saying goodbye to some good books

When I was a little girl, starting about age 9 or 10, I visited my grandmothers in Dallas in the summer. Both were fun in their own special way. To this day, when I smell cigarettes outside, I think of them. They were both 'smokers'. It's a good smell to me. Only outside, though. Not sure why that is so.

One grandmother had 3 teenagers for me to hang out with. I thought that was AMAZING fun. And it was. I still would love to hang out with Susan, Johnny and George for weeks on end in the summer. We went to the pool at a nearby hotel, they rolled me down the street in an aluminum garbage can, I learned how to play several fast playing card games, ate onion dip and fritos and drank as many, many 'cokes' as I wished. It was through Susan and George taking me to a Young Life Group back in about 1967 that I realized...wow, these super cool teenagers love Jesus and they love me, too. It was my first taste of authentic young people with a devotion to Jesus Christ. Their mom, "Be", was there to make us spaghetti by the potful, brownies and was just lots of fun herself. 

My other grandmother lived about 30 minutes away in Carrollton. I would spend half my time (3 or 4 days) with each.  "MamaNita" had no children left at home, so we would sit in her little living room and spend hours talking. She had a special chair next to a little table with a light so she could work on her needlepoint or crochet. To this day, I appreciate the relaxation I get from just crocheting a scarf or blanket. She also gave me lots of books...paperback books and hardcover classics. I kept as many classics as she gave me. Some had my Dad's name card in it. It read, " This book belongs to Richard Vandergriff". Most of the others said, "To our baby" or "To Peggy" from Mother and Daddy...Merry Christmas. At night we would go get in her bed and read and read until early morning hours.

These books belonged to my Aunt Peggy who had gone on to college and marriage by this time. She had not taken the books with her for some reason, so my grandmother gave them to me. I was visiting with Peggy a few weeks ago and mentioned that I had her books. I asked if she would like them back and of course...she did! She is a big 'book lover'. She wanted to read some of those same books out loud to her 9 and 10 year old granddaughters when they come over to spend the night. I apologized that I had written my name in every single cover of those books as a little girl. She just laughed.

So, this weekend, I pulled them off the shelf, placed them in a sturdy bag and sent them back to Aunt Peggy.

And last week, I enjoyed reading The Moffats  to one of my granddaughters. I still have that one on my shelf. Aunt Peggy gave that to me when I was 8.