Remembering Grandma
We pulled into the gravel driveway a punctual half hour before our expected arrival. Great, I thought, an extra hour I would be waste at my grandparents'. Wasn't it good enough that I was spending the entire weekend here? Did we have to get there so soon? When you are thirteen, each minute at your grandparents' is like sitting through an oration of the entire set of the World Book Encyclopedia. Climbing out of the car, my sister and I apathetically walked across the driveway to the brick sidewalk, past the patch of towering sunflowers, and around to the back screen door. As we opened the squeaky door, we passed from the bright sun of a spring day in Pennsylvania onto the back porch of Grandpa and Grandma's house. We saw Grandpa's pants hanging on the far wall, a bushel basket in one corner, and a pail with garden hand tools against another wall. We quietly stepped into the kitchen, as our mother and father trailed behind us with bags in their hands. Immediately I could smell the familiar aroma of pine scented Lysol. Grandma had stood by that product her entire life, and it appeared her senses were weakening, as the smell seemed stronger and stronger each time we visited. Passing through the narrow kitchen, we steppe
It was not long before we were all sitting around the wooden table in the dining room, looking out through the large windows. Grandpa, a man with a figure like Santa Claus, came in from the garden where he was pruning some type of plant that I had never even known existed. Cranky and cantankerous, Grandpa's first words were, "I thought ya weren't gonna be here until dinner time." My dad informed him of a new route he discovered last night while examining the map. "It shaves a solid forty five minutes off your time on the interstate," Dad bellowed, while Mother and Grandma began to gossip about their friends. d into the spacious dining room, dominated by a large, wooden table. "Anyone home? You here Mom?" my mother called out. At that time, Grandma appeared in the door of her bedroom across from where we stood. As the conversations continued, Jess and I asked to be excused. The latest endeavors at the local parish were not exactly my idea of a stimulating conversation. "You don't want some cookies?" Grandma asked. "No, I want to go out to play," squeaked my little sister. Given permission, she ran through the kitchen to the back porch and out to the yard. I followed just to relieve myself of the mindless prattle. In a couple of hours we would be back around the table with a platter of hamburgers already in their buns being passed around and another platter of juicy, red tomato slices. By then, my cousins, Don, Beth, Joey, and Lucy would be there, a
Some common words found in the essay are:
Mother Grandma, Dad Jessica, Parcheesi Monopoly, Lysol Grandma, Santa Claus, Grandpa Grandma's, Encyclopedia Climbing, , Prairie Grandma, Ya Grandma, grandma's house, lived died, combing hair, wooden table, sagging arms,
Approximate Word count = 994
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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