GramaTell Me A Story

is a Folklore volume. My world—my formative years between five and eight years old—took place in a small Western Washington Town of mild climate—much rain. My grandmother, mother’s mother, 60 plus, lived with our family of five: Mom, Dad, myself, my sister (three years younger), my brother (five years younger).

Mom was a housewife. My father worked in the local creamery. We lived in an old turn of the century (19th) house with a big, long wrap-around side porch on a large corner lot with an oak and fruit trees. Dad kept a large vegetable garden. Three cousins who lived near, a neighborhood girl, the grade-school just down the block, Sunday School and Church were my world (1937-1940). I believe it was a wholesome place and time—rebuilding after the Depression.

My grandmother liked to tell us about her early life in Western Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Grandma was orphaned at three when her mother died. Mary Elizabeth grew up living with one Aunt and Uncle after the other.