Things that remind you of your grandparents

[RosesAndHellebores]

Mine died 20 years ago and would be 110ish now but I still miss them so much

The bolster on the bed
An old silky jacquard pink blanket that went under the eiderdown
Warm milk with a teaspoon of grated nutmeg
The sweet bowl next to the fruit bowl
Shape with jelly
Pies
Gin and Its
A kitchen that wasn't always spotless
Whiff of horse, hay and Goddard's linament and occasionally Shalimar
Complete no nonsense attitude but so so kind
Every time I look at dd: petite, blonde, blue eyed and the image of grannie (and named for her)

Bolster down the bed between me and my sister. My grandma felt this was really important! Fresh mint sauce. When i make it i remember huffing to the garden to get it when i was really tiny. Apricot jam in the Victoria sandwich, never strawberry. Pink gin on the drinks trolly with my grandfather waiting to be given his drink!

This is a lovely thread. My grandpa's been gone 18 years and my granny 14, but I miss them so much more recently, as my DD is about the age I was when my memories of them start. For me:

• Grandpa always in tailored suits; I never saw him wear a shirt without a collar.
• The smell of their house, which was slightly damp (dodgy, unheated pantry!) with lots of indoor plants (they would have been very, very on-trend these days), always polish and coffee and the particular soap they used.
• Looming, dark-wood furniture with very ornate carvings. We stupidly didn't keep the huge Welsh dresser when my grandmother died - it was too big for anyone's house - but my uncle still has the wonderful, hideous-but-lovely side table with carved dragons and grape vines that we all used to crawl to sit underneath when we were little.
• white port, or drambuie.
• home-grown raspberries (all home-grown fruit/veg really).
• Like @en0la, using a stick to draw the curtains!
• being taken to church
• Granny saying 'good night and god bless' when she tucked me in. My mum never did, but I say it to DD and I love it.
• everything beautifully clean and cared for. My grandpa was a good amateur carpenter and he was always doing DIY for my granny. My parents' home was a tip so I loved that theirs was so shiny and polished and full of beautiful things.
• doing your receipts. Whenever I budget I think of my granny who, to the end of her life, religiously recorded every last penny spent, by hand in her notebook.

(Btw I read this back and it makes them sound posh, which I thought they clearly were, but the house was a three-bed new-build with a dubious flat roof; it wasn't anything special, but they made it feel very special and safe.)

My grandparents were probably older than most people's. All four were born in the 1890s. I was lucky in that I had all four until I was 16, and three of them lived to their mid-90s.

One set:

• the grandfather clock that chimed in the half hour
• the mangle for drying clothes,
• my grandmother's false teeth,
• playing cards with my grandfather,
• early morning fishing trips followed by breakfast of the mackerel that we had caught (they lived in a seaside town),
• Camp coffee,
• salads with tomatoes that had been skinned,
• Salt on the table in a small bowl and served with a tiny spoon, rather than being in a shaker or grinder.

The other set:

• the church clock chiming all night long (their house looked over the churchyard and the church was probably only about 50m away),
• my grandfather's wing collars
• tongue and salad,
• meat and potato pie
• parkin
• dandelion and burdock
• no fridge. Food was kept in a walk-in larder that had steps down to the cellar
• long stories about 50 year old cricket matches involving Lancashire and Yorkshire
• sleeping in the attic

my dd who is named after my grandmother and is the spitting image, she died 2 months before I conceived dd, my friend who is into reincarnation said she has her soul (which I don't believe in but it's a lovely sentiment)

My grandad died 16 years ago and my Nan 3.
Old spice
Brill cream
Mars bars.... he used to have one at 11 am no matter what
Watching Brentford do so well... it was his team and to see them doing great makes me happy as I know my grandad would have loved that.
White vests and grey joggers. He used to wear this at home non stop.
Coca Cola... he used to sneak me one everytime I visited.
Everytime I eat cheese before I go to bed I can actually hear him in my ear telling me I’m not allowed because it will give me nightmares.

Rosaries, crucifixes, lemon sherbets and flowery Pyrex.

A particular tone of piano (a bit like a honky-tonk)
smell of freesias
a smell which I think is a combination of coal dust and something else
some plastic beads I still own which I got one Christmas and opened at Granny's house ("I'll hear a rattle when I'm hoovering and think there goes another one of her beads")
Guinness and Bell's whisky
the mirror that's now in the front lounge at my dad's house
my honeycomb bell Christmas decoration (a copy of one she owned)
ashtrays
allotments

alyssums
playing cards
"the merry game of Floundering"
black and white films on a Sunday afternoon
Generation Game (with Larry Grayson, very time-specific)
crimplene
mushy peas
the word "ruddy"

The cakes called Yumyum.
My grandad used to say this for a kiss. I miss him.
I didn't know my dads parents or my mums mum, but my mums dad was the best grandad. I used to love going to visit him even as a teen, and listening to his War Stories. 🥰

Pears soap.
Florentines.
Struwwelpeter, Lear's Nonsense Poems and the Girls Own Annual from around 1910.
The yellow curtains.
The garage and workshop.
The garden.
Grandpa's desk.
So many things.

Pink Ointment. I used to think it was a universal thing - sudocrem etc but pink ointment was a Boots own brand apparently. My grandparents put it on everything - grazed knee, dry hands, sore mouth, spots

My nan made a wonderful syrup sponge pudding. You'd go in there and it'd be wrapped in a tea towel sitting in boiling water in a pot on the stove

Horlicks - hated the stuff but they'd try and give it to me every time I slept there

The chamber pot under the bed, in case we needed the loo in the night.

My dad's parents died when I was small, the only things I have to remind me of them are my christening bible with my Grandad's writing in it & a China black cat from their house. My other grandparents, the smell of freshly baked bread, Mary, Mungo & Midge because they lived in a tower block of flats just like my grandparents, cricket because my grandad played & loved watching the game, the bench outside Filey coach station because I can remember them coming on holiday with us just after my brother was born, they came by coach because we only had a mini & didn't have room in the car, we left them sat on that bench when we set off to come home, it sets off the tears every time we visit Filey. Most of all I remember the love & the values they taught me, I didn't appreciate them at the time but do more & more as I get older.

Dhalias: my wonderful, gentle WW1 veteran grandad who had been through hell on earth grew them in abundance.
Fish fingers: his wife, my beautiful, tiny granny, always asked if I “could manage” 2 😁

jelly with little oranges in it
small sandwiches without crusts
perfectly styled grey hair with lipstick
mini rolls in tin foil - but these are no longer
Easter cards with fluffy rabbits or chicks on them
cards with money in them

Home made rice pudding with nutmeg on top
Playing clock patience with deck of cards on a green felt card table
Homemade elderberry wine
Home made Yorkshire puddings
Home made dresses ( my Nan was a seamstress)
John player cigarettes ( my grandad smoked all day long)
Fish on a Friday

So many things...

Lamb dinners
Getting dressed in front of the fire
Playing cards
Watching snooker and learning the potting order of the balls
Watching Dusty Bin on a Saturday night
Pick n mix from woolies
Polystyrene ceiling tiles
Lucie Atwell annuals
Welsh hymns
Singing 'amen' after everything
Woodbine cigarettes
Brylcream
Hair rollers
Rain hoods!
House coats

Thanks for this lovely thread

Masala fish, my nan's was the best. The fishmonger would come in his van with fresh fish once a week and she would always buy it and serve that afternoon with homemade chips. She had an old sewing machine, the kind that used to be in the window of all saints. The way she would stand with her hands folded on her tummy, my 3 year old ds stands like that and I love it. She would sprinkle strawberries with sugar before serving them, my mum would never do this. The smell of tobacco in a pipe was one I associated with my grandad for the longest time. He eventually quit when he got emphysema. He used to have travel sweets in a tin that would get pulled out when we came over and would always save the red ones for me. He always used to ask my nan to bring out mini coke cans for us whenever we went to visit, any time I see them in the supermarket I am reminded of him.

I keep a photo of them in my hallway, my kids will know them through the stories I share.

Brown zip up cardigans
Bowling
Bovril to drink
Weak tea
Boiled sweets esp barley ones and rectangular hard butter toffee in gold foil, similar to werthers original.
Carpet sweepers.
Knitting.
2p for Erskine
Crochet blankets
Incredibly soft wide stripe flannel sheet and pillowcase. Top sheets in bed!
Crackerbread
Roses
The birdie song.

I lost my last grandparent just over a year ago but I miss my dad's parents who died 7 and 15 years ago just as much. My grandad would have been 100 10 days after my 30th and neither of them got to meet my children which makes me so sad because they would have loved them so much.
I think about my grandad when I garden and when I have a question about something I wish he was still here to guide me. I think about my grandmother everything I do something creative and especially when I craft with my kids or fix something.
I think about my other Nan everything I see garden gnomes, she loved them and her neighbours kept trying to bully her into getting rid of them so I bought her a new one every chance I got.
I miss the way she lit up every time she saw my children and how even when she was really frail you could literally see her beaming with happiness as she sang to them or listened to my daughters stories or songs.
Every so often I walk into a house that smells like my dad's parents house and it's honestly the most comforting smell ever. I wish I could bottle it. It just makes me feel safe and happy.
Sorry thats so long.

Oatmeal for breakfast.
Grandpa's stew when we arrived to visit.
Grandma singing and playing chords on the piano.
Lutefisk (swedish Christmas eve)
Grandma sneaking us chocolate bars.
The toy basket at my Nana's
Turkey dinners
Yorkshire puddings
Mashed potatoes
Pickled herring
Proper table manners at my Dad's parents, a free for all at Mom's
Gardening

I could go on...

Faggots, fray bentos steak and kidney pie, bran flakes, Daddies tomato ketchup, stork margarine, jammie dodgers, wrights coal tar soap, pampas grass, snow drops, snakes and ladders, cacti, sherry and crusty cobs - all remind me of my maternal grandmother.

Marigolds, the smell of greenhouses, scotch, Newcastle brown ale and starburst sweets (although they were opal fruits then), welsh male voice choirs and hurricane aeroplanes - these all remind me of my paternal grandfather.

My nan had pots and pots filled with the most beautiful fushias.

Flat lemonade. Every time we visited. We loved it! X

Singer sewing machines
Tea cosys
Gallons of tea
Cats
Eye level grills
Camp knitting patterns
Anything arts and crafts
Crossword puzzles
Berets
Kindness and forgiveness
Going to the west country where she was raised- I didn't visit their till after her death, the people have her artistic temperament, easy going nature and accent! Love em.