Harry & Gladys: The School Yard

Harry & Gladys: The School Yard

This series would not be complete without the mention of the school yard, most famous for the landmark "giant rock."  Many, many days were spent playing there with my cousins, almost too many days to count really.

In this illustration I really wanted to include the large rock but honestly we probably spent more time on the playground equipment.  And then when my younger sister wrote down her school yard memory I knew I needed to show us coming down that slide without any "blood shed!"  You will understand if you just keep reading.

Janell's Memory

One of the best parts about going to grandma and grandpa's house was the fact that they lived one block away from the schoolyard. Now being the second youngest of the 19 grandchildren my memories are very limited as grandma and grandpa passed away when I was six. However, I do remember when we went to grandma and grandpa's we always used to get to walk down to the park. One time in particular my sister was in charge of watching me when I went to play and the instruction that was given was not to let me go down the "big" slide, to stay on the small slide.

Well, being the typical little sister I begged and being a good big sister she relented and let me go down the "big" slide. Needless to say I got scared and grabbed the side of the slide on my decent and cut my hand on a screw that was sticking out. It wasn't much of a cut but I was screaming so it was hard to hide from mom, dad, grandma and grandpa. While my poor sister was getting in trouble for letting me get hurt, grandma bandaged my hand, wrapping my whole arm in an ace bandage because I was fascinated with casts.

Thank you so much for following along in this series about my grandparents, it has been a fun trip!  If you missed any of it here are the links.  Enjoy!

Meet Harry and Gladys
Silver Dollar
Needle and Thread
Chocolate Cookies
Watermelon
Ice Cream Treat 

Harry & Gladys: Ice Cream Treat

Harry & Gladys: Ice Cream Treat

I remember spending most weekend evenings at the Mitchell house.  After the evening meal Harry would offer all his guest ice cream.  Each week there was always a different flavor but the one I remember most frequently was what I called "striped (Neapolitan) ice cream."

The truth is that Harry really didn't eat all that much ice cream, Gladys would always have to eat whatever was left in the ice cream carton, so as not to let it go bad.  I am not sure how much she even liked ice cream, but I think living through the Great Depression, Gladys could never let anything go to waste....she saved every twist-tie, bread wrapper, margarine tub, etc.  Now as soon as the ice cream caton was finished, Harry would go to the grocery store and buy more ice cream!!!  When I think about this little cycle it makes me laugh!

I asked Dana to share some memories about Grandpa.

Dana's Memories

My favorite childhood memories occurred at Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell's house. When Jolene asked some of the cousins to share memories, it was hard to pick just one. So I picked two.

Grandpa Harry was a jokester, as has been mentioned before, and I remember a running joke about a giant lollipop that went on for months. However, it was a more tranquil memory that I love the most.

Grandpa always had to have an evening snack before bed and having lived through the Great Depression it wasn't fancy. He would have either bread (or crackers) torn up in a glass of milk with salt and pepper. Whenever I spent the night, I loved sitting next to him on his couch (Grandma and Grandpa each had their own couch) and having my own "Grandpa snack" with him.

Thanks everyone for reading this week.  One more painting left in this series.