tomato smell in the greenhouse.

And the tea caddy of buttom at the other DGP's house.

And the duoble loo roll holder for soft paper (guests) and Izal (unfortunate family).

And rice pudding with skin on.

And a shiny 5p coin for whomever had the smallest new potato on their plate at Sunday lunch.

Good times. Bittersweet memories.

A rambling great house that was mostly empty - Granny only lived in a few rooms.

She mooned about in an elaborate kaftan and a plastic golf visor, smoking the occasional secret Kensitas cigarette - there was a huge stash of them in the bureau and she was convinced that nobody knew.

She wrote to politicians, endlessly. Many wrote back regularly - she considered them friends. There were piles and piles of yellowing letters in the drawing room, on the end of the sofa, which was festooned with layer-upon-layer of throws, shawls and blankets.

In her youth, she was a protester for many human rights causes - including equal suffrage rights for women when she was a student during WWI. Again, piles of books, notebooks, correspondence - spilling out of cabinets, stuffed under old leather chairs. The smell of fusty paper.

I remember her battered old piano. When she died, I was given her Mozart Sonata albums. On her favourite pieces, the bottom right-hand corners of the pages still have a slightly grubby, thumbed appearance, from all the page turns. Her grubby marks - sort of part of her, still there in the music.

My paternal grandparents: Writing with chalk on my grandparent's steps. Swinging on their porch swing in the dark. My brother running up and down the stairs with the threadbare shag carpeting...we didn't have stairs in our house at the time and thought they were just fabulous. :o My grandma making homemade sausage pizza. We thought it was great because it was rectangular and therefore different and special. My grandpa has been gone for a long time, but my grandmother is only in her 70's. I will call her tomorrow. :)

My maternal grandparents: My grandmother's antiques and knick knacks on every available surface. Her old hats and gloves that she let me dress up in. The cold brick of their kitchen floor. My grandfather...oh, I miss him. I had him for a decade longer than my grandmother, and I loved him so much. He died a little over five years ago. He used to send me buckeyes (are they the same as conkers?) because they were considered good luck in his state. When DH and DS and I moved into our new house, the yard was full of them. We have a tree in the front yard, the only time I've ever seen them here. Whenever I'm raking them up in the fall I think of him.

A larder. A proper, stocked to the ceiling with goodies, chilly old larder.

TalcAndTurnips I want to be like that when I get old. She sounds amazing. And how beautifully written, too. Lovely.

Love this post.
Being allowed to eat sugar cubes, picnics in the snow, dancing around with the music on so loud we couldn't hear the door bell and DG, me and my sister all sleeping in the one bed, my gran getting up for a cup of tea during the night (it was actually gin, she had a bit of an issue.)

Other GP's the smell of damp and parsley in the badly built extension, my Gdad's shed with jars of screws etc he found in the street, hunting in the shed for toys left from when my dad and his many brothers and sisters were kids.

Maternal grandmother:

• The air raid shelter in the garden (being used as a compost bin) that freaked the shit out of me
• The outside loo that ALWAYS had the most enormous spider lurking in or around it
• 70s wallpaper
• Huge bag of slightly faded and very well used lego
• Muppets annual c1973
• Mum's possessions with her maiden name written on them
• Using her antique (and probably supposedly decorative) toasting fork to make toast on the gas fire
• AMAZING fish and chips
• Chasing my sister around with the antique (and probably supposedly decorative) bed warming pan pretending it was a crocodile

Paternal grandfather:

• Concrete blocks with my handprints in on the patio
• YELLING everything because he was deaf as a post
• His handmade gadgets for coping with his deafness (lightbulb over his bed that flashed when the postman came through the garden gate in the morning, phone belt that vibrated when the phone rang)
• Corned beef rissoles (the only thing he seemed to know how to cook)
• Handmade toys
• Origami crocodiles
• Walking on the garage roof (house was on a slope with the garage cut into the side of the hill, you could just walk onto it from the garden. Didn't make mum happy about it)
• EVIL border collie called Billy
• The Secret Passageway: the loft was in the eves of the house with a door in each bedroom and you could creep from one to another

All MN-ers on this thread: I really hope that all our DCs have such fond memories of all our parents, and that their DCs remember us in the same way. I fear that a lot of the rituals and traditions we all loved will have fallen by the wayside by the time we have grandkids. I hope their memories won't all be 'sitting round the telly watching Strictly and going shopping in Ikea'.

DD is very fortunate to have 2 grandmas, 2 grandads, 4 great grandmas, 1 great grandad and 1 great, great grandma, all of whom she is v close to. If she has memories of strictly it'll be standing on grandad's feet and twirling around to the music.

In all seriousness, I didn't think I could face a 2nd child after a tough time with dd and it took my Mum being diagnosed with cancer for me to realise how important it was for any dc I have to experience my Mum as a Grandma. 9 months later, ds was born. He's 9wo and asleep on my chest and this thread has made me excited for him. He's got some cracking grandparents and dd already has her own rituals established with each of them.

goingon64 I was thinking something similar in bed last night (crazy, this thread stayed with me until I finally fell asleep with more and more memories sharpening into focus)

It occured to me that Nan was only 40 when I was born (egads, I'm almost 38...

My parents and the ILs work full time. And it's just a different set of memories. DD adores going into their places of work. MIL's office has a swivelly chair and a box of elastic bands which she plays with, my Dad is a fishmonger and he teaches her about the different fish (and chases her with fish heads!), my Mum lets her help cut out fabric (seamstress) and play with the button box etc and they all show her off to their colleagues and give her 'jobs' to do. And at the weekends they still do all the gardening, baking, memory making stuff I did.

In fact dd's great grandad has his own business building houses. Having free run of the shell of a house is something I remember from our house being built.

I was awake last night too thinking about my grandma's front room.

teeth in a glass
'basket of old toot' to play with
Sunday roast
Enamel dish of apple pie with 10,000 cloves
Lloyd Loom chairs in the garden
forbidden shed full of poison
2 pear trees
'You are my Sunshine'
poking a hair clip through holes in the pink satin quilt
weak shandy
Coronation button box
china dishes of sweets
'the mauve room' - never carpeted and full of boxes
the smell of sherry
red setters who lived next door
old fashioned phone
glass panel above the bedroom door
snooker, George Formby films and wrestling
Smart high heels
Anti-macassars

Pots of stew that Grandad would bung stuff into over a few days (we never ate it!)

The smell of lift grease in the hallway of the flats they live in

The telephone table with a flip-up address book in the hallway

The luxury of an indoor loo- ours was still outside

Mixing Nanny's Scotch and cokes from an early age

Oohh, I've always wondered about "anti-macassars" Issy ?

Oh this thread is so evocative!

I remember my grandparents house as being absolutely HUGE (of course I was very small) with fantastic views - it was in the Lake District.

Going for walks - Aira Force and Tarn Hows were two of the favourites, and boat trips on Derwentwater.

Walking on frozen lakes in the winter.

Grandma was a fabulous cook, she made the best Sunday lunch ever - the memory still makes my mouth water, even though I don't eat meat now. Amazing Yorkshire pudding which Grandpa had as a starter with gravy.

Cucumber and onion salad with vinegar.

Homemade bilberry pie and cream, "Everything in moderation" she would say as she LADLED the cream over.

Trifle.

Snowballs to drink on Xmas Day (yes - for the kids!)

Tins of Quality Street.

"Coffee buns" with coffee.

Making lemon curd.

Making toffee and then breaking it into pieces with a toffee hammer. Sometimes it turned out as fudge.

The sound of the Grandfather clock ticking and chiming. It stood in the hall, next to the Lang settle - a sort of wooden seat, a bit like a church pew.

Sitting next to GranGran (Great Grandma) in the kitchen next to the Aga while she told me stories.

Their car - inside was basically two leather sofas. I used to sit in the front next to Grandpa with a rug over my knees. Tin of Mintoes in the glove compartment.

Oh and they also collected milk bottle tops for guide dogs!

My only memory of my grandfather is deciding to bite his backside as he bent down to tend to his fire. I was two. I do remember the commotion that took place afterwards. I was a strange child

I only ever knew my grandmas. Loads of memories!

At one of my grandma's (still here with us :) ):

• Playing monopoly or card games - my grandma would always console me when I lost to my older brother with "lucky at cards, unlucky in love"

• Little tassel fringing on the bottom of her settee

• Coasters with birds on them

• Really soft, squishy pillows

• Bunk beds

• Real lemonade

At the other's (sadly passed away about 15 years ago):

• Tins of quality street

• Playing her piano (or trying to)

• Rooms full of smoke from her and her sister smoking!

• Their strong irish accents

The funny pair of doors that we could close either side of us and pretend we were in a lift (or anywhere really).

The rock solid pears we used to eat off her tree.

The big tin cups we could play with in the bath.

Her miniature liquor bottles (which I would love to drink now).

Sugar sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

Porridge that we couldn't eat until it had volcanoes in it.

The HUGE tree that grew practically horizontally, so we could climb all through it (until it fell down).

I only ever knew my maternal grandma, she is still alive today and 85 years old

I am an only child, but my Mum is one of 6 girls so lots of cousins, and every saturday we would all go to Gran's house, these are my memories:

Gran dressing me and my cousin up (we were the only girls) as a bride each using old net curtains

Playing Newmarket with all the family on the dining room table for coppers and being delighted when I won a pile of 1ps!

Gran making scones, and toffee apples for bonfire night

Dancing and singing to Rene and Renata's record with my cousin (she was Renata and I was Rene) and the whole family watching and laughing

Her cupboard under the stairs that we made our den

A great big stool that fitted 5 kids on at meal times, after dinner we would turn it upside dowm, sit in it and pretend it was a boat.

Good times.

Ooh it's all coming flooding back now...

Eating peas from the pods in the garden
Bath time and having one of those toy watermills (which I loved so much we've now bought DS one!)
Her toilet roll holder which was a doll, with its skirt covering the toilet roll (!)
Watching old films on the telly - grandma in her chair by the window
Crunch! (flapjack)

Could go on and on

My paternal grandparents. Lived in a lovely house by a farm. All tocking grandfather clocks and big furniture that seemed huge to tiny old me.

• Shelling peas straight into our mouths from the field.
• Granny in her quilted bed jacket and lending me one when I was 12 and cold in the morning. I felt SO grown up. It was peach quilted silk with bracelet sleeves. It was the only thing I wanted when she died (six years ago) and no one could find it.
• The old table tennis table in the clapped out stable block. My brother and I would play hours of ping pong with the roof practically falling on our heads
• Piles of blankets on the bed. Granny didn't do duvets.
• An amazing green jug that would make a strange glugging noise when you poured from it. Custard would sound like quicksand.
• Granny smoking sly Dunhills with my father (neither of them smoked - apparently!) and my Grandfather drawing a big eye on a piece of paper and sticking it around the door to show they were being spied upon!
• Trying on her fur coats and rings and tripping about the house.
• Their wonderful, fat old bull terrier called Nina who had teeth like razor blades but was as gentle as a lamb.
• Best of all was coming home from boarding school and arriving home and she and Grandpa were THERE on the step waiting for us.

the sound of a proper teacup and saucer as it rattled in grandad's shaky hands.

Pictures of corgies, everywhere (not not the queen)
jack russels with floppy ears
musty dark green armchairs
pretending we were in hammer house of horrors and grandad scaring the bejeebies out of us

@kitswins - loving the eye around the corner!

The smell of my granny's boiled potatoes and butter for lunch when mum was working and she was keeping me for the day...

The lovely big feather duvet in the high double bed I stayed in at the weekend...

The smell of my granny's headscarves and coats that hung on the coathooks down the hallway...

My paternal grandmother's lemon meringue - yum!

Making pancakes with my maternal grandmother and eating them when they just came off the gridle, (could never quite master her method of getting them just a lovely golden colour on both sides)

My maternal grandmother's chocolate cakes - she baked one for each of the grandkids (5 of us in total) 21st birthdays and froze them, she died about 2 years before my 21st and it was still absolutely delicious!!

And finally, my fondest memory of my late granny, when she was seriously ill with cancer and just before she died, she stayed at our house as our grandfather was unable to look after her on his own. The Marie Curie nurses (God bless them every one) came at night to look after her. One afternoon about a week before she passed away, my mum's brother and his kids came to visit and she was lying in the front bedroom in bed, quite tired and very incoherent due to the medication she was on. My cousin and I were both about to take our practical driving test around the same time and were talking about it. All of a sudden, she threw back the duvet and was ready to get out of bed. In shock, we all jumped up ready to assist her in case she stumbled and asked what was wrong or if she needed the loo. She said, very matter-of-factly, "I'm going to do my driving test!" We were all so happy that she had been taking in what we had been talking about that we collapsed in laughter. This will be my lifelong memory of my darling grandmother... Love you always Granny H xxx

playing with my grandads 'silver' armband bracelet elasticky things that kept his sleeves up or something

the little wooden step ladder that i had to sit on if there were too many people at dinner for me to have a proper chair

the glass vinegar bottle with the little lid you poured the vinegar into (I nabbed this when the house was cleared and it's in my kitchen now)

bringing down the christmas decorations, all carefully boxed in individual cardboard trays

the dining table that me and my cousin hid under and played with our toy people on the ornate wooden legs

the stained glass window in the front-door-that-nobody-ever-used

my grandma coming into the lounge and announcing to a room of people that my elder cousin (who would've been at least 20 at the time) had a "problem with her vad-jinner"