"STUFF 'n SUCH I MUST HAVE LEARNED WHILE BEING POTTY-TRAINED...."

Where to begin....?

To be perfectly HONEST and FORTHRIGHT, when I was a "kid of 50 or 60 years of age," sharing "Stuff 'n Such" (with or without 'bathroom humor') was farthest from my mind; but now that I am "on the fast track" to 86 years of age in April of this Year of Our Lord, it seems that this is exactly what I should be doing...and I know you readers well enough by now to know that your ears have perked up, you have reached for your eye-glasses and are probably thinking as I am (since I don't know where this is going or will end): "What is that Old Dame up to now?"

Actually, I am just doing the most natural of Grandma activities: Giving sage advice! But you will have to look for the "key words"...I am not going to make this easy for the Grandkids, not my job!

As most of you know, these "masterpieces" (of which there are about 40 now) are meant to be read by FUTURE generations of Cranston/Derry Progeny. If these Blogs serve well, they will have "kept the Grandkids out of jail and off the streets" long after my "dust" has settled. Mission accomplished, so to speak.

All of which I write cannot be verified since I am the "last one standing/sitting" of the Cranston Family...but count it all "TRUTHFUL" as that is what Mom and Dad would expect of me. This I do know: What I have come to accept and employ as Certain Principles must have come from my full-siblings known as Trudy, Leona, Rhoda, Addie, Bennie, "Dutch" (George Jr.), Perle and Kenneth and half-siblings Earl, Jesse and Archie. Addie and the four boys were the ones still in residence at 210 Birch when my unexpected arrival(you've read about this earlier) took place that nice Spring Day in 1925. My birth had to have been greeted with mixed reviews....13 kids? Even in those days when kids were treasured for the farmhands they would eventually become, for a small-town family this was a big undertaking, even if the "little tyke" was about the cutest, baldest little charmer you'd ever want to diaper. And, diaper those five-kids-under-the-age of 16 did! (Well, Bennie was 16 years of age at that time, and I doubt that he put "that kid" and my comfort ahead of a baseball game on any Sunday afternoon, but I do have a picture of my big brother carrying me, "The Baby of the Family"--in a frilly dress and bonnet to match--as if I was a prized baseball bat! In a few years he would don a soldier's uniform, head for Italy and come back with several Purple Hearts...and continue his love for baseball by announcing games at the local ballpark.)

Was it the other four siblings' WARM hands as they carefully pinned my diapers (this was way before Huggies, you understand) or...the gentle rubbing of their noses against my nose when I probably smiled so precociously back at them, or...the PATIENCE each exhibited as they proudly "brought up" a good burp or two after a feeding or...even if not any of the above but something your Grandma Mayme said they "had" to do, was this chore at this early age the beginning of that warm mushy feeling of LOVE, as far as I am concerned that ingredient by which we stay "found" and not "lost"...CENTERED?  (Centered was a term I learned at the age of 40 when I embraced the Quaker (Friends) religion little knowing then that my Great Grandfather many times over, John Borton of England, crossed over the Atlantic Ocean to settle the province of New Jersey and to establish the beginning of the Quaker religion with William Penn.)

Not too long ago, I had the supreme privilege of  MINISTERING to a dying friend in the very same way...yes, the adult Huggie-type diapers, the patience, the rubbing not of her nose but her "nappy" hair that belonged to my dearest of friends, Betty Hatcher, who remarked once more, as she feebly raised both thumbs upward, that I was COLOR-BLIND...

Uncle Ben was a man of INTEGRITY, a man of FAITH and was always at his younger brother's dinner table, usually tending to my wants as I sat next to him in my well-used High Chair. (Yes, somewhere there is a picture..) If you have ever seen the painting of the Old Man in Prayer  that was so popular in years past, that would be so like my Uncle Ben. I remember the hands clasped, the words of GRACE, heard but not understood, and my Uncle's bent head that I observed through inquisitive eyes not quite closed. Today, I close my eyes in PRAYER and know that, with a little help from His FRIEND, Uncle Ben is continuing to tend to my earthly needs and wants. PRAISE be!

Here comes the most challenging part in giving Grandmotherly advice to those generations yet unborn. Can one adequately explain COMPASSION and CHARITY and SERVICE except to just include these words and HOPE and BELIEVE that the other words capitalized above will TOUCH their hearts, minds and souls in ways that will make their Spirits soar?

TRUSTING...

Grams

In Memory of Big Sister Aletha Fay Cranston,  arrived to take a quick look and returned Home May 7, 1904.