Hey Grandma, what’s for breakfast?

Several years ago I posted about the classic Hee-Haw skit; “Hey grandpa what’s for supper?” I got to thinking how ironic that statement is for me because I only remember one of my grandpa's and that memory isn’t a very good one. Truth is he never made dinner for us. Truth is he didn’t cook, he only drank. And that is the only memory that I have of him. I can barely even remember when he died. The funny thing is that the original post is one of the biggest feeds into my blog. It is amazing how many people search for that phrase and one of the links takes them here.

My grandmother’s did cook though and they were both great cooks. My grandmother Lottie not only cooked for her family, she also used to be a cook for Ormond Elementary School. It was Corbin Avenue Elementary at the time. She also drove the bus for the school. She would get up, fix breakfast for her children and get them ready for school, then drive the school bus, fix lunch for the school children, drive the kids back home and then take care of her children when she got home. And she did it all by herself. We have it so easy these days.

Grandma lottie could make steak out of hamburger. She knew how to stretch what she had and make it into something great. I used to love her chicken and rice (mostly rice) and her meatloaf. Someone once asked her why her meatloaf tasted so good and she laughed and said; because it doesn’t have much meat in it. It was mostly crackers….and a lot of love.

Sometimes on weekends we would get invited to Grandma Lottie’s house for breakfast. She would make waffles and sausages. She had an old waffle iron that she got at an auction. She loved going to auctions and they knew her by name at the local auction house. That old waffle iron must have made thousands of waffles. It wasn’t very fancy but it worked great.

Grandma Lottie died while I was out at sea serving in the Navy. I remember getting the death notice and whishing that I could be there for the funeral. It was almost a month though before I made it back home and when I got there I went to see her house one last time. I had hopes of finding some little memento to remember her by.

It was sad seeing the house empty of furniture and all the other treasures that she got from the auction house. The only remaining items were in little piles on the porch where they had been claimed by all the relatives. Anything with any monetary value was already gone so the stuff that was left was basically worthless to anyone but family. As I sadly looked over the remaining items, I spied the waffle iron. So I took it. I deserved to have it as much as anyone else. When she was alive, I spent more time with her than any of her other grandchildren. I mowed her lawn because no one else would do it for the 50 cents that she paid. And it was a big yard too.

I cleaned that little waffle iron up and I still use it to make waffles for my family. I used it just last weekend in fact. And it always reminds me of Lottie.

Have a great day,

Greg