Meme Nostalgia

There are two kinds of flowers I grow every year for one reason. They make me think of my Memies...Meme Gamby and Meme Mose. All the grandchildren before me called Meme Mose "Grammy".  I couldn't say Grammy. It came out "Meme". So all the grandchildren after me called her Meme. So did everyone else...church and community. Very few people called her by her given name, Idella. The flower that makes me think of her is sweet pea. She had them growing by the back yard gate, down by the washhouse. I loved picking bouquets as a child. 
My sweet peas are growing by the patio. They come back and get fuller every year. I salvaged the angled trellis from the canopy that was destroyed by wind a few years ago. It was one of the corner supports. It works pretty well as a support for the vines.

This is four generations of Moses. Meme Mose is seated and holding my first daughter, Erin.  Standing are my mom, Joyce, and myself...I'm the one with the big red hair. Please be kind. This was in about 1980. Big hair was in.

I loved both of my grandmothers very much, but I am most like Meme Gamby. She loved yard sales and flowers. She could put a stick in dirt and it would sprout. The flower I associate most with her is geraniums. She bought loads of them each spring and had her front porch full of pots of geraniums of all varieties. In the spirit of Will Rogers, I never saw a flower I didn't like, but geraniums are not my favorite. But I always have at least one pot. For Meme Gamby. 

This is me with Meme Gamby at Hershey Gardens. As you can see, I got a very early start to my love of flowers. (Dig those sunglasses!)

I think often of my Memes. I was blessed to have them in my life for a long time...they both lived into their 90's.