About Rectangular Grandmas

It's amazing what parents learn when they listen and their kids talk. Several years ago, when our children were preschoolers, I took notes at a family meeting when the topic of discussion was grandmas. Here are a few observations our children made (with just a touch of editing) about their grandmothers, Verla Thomas and Ellen Hawkley:

"We have to drive way past a whole nap to get to Grandma's. We go in their houses without knocking. Grandmas like to kiss people and give long hugs. We're lucky because our grandmas live in the same town."

"Grandma Hawkley calls our Dad 'Dan.' She tells him to put a coat on to go outside. She plays 'olden-days' songs on the fiddle and puts on my shoes with a shoehorn."

"Grandmas like to make picnics. They put better stuff in Jell-O. They grow dill pickles in their gardens and make sour beets. They can make fruit leather out of anything. They make soup out of 'rolling pin noodles.' They can even make cake out of zucchini."

"Grandmas have good laps. They have time to read two stories in a row. When they take a nap with me, they don't get up in the middle."

"Grandmas have new sheets. They bring me more blankets so I won't get cold. In the morning, they make my bed and tell me not to wake my mom up."

"When you break Grandma's lamp, she just gets a new one and tells you to be more careful."

"Grandmas likes to play checkers even when I always win. They help me pick up the toys and gives me pennies to buy candy at the little store."

"When we go home, our grandmas get sad, but they send food so we won't get hungry."

"Grandmas have curly hair and sparkly eyes with glasses on them. Their faces are a little 'folded.' Some other grandmas have purple hair, but not ours. Grandmas look . . . something like a rectangle."

So if you see a rectangle with purple hair and glasses around town, don't be alarmed. It's just somebody's grandma.