Granny Bob

Granny Bob…

There are many things I will miss about this loud, crazy, stubborn woman. She loved the 9 of us grandkids with her entire heart, but she would give us a hug and slap us across the face in the same moment if she needed to. I can’t remember who came up with the name “granny Bob”. She hated it, but we were all ornery enough to keep the name going.

There were random weekends growing up that I remember a group of the 9 of us grandkids going to Granny Bobs house for the weekend. We would all play outside in the hot summer or the crisp fall evening and then all march back inside to wash up and eat dinner. Almost every evening we would unfold the hide-a-bed couch, pile up, and watch movies till late in the night. But we never watched cartoons at Granny Bobs house. No, no. We watched classics. We watched black and whites, musicals, and westerns. Granny Bob would sit in her love seat. Tom would sit in his chair till he couldn’t stay awake any longer and the group of us grandkids would all lay on the hide-a-bed and watch till the early morning hours. All the girls would be on the bed, Maddie would twist her hair which was Bob’s favorite. Ty and Logan would more than likely be messin with Bo. Mom, Dad, Keith, or Kevin would be sitting on the love seat with Bob, in the floor, or in the middle of the pile with us. During the movies Bob would get so excited when her favorite parts would come up and say “Yall be quiet, this is my favorite part.” Or when we would start fightin and kickin each other off the bed she would yell at us and say, “Yall settle down and pay attention this is real important.” Whether or not it was important we would all settle down and start watchin again.

After the movie was over we would all discuss the movie and our favorite parts or characters and then turn towards Bob and whisper “Midnight snack?” and she would always say “Of course!”, so we would all very quickly gain back our energy and run into the kitchen leaving whoever couldn’t stay awake behind. We would immediately pull out the ice cream, pie, cake, donuts, or whatever sweets we had for the weekend, and of course the gallon of milk and several tall glasses. Those were some of sweetest memories. Once we were done with our snacks depending on what time it was we would either stay up talking till we all one by one went to bed or we would just put another movie in. As kids we stayed up passed midnight sometimes till 2 or 3 in the morning with our grandmother, watching great movies, and eating sweets. Who gets to do that?!

As I got older she started branching me out to a larger variety of classics. I remember when she tried to get me to watch “To Kill a Mockingbird” the first time. I was so apprehensive because it was so serious and I wanted to watch one of the movies I already knew were great. I ended up falling asleep before the end. She was patient and watched it with me a couple more times over the years. The next morning I would always ask her to tell me what happened with Boo Radley, but she never would, always insisting that I “watch the whole damn thing to find out.” Eventually I finally did watch it the whole way through with her and she was right, it was much better that way.

My sister Kassidy has this thing where she gets real mad and no one, I mean NO ONE, crosses her when she gets mad….. except Bob. Kass would get real mad at me for doing something to her and she would march real purposefully towards wherever Mom and Bob were sitting and tell them with extreme detail what I did to her in this incredibly angry and persistent manner. Bob never could keep a straight face and would look at her with a smile beginnin to show and say “Kassidy, I’m gonna laugh. You better turn around and walk away cause I’m gonna laugh.” When we were younger Kass just stood there and her anger would fume as Bob would release into a gut rolling laughter at Kassidy’s persistence in standing her ground. Since we have gotten older we have all laughed together at Kassidy’s moments of persistent anger at whatever the situation may be, but it was always Bob’s favorite when somebody (usually me) would make Kassidy mad.

Bob loved her old country and western gospel hymns. She always had a different song she wanted me to listen to and then learn so I could sing it. That’s something I will always cherish. She loved listening to me sing. She always made me feel like it was one of her very favorite things in the whole world to do.

For me the most special thing about Bob is how when she gave me a hug she would wrap her hands around my head and hold me tight. No matter if it was just a random hug or we were greeting each other or saying good bye, it was always like that. Then she would say  “Kaitlyn, my precious, I love you I love you I love you.” Over and over again. She is one of the very few people that would always call me Kaitlyn and it always stuck out to me when she would do that.

These are just some of my favorite stories or memories with our sweet crazy Bob. I could have written forever, but these are what came to mind first. I love hearing stories from my mother and uncles about her when they were growing up. Then throughout all 9 of us grandkids, we've got plenty of funny stories to go around about our Granny Bob. We cherished her as a gramma and a mother. She was the crazy glue that would bring all of us crazies together.

Life Lessons from Granny Bob:

-Midnight snacks are always a good idea.

-Hostess cake donuts are the best. Hands down!

-An old country and western hymn is sometimes just what your soul needs.

-2 or 3 movies in a row on one night? Why not! Ice cream breaks in between!

-Mexican Casserole. 2 words that make any person in our family start salivating immediately.

-A curse word every now and then just to prove your point sure as hell ain’t gonna hurt anybody.

-An old black and white movie will fix almost any problem.

-There ain’t no shame in bein a little weird. (or a lot of weird in Bob’s case)

-Just cuz I'm yellin at ya doesn't mean I'm mad at ya. It's just the way we show love.

-Singing is always the best medicine even if you can’t carry a tune.

-A beautiful handmade quilt is a dear treasure.

-Laughter is the most important part of your day. If your not laughing, your not living, even if that means your just laughin at yourself.

-It is never ok to say good bye without saying “I love you” at least 5 times.