Random Memory #1

I saw this cute idea in a scrapbook magazine- a gal had a notebook where she wrote down random memories as she remembered them and then later scrapbooked them. I decided this was a great place for me to start doing that. (If you ever have more details to add to my random memories, I hope you will do so in the comments!!)

summer, 1980
When I was 7 years old, I went all by myself, on an airplane, to Boulder City, Nevada to stay with my Grandma Dot and my Grandpa Jack. One of my favorite things to do was sit at the tile bar and draw while my Grandma worked in the kitchen. On the bar, there was a paperweight. I don't know why it was there. I don't know if it was always in that location or if my grandma moved it there because she knew I liked it, but it was there every time I sat down to draw. I LOVED looking at. She actually had a couple of paperweights, one with a green fern in it, but this particular one was my favorite. It had three flowers and the centers had bubbles in them! It was something I always remembered about my grandma's house.


When I was a teenager, my grandma passed away. My dad came back from the funeral with a gift for me- the flower paperweight I had loved so much as a child! I don't know whose idea it was to give it to me- my grandma's or maybe my dad had heard me talk about it or maybe I even asked about it- I don't know. But I still have it. It sits on a shelf by my craft books and every time I look at it, I think about sitting at my grandma's kitchen bar and how blessed I am to have memories, even if just a few, of my Sauter grandparents.

It's funny how one memory can lead to another-

• My grandma's bathroom was very fancy and pink. There was a fuzzy rug on the floor, a small stool that was just my size, and the most fantastic mirror that enlarged my face AND had lights along the sides. My grandma let me play with it for hours.
• I loved to look inside the roll top desk in my grandparents living room. I wasn't allowed to play in that room so it was a real treat when my grandpa would ask me to get him a stamp or pen from the desk.
• My grandma worked at the library across the street from her house. When I was finished eating or watching television (in the back room) with my grandpa, I would walk over and find her there.
• I thought my grandma had the coolest room- there was a big square table in the corner of her room and her twin bed was along the wall next to it. MY twin bed pushed part way under that big square table to make a kind of sitting spot in the day and then pulled out at night for sleeping. My dad tried to bring it back for me but my grandpa had built it IN the room so it couldn't come out through the doorway without being broken apart. I did, however, get the red polka dot sheets that were on the beds when I stayed there. They are pretty faded, more pink now than red, but you'll probably get to use them if you ever stay at my house.
  
• I also inherited my grandpa's two twin beds that he made and the desk that goes with them. I'm sitting at the desk right now- it is a favorite among all the girls in my house! And Soren and Ethan sleep in the beds!
  
• My grandparents were not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but they wanted me to be able to go to church. My grandma was friends with an LDS lady who had a daughter about my age- Elizabeth Slack. I went to church with them on Sunday and I remember quite vividly swimming at Elizabeth's house and watching Elizabeth wash her hair with eggs in a barrel of rainwater because she had been told it was good for her hair. Funny.
• I also remember eating dinner at my great-grandparents house. I don't have very specific memories of Beth and Ez. I mostly remember sitting with them and feeling like they loved me but didn't know what to do with a 7 year old. And my great-grandpa Ez had the warmest, friendliest smile I've ever known!
• We walked almost everywhere in Boulder City. The market was just up the block, past the bowling alley. The drugstore was just across from there. Around the corner, my grandma took me shopping at a children's clothing store and bought me the best dresses I've ever owned- including an ivory sailor dress with a pleated skirt and navy trim. I would wear it still- I loved it!! She also took me to get my hair cut- until then, I only remembered my mom ever cutting my hair.

(summer, 2007)

My grandparents house is still there- it has been turned into a tea shop. It was closed last time we were there, but I hope to go back in it someday. I hope that the people who go in there now, leave with happy memories like mine. Maybe I'll take them their own paperweight.