Sunday, September 7, 2008

Grandparents Day


I had two long lived grandparents. Grandma Sorenson was my Moms' mother. She was born in 1884. She wasn't a great mother or grandmother. Everything my Mom knew about parenting and grandparenting, she learned from Grandma Sorenson.

For some reason, she was always nice to me, but she played favorites. Her favorite grandchild was my cousin Wayne. Now, I have to tell you Wayne's a great guy, intelligent, funny, kind; he's a great Dad and Grandfather. Why was Wayne her favorite? Grandma Sorenson was 100% Norwegian, as was her husband, and Wayne's Mom, my Aunt Clara, was the only one of 8 children to marry a 100% Norwegian. So, by default, Wayne is 100% Norwegian, and therefore, in Grandma Sorenson's eyes, the best. Her least favorite grandchildren were the unfortunate ones that were raised Catholic, you see, Grandma Sorenson was a bigot. Grandma Sorenson passed away in 1964, when I was 20, five months after this photo was taken.


My other grandparent was Granddad Davis, my Dads' father. He was born in 1891. He was nice to all his grandchildren. I remember him having a great sense of humor. Part of the Davis clan lived in Oklahoma, and he always told me that when he came back from his visits there, he'd been me a Indian boy to be my boyfriend. Granddad Davis outlived two wives. The first was my Dad's mother, who bore him 9 children. Theirs was a hard-scrapple life. In their youth, Granddad was a horse trader in Nebraska and when the Depression hit, they came to California with their younger and young adult children. Grandma Davis passed right in 1944, after my cousin Tom and I were born. When I was about 8 or 9, Granddad married Edna, and we called her Edna, not Grandma.



They were always bickering, but seemed to get along OK. Granddad would always help us out, I remember him picking me up from school, if I needed to leave unexpectedly, usually because of "cramps". Once after I was married and had children of my own, I was able to pay him back for this. The part of Long Beach he lived in was near Wilmington, where there are oil refineries; there was a spill of some sort and a voluntary evacuation was ordered. By that time, Granddad wasn't driving, so I went across town, picked him up, and took him to my home. I just acted, but I got several calls from my Dad and Aunts and Uncles, because they didn't know where he was, and if he was safe. I forgot to let them know that I was in possession of their Dad.


This is Granddad and my dad in 1966

Speaking of not driving, that was a very sore spot with Granddad, for a while. When he was pretty old, about 80, the DMV automatically renewed his drivers licence. Well, we all were aware that his driving was getting pretty dangerous. My Dad, took Granddad and his new drivers licence to the DMV and told them that Granddad shouldn't be driving any longer, and that they better cancel his drivers licence and not re-issue one. Boy, was my Granddad mad, hopping mad; but my Dad was just being responsible. Granddad passed in 1980.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I loved hearing about two of your grandparents. Your grandma Sorenson sounds similar to my grandma Jean. And your Granddad Davis cracks me up - he sounds like he was a joy. And he must have been at least a little ornery to outlive two wives. :)

PS - Your dad's a looker! Or was in his younger days. :)

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