My Grandmother grew stuff that
I didn't even know could grow. Aside from being quite a literate
short story writer; which I never found out until after her death,
she had a greenhouse and grew al kinds of stuff. Potted plants,
orchids, daylily's, iris' (her favorite)... all for anyone who
would drop by and pay a few bucks for her work and timely advice
on how to care and nurture what was now in their care...and also
maybe spend some time gossiping about the neighborhood.
She was always unintentionally
the funniest person in the room at any family get together and it's
easy to see where the sense of humor on my mom's side of the
family came from. When my grandmother and her daughters were
engaged in conversation, I'd laugh so hard that my sides hurt.
Whenever she'd talk about sports, it invariably centered around
which current sports figure was getting paid too much or getting
"too big for their britches".
Twice a year, she would take
her plants and flowers to "the big city" of Charlotte NC to offer
her wares at the "Southern Christmas Show"; and in spring, the
"Southern Living Show". Me and my dad would load up the Ford
Econoline van with trays and trays of potted plants to sell in a
booth at these shows along with arts & crafts dealers of all
sorts. My job was to sell the Peperomias... 75 cents a plant I
believe, and of course, for the cuteness factor, I always called
them "pepperoni" plants. When I would get bored I'd wonder off and
roam the show floor and watch the food processor guy do his sales
pitch, or hit the many booths that offered free samples of
chocolate covered pretzels or dried fruit. Most importantly
though, I know that working those shows in my adolescence
developed my work ethic to this day.
I think I was really lucky to
experience those shows and even more to have a grandmother like I
had. She was "tending the garden" right up to the point that she
physically couldn't do it anymore; and once that point came, it
wasn't long before she left us. She was the person that the phrase
"down to earth" was created for. I miss her dearly.
--Chris Cunningham
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