What did your granny teach you?

aloiseb

My Granny taught me that it's fine to be the one who makes everybody laugh. She was the best sort of eccentric - always doing daft things like swinging from branches when we were out walking. (she laughed with us when it broke and she ended up flat on her back in the mud!) She used to keep a little pill bottle of water in her handbag so that we children could have a drink in the car when we got thirsty.

And her recipes were infamous....I have never been afraid to buy the weird breakfast cereals the children beg for, since she demonstrated that you can make a perfectly good cake from the entire contents of the breakfast table, as emptied onto the plastic tablecloth by my baby sister when she was left in there alone and nobody realised she could get out of the high chair......just add a bit more butter, bake and you get a kind of flapjack....:D

cazj80

My lovely wonderful Granny taught me loads:-

How to bake;
Make jams, marmalades and chutneys;
About our family history;
To be independent;
How to manage on very little;
To knit;
To play cards; and so much more.

I miss her so much, she died 2 weeks ago, and I'm finding it hard to get used to the fact that I won't speak to her again.

My Mum is just as good a Nanna to my two little girls and I'm sure will also teach them loads.

Snowy_Owl

cazj80- sending you lots of hugs. My dad always said I had one granny with me on my shoulder metaphorically speaking!. When the other died, she jumped on the other shoulder!!!!!! :A

burtha

My loving nana taught me....work hard, believe in your own self worth and party like there is no tomorrow. She was born late 1920s and had polio when she was 2, leaving her with very little hearing , taught herself how to lip read, had one of the first iron-lung machines in the uk to keep her going, had a baby as a single parent in the 1950s, worked a 6 day week in a factory and was allways first on the dancefloor at any party ...baked wonderful cakes and made her own clothes, having a curved spine made it impossible to buy any......was always smiling no matter what was said and didnt go anywhere without perfume, always channel no.5.....oh and made silly rhymes to make us smile..and cups/glasses from sweet rappers....loved her and miss her , gone now about 17years..

tarotangel

Gran on my paternal side was the only grandparent that was living when I was born.

Her and my Mam kind of taught me things together they were very close.

Always try to be nice and understand things from other peoples perspective.

Do everything in moderation.

There is a time for playing in life and that doesn't matter if your 9 or 90.

Keep going as much as you can but don't let it be detrimental to your health. Her last trip up to Shetland from Edinburgh was when she was 90.

Her and Mam both taught me knitting and sewing. Gran was known as a seamstress and was brilliant at making things. She made me a lovely white velvet top with gold piping when I was a child and I still have it in the wardrobe today.

Always have enough in the house for unexpected guests. She didn't drink but always had a range of alcohol in the house for guests. She always had some form of cake or biscuits in the house for guest occasions (and also pet treats too).

Enjoy the outdoors for all it has to offer.

She also taught me to take Tyrozets when I had a sore throat, which was great when I was a child and took ill with tonsillitis when we were down in Edinburgh

Slowdown

Between my two grandmothers they taught me how to
lay a fire
play cards
clean brass until you can see your face in it
darn socks
knit
lay a table
rub off marks from a face with a wetted hanky
mix a cinzano and lemonade
drink sweet sherry before supper
iron shirts
peg out jumpers so they don't stretch
use a sewing machine
wear a hair net so no one else can see it

Happy Days

mardatha

One taught me to knit and the other taught me how to read Tarot cards.

Squirmy

Blimey, Gran's are great aren't they!

I am extremely close to my Nan, she pretty much raised me and my Brother as my Mum was not only a young Mum but also ill and an Army wife so she needed quite a lot of support with our Dad away for half the year the majority of the time.

Over the years she's taught me...to knit, to sew, to hunt around for the best deals, to charity shop (I swear she's the charity shop queen!!), to grow my own food, to enjoy my garden, to prep animals for the roasting tin...the list is endless, she's a very practical hardworking woman, having been brought up the eldest of 5 in a relatively poor country household and then having to bring up her own children on very little money too.

But for all the practical things she's also taught me lots of fun things...to play cards (I'm a dab hand at rummy!), that you can't beat a bit of The Rat Pack, how to build a great den out of a deckchair and a sheet, how to make THE most amazing rice pudding, and that if you want to have pink hair at the age of 63 it's completely ok!!

mardatha

Has she got pink hair?? I'm 63 and I SO want it, but they (family) won't let me have it!

Squirmy

It's not pink at the moment, she's "letting it rest" as she says! But it's often pink, her hairdresser sometimes manages to persuade her to go for another colour but she always goes back to pink!