Run, Lola, Run!!

My country gramma was mostly Hawaiian and mixed with who knows what........my town gramma was pure Portuguese and her first husband was pure German so my maternal grandfather was part of each! Hence the phrase "melting pot"!   I have come to find out my biological father was French/Hawaiian.......OMG what a little mess I came out to be.......in modern times my nationality is just "mutt"!  It's short and sweet!

My country gramma when I was born worked at  the Libby, McNeil & Libby pineapple cannery......since has become Dole.  My town gramma was already pushing 80 if not there already.  So, I remember back around 3 years old, I would stay all week with my town gramma and on Fridays my country gramma would pick me up after work to spend weekends with her and my step grandfather.  On Monday morning she would return me to town gramma for the week. I don't remember my mother in those years but I have as an adult seen pictures of her with me at that age but during that time no one ever mentioned her or showed me pictures of her.  I just figured everyone lived with their grammas......didn't they?? Actually she had married my stepfather after graduation and he was stationed in New York for a time. My great-grandparents begged her not to take me cause my Pa was dying. And so she left me with the stipulation that my biological father and his family were never to have access to me!!! I still wonder why.......hmmm

Now my town gramma was quite the character!! At her age she loved her vino!! I cannot remember a time when there was not a gallon jug of Mogan David wine on our dining room table! At dinner she would have one glass and if I had been good all day I got a little shot glass too! My poor gramma couldn't read or write,. At the bank she would make an X on the back of her check and they would give her money!!! Wow, my little brain thought if I could find a check I could get money too!!  And trust me at 3, I was quite the little shopper already!! No wonder I'm a freakin shopaholic! 

On the other hand my country gramma was educated and by 4 years old I knew my alphabet and how to write them!  At town grammas there was no talking allowed at the dinner table (sometimes we had folks living with us for a little while). The dinner table was to eat at not play!  So to fill my boredom I would memorize letters to the words on the back of the gallon jug of wine.  I would look at them every meal and on Friday I would be so excited for country gramma to get there........I could spell things to her all the way to her house which back then was about an hours drive.  she would stop me when a word was spelled and tell me what the word was......for example, I would spell........grapes were grown in bright sun.........but I would be spelling.........g-r-a-p-e-s-w-e-r-e-g..........she would stop and tell me that grapes was one word..........and that my friends, is how I learned to read!!! Before I was 5 years old I could read the whole wine bottle!  I would spell billboards and she would tell me the each word and the next week I could read the billboard aloud to her.......bright child??? Hmm......not so sure, but God did give me quite a brain as I hope to reveal in future tales!!! lmao  And as an adult I have figured out thats why I have this gift that to type a word once I rarely ever forget it!!