Homework July 2023 'Graddma's Place'

[Terry]

This is a little earlier than the prompts – showing my age, I guess.

Grandma’s Place

Through the cloudy fog of memory, to days of long before,
Grandma’s house there with its smoking chimney, welcoming once more.
While exuding warmth and friendliness to all who entered there,
as it seemed to wrap itself around us, in her loving care.

I can see it now the way it was, in all its old-world charm,
with its Kero lamps for lighting, on their tiny country farm.
And the old wood stove that warmed the kitchen where we used to sit,
eating Grandma’s cakes and biscuits, soaking up the warmth of it!

You could see the old flat irons; she would warm upon the stove
and the wood box in the corner of the nearby small alcove.
While the sense of childhood magic then was aways felt there too,
as the heady scent of spices from the pantry drifted through.

Then the sweet intoxicating smell of fresh baked bread each morn,
though it’s hard to now imagine, but such things back then the norm.
It was spread with homemade butter and with heaps of Cockies Joy,
that was sure to bring a happy smile to every girl and boy.

In the sitting room a wireless, used, to hear the news each day
and an old-style windup gramophone with records there to play.
Also grandma’s writing desk with pens plus nibs and bottled ink,
sheets of blotting paper, envelopes, in shades of blue and pink.

Every week a truck would stop here bringing groceries and mail
and an old steam train would puff on by – you’d hear its mournful wail.
With the town so far away, a garden helped supply their food,
plus a cow for milk and chooks for eggs helped feed her hungry brood.

Now I wonder, are such things remembered - are they even missed,
sadly, most are long forgotten, or no longer now exist?
So at last the daydream ends, with childhood flash backs fading fast
and those memories of yesteryear, returned, back to the past.

--------------

©T.E. Piggott

*Flat irons were used in the old days before people had electricity.
They would have 2 or three heating on the stove and you would clip a handle on one and iron with it. When it cooled, you’d put it back on the stove and get a hot one of it.
* Cockies Joy was golden syrup or treacle – I’m sure you all knew that!

[Maureen K Clifford]

Oh I loved it Terry - so many beautiful memories of a time when life was so much simpler.

Allow me the indulgence of sharing a little story with you - I know you won't mind....When I went to live out on the property at Stanthorpe albeit for a short period of time - I felt I had truly come home. The house was very old with a wood stove and the wood box in the corner just as you have told. We had the smell of fresh bread most mornings - admittedly from a bread maker, and we loved it with our neighbours fresh honey or cockies joy lavishly spread, and I learned to cook on an old wood stove that had seen better days, with no thermostat - the CWA ladies showed me how to know the temperature by putting your hand into the oven and feeling the heat. Come shearing time especially I turned out cakes and biscuits and slices and scones with very few failures. I delighted in my chooks and their gifts of golden goodness, and listening to Macca on Sunday was a given, and never missed, and it goes without saying that having the dogs, sheep, goats and horses there just highlighted it for me. So for me - certainly not that long ago but I relished nearly every minute of it and it was living out there renewed my spark for writing poetry and my continued love of so doing, and gave me so much material to work with as well. I still miss being there - but the reality is of course that I doubt I could do it now.

Your lovely poem just reignited the memory for me and I thank you for that. Few of today's kids will ever have memories like these sadly ... but they will have their own memories - times change and who knows whether or not that is for the better or worse?

[Terry]

Hi Maureen
Glad you enjoyed it, and pleased it brought back happy memories.
I for one know exactly what you mean, I share those same memories.

Terry

[Ron]

You certainly created a lot of "childhood flashbacks" for me too Terry! It could have been my old Grandparents farm from my childhood days, give or take a couple of minor details.
I did my apprenticeship on the woodheap there, splitting kindling, etc. as you probably would have too.
The old primus and hurricane lamps and reading by candle light at times, and the kitchen aromas, all great memories.
Really enjoyed the read mate,
Cheers
Ron

[Terry]

G/day Ron

As kids I reckon we were the lucky ones - with the freedom of childhood.
Most kids today don't get this.
We never had much, if any, of what kids get today, but I think we had something even more precious, allowed to be kids!

Cheers

Terry

[Catherine Lee]

Oh yes, Terry, they are definitely remembered and missed! What a beautiful collection of memories, and as always you evoke the senses with scents and sounds that carry us back to the best things we knew in the past. Lovely poem!

[Terry]

Thanks Catherine

It was an era that has been all but forgotten.
But played an important part, in laying the foundations for the lifestyle we enjoy today.

Terry

[Shelley Hansen]

Great trip down Memory Lane, Terry1

I didn't grow up with the luxury of a "grandma's house", but I visited some of my friends' grandmothers instead. Definitely a more peaceful and delicious time, those days were!

[Terry]

Thanks Shelley

Yes, we may live a bit in the past, but it WAS a time worth remembering.

Terry