Poetic Bloomings Grandparents

An Introduction to My Grandparents

I grew up in hilly Pennsylvania countryside

close to both sets of grandparents.

Grandpa Shannon

Born nearby in the mountains

in what is now the State Game Lands.

Twelve years older than Grandma.

Spit tobacco. Tightly squeezed our hands.

Grew the best strawberries, lots of them.

Used a rake handle for a cane.

Once worked on the railroad. Liked to tease.

Dad used to tell the story of Grandpa

asking Dad what he wanted on his sandwich.

When Dad said, “Anything,”

Grandpa put Noxzema on it.

Grandma Shannon

Born in the hills of Kentucky.  

A large, kind woman who wore housedresses.

Her glasses magnified her eyes to look like an owl.

Liked to go to church and play the organ.

Had a big collie named Laddie.

My sisters were my baby sitters, but once

Grandma Shannon came to our house

to stay with me, while Mom was somewhere.

When Grandma did the dishes, I found a towel

for her. She wondered why Mom kept them

back in the hall closet. I didn’t know what to tell her.

I still don’t know why Mom kept them back there.

Pappap Hurst

Lively with a twinkle in his eye, whistled bob white.

Came up to visit in the mornings with candy in his pockets.

Took us on hayrides with his tractor pulling a cart.

Laughed like Santa, “Ho, ho, ho!”

A carpenter, he smelled of sawdust and hand lotion.

One time, I tagged along with him

when he went to a farm to buy a chicken.

They chopped its head off and it ran.

From then on, when someone used the phrase

“like a chicken with its head chopped off”

I knew exactly what they meant.

Pappap grew up on a cotton plantation in Alabama.

He and his brothers picked cotton.

One day, to make their quota,

they stuffed Pappap in one of the cotton bags.

They all got in trouble for that one.

Grandma Hurst

Grandma was born in England and now I

have the picture of her at three years old

when she came over to the United States.

Always sick, she sat in a big highbacked chair

like a throne. I played at her feet while Mom

helped Pappap take care of her.

One day ambulance people hauled

Grandma off on a stretcher.

I squeezed against the stair railing

for them to get by. Later, Dad held me up

to see her sleeping in her casket.

Pappap had a ladyfriend named Mrs. G.  

They never married, but he drove the fourteen miles

to her house every evening (almost till the day he died)

and didn’t come home till the middle of the night.

My aunt said no one should ever buy his car because

it would drive back and forth to Johnstown by itself.

I really  had it good to get to know my grandparents.

My kids only knew theirs from short trips to

Wyoming and Pennsylvania from Colorado,

except for a three-year period we moved back to PA.

Now single and in their 30’s, I’m still waiting

for them to get with the program.