Then

My maternal grandmother, the only grandparent I ever knew, was born in the decade following the Civil War.  With her birthday coming up this week, I've been thinking about her and some of the things she did (or didn't do) in her day compared to what we grandmothers do (or don't do) today.

Here's what I've come up with.

1.  She never wore trousers.
2.  She wore a light amount of lipstick and powder but never eye makeup.
3.  She never applied polish to her toes or, for that matter, wore sandals.
4.  She may never have gone out without wearing a girdle and stockings.
5.  Sometimes she had her white hair slightly blued.
6.  She rarely went to town without wearing a hat.

One of her favorite hats

7.  She never drove a car during the time I knew her but took the bus instead.
8.  She may never have voted during those years.
9.  She never drank alcoholic beverages.
10.  She never took a yoga class or firmed after age 50--or before age 50, for that matter.
11.  She never concerned herself with eating organic--everything was organic.
12.  She never did a high-five.  Or said, OMG.
13.  She never owned a TV.
14.  She cooked in aluminum pots.
15.  And, as mentioned in an earlier posting, she spoke of cars as being "machines."

She taught piano in her home until she was in her late eighties and gave an annual recital at which the boys bowed and we girls curtsied.  She was a lovely, gracious, generous person.