Appreciation

Last night I went to run a "quick" errand for my parents. They asked me to stop by a house in PG and pick up a book. They didn't tell me that it was a scrap book (mom knew, but dad didn't). Nor did they tell me she was a sweet old Lady who was friends with my grandma and was lonely. You can guess that my "quick" errand wasn't so "quick". I was at her house for more than an hour and a half as we looked through every page of the scrapbook with her telling me every person in the pictures (which I promptly forgot). I wasn't terribly annoyed, but just didn't expect to be that long.

Actually, it was really good, and I came home with a huge appreciation for my family and the good home that I was raised in.

Mae had been my grandmothers friend for over 50 years (probably closer to 60). It was during the time of World War II and all men had draft numbers, and men were being called to war. Many women were living with their parents and were working. There was a group of women who met and ate lunch together quite often. They decided that they should meet one night at someone's house so they could talk longer than the few minutes they had during lunch. The night they met for the first time they were also asked to invite a friend. They met several times and got along really well. They began to meet often and decided to start a club so they could list their events in the Society section of the newspaper. They were the Shangri La Club. They paid $0.25 each time they came and that was used to fund their big parties/dinners. Mostly it was the women meeting but when the men came home from the war, they started coming as well, and they all got along really well too.

My grandmother was the reporter and had kept the scrapbook for all those years. It mostly had pictures and newspaper articles from the late 1940's and early 1950's. But Mae had added a few pictures that she had, some that were older, and some that were more recent.

My grandparents are the couple in the front on the left.

My grandmother is the second women on the left hand side of the table.

She talked of my grandmother and of grandad. She talked of supporting Grandma through her first divorce, and what a good man my grandad was. She told me some of the places grandma worked. And told me what a good mother my grandma was.

Grandma died nearly 2 years ago, grandad has been gone for nearly 18 years. It just brought back a lot of memories, and made me really appreciate them, and my parents as well. We really were raised by good parents.

Thanks mom and dad!!!!