Grandma Shoes…..

Things were different when I was a child. Duh! No really, things were different. I remember thinking that my grandmothers were very old. They weren’t called “Grandma”, they were both known as “Nana”. And they were as different as night and day.

My paternal “Nana” was always cheerful and always handing out sugar cookies. She made sugar cookies that were as thin as a piece of paper. And they were delicious. She wore flower-print dresses, an apron, and sensible shoes.

She lived in the Bay Area. When we went to visit her, we always went to Treasure Island, and had dinner at the Officers’ Club. And, of course, we went in to “The City” and shopped for Daddy’s suits for work. And she wore a beautiful brooch on her dress. And sensible shoes.

My other Nana was the only person I was afraid of as a child. She was a German war bride. She met my grandfather when he was a surgeon in the Army in Europe during World War I. She drove a Red Cross ambulance. After the war, they settled in St. Louis, MO. By the time I met her, she was living in Westwood Village, near UCLA.

I remember her apartment. It was quite elegant. Furnished with expensive furniture with a French flair. Velvet drapes, tapestry upholstery, gracefully curved legs on the chairs and mostly “don’t touch!” The living room was dominated by a leaded glass window that looked out on the rose garden and the street below.

And in this elegant room, full of “don’t touch” things, I would sit on the floor and watch television with my Nana. What a contrast: such elegant, rich furnishings and on the TV? “Roller Derby”…..her favorite program. She always sat in a big wingback chair that my daddy called her “throne.” And when I visited, I would pull up a dainty stool next to her, and we would eat our meals on the card table that was always set up in front of her throne.

And watch Roller Derby.

My maternal Nana favored solid color dresses, in elegant fabrics, and lots of jewelry: brooches, necklaces, bangle bracelets and rings. When she took me places, she wore her mink stole. We used to cruise around Los Angeles in her 1955 Mercury convertible. It was yellow with a white rag top. We always wore scarves on our heads and drove around with the top down. And she wore sensible shoes.

Scarf in her hair, mink stole, beautiful dress, lots of jewelry, and sensible shoes.

As I said, things have changed a lot since I was a child. I do have a mink stole: the very same one she wore. And most of her costume jewelry. And a love for convertibles. I even have some sensible shoes that I wear to work.

And that is where the similarity ends. I am not Nana, I am Grandma. I do wear dresses, probably more than the kids’ other grandmas, but not all that often. I wear jeans and hoodies and cowboy boots. Tee shirts, crop pants, and pink Converse One Stars, and, of course, the California State Shoe: flip flops.

I don’t sit in my wing chair and watch Roller Derby, either. I like to play football with my sons and the grandkids: as I have mentioned before, nobody would dare tackle Grandma! I like to hike and camp and ride bikes and walk for miles and hours on the beach. I listen to my music too loud and, if someone complains, I switch to my iPod. My hot pink, iPod Nano….

I know that my Nanas were not as old as I thought they were then, and that I am not as young as I think I am now, but, I still think I am different from them. They had a vision of what was expected from them and they fulfilled it. I have a picture of my paternal Nana taken when she was about my age. I hope I don’t look that old for at least another twenty years!

By then, I will be retired. I won’t have to work anymore and, more importantly: I won’t have to wear sensible shoes..